How Fixer To Fabulous Stars Add Character To A Home While Keeping It Modern & Elegant

HGTV's Dave and Jenny Marrs are known for their dramatic home transformations. This includes a love of patterns that often comes in the form of wallpaper that the "Fixer to Fabulous" team swears by for adding character to a room. This is especially true in small spaces, where keeping a clean and minimal look can conflict with providing visual interest. Wallpaper, according to the Marrs, is the perfect solution to this dilemma. It adds interest and personality to the walls, but allows you to maintain a more streamlined space.

In a recent episode, the Marrs helped redesign a beautiful treehouse with a woodland lake vibe. The most dramatic element had to be the brand new half bath, tucked inside what was once an awkward corridor next to the kitchen. With the homeowners' need for a bathroom on the main floor, the Marrs successfully transformed the tiny passage into a stylish powder room. A beautiful mid-century modern style wallpaper and fixtures like globe lights and a brass faucet created a statement-making space. The wallpaper is, as Jenny Marrs describes it, "still lake-y but modern," reflecting the overall home's contemporary cabin feel.

Wallpaper can be an excellent way to add interest and character to any room you use it in. The smaller the room, the more impact it will have. It can easily skew any room in a desired aesthetic design direction far more than simple painted walls, be it tiny cottage florals or bold modern geometrics. In the show's case, a very modern but retro-inspired pattern with an organic shape and color echoes the lake environment without falling into outright water imagery.

In small spaces like bathrooms, entryways, and hallways, wallpaper can result in a cleaner look on the walls. Hanging artwork creates more breaks in your line of vision. However, wallpaper presents a continuous line of pattern, which can help make a room feel taller or larger than it actually is. In addition, a repeating pattern, especially one like Dave and Jenny Marrs use, can offer movement to a space without overwhelming it the way textiles or upholstery might.

Wallpaper is a great element to add and set the tone in small spaces like bathrooms since it can often be done easily and inexpensively. With the rise of peel-and-stick wallpapers, it's also a rental-friendly approach to personalize your space in a bold way. The selection of stylish papers is vast, including new, classic, and retro-designs that are fresh and exciting. It's also great for people who like to follow current trends or switch things up in their home on the regular. 

Wallpaper works not only on the walls but can also be great in other contexts, like on a ceiling, as Dave and Jenny Marrs have been known to do. Or, use it on the back of a bookshelf or alcove for a dash of color and pattern. Combine the design with simple accents and finishes that complement, but don't compete with the pattern. If wall-to-wall feels like a little too much, add trim and use it on the lower half of the wall or apply it to a single accent wall for a more subtle statement.