Wallpaper in Natick, MA, chosen in person

Welcome. If you are looking for wallpaper in Natick, MA, come and see it on Main Street, where Debsan Design Center has sold wallpaper since 1947. You can look at patterns in the showroom, hold a sample up to the light, set it beside a paint chip and a fabric swatch, and talk it through with someone who knows how each paper behaves once it is on a wall. If you already have a room in mind, bring a photo of it. If you only have a feeling about colour or mood, that is enough to start.

The store began as a wallpaper and paint store at 32 Summer Street and moved to Main Street in 1967. Wallpaper has been part of the business for its whole life, and today it sits alongside window treatments, drapery and fabrics, Benjamin Moore paint, and flooring and carpet under one roof. That mix matters more for wallpaper than for almost anything else in a room, because a patterned wall changes how every other choice looks.

The wallpaper lines behind our pattern books

The brand list above is the client’s own, and every line on it is one we order from. Between them they cover a very wide spread of looks, from quiet textures that read almost like a painted wall to large botanical prints that become the main feature of a room. You do not need to know any of the names before you come in. Tell us about the room and we will pull the books that suit it.

Rather than sorting by brand, it helps to think about wallpaper by what it is made of, because the material decides where it can go and how it is hung.

Most of the lines we carry offer several of these. When you find a pattern you like, ask what it is printed on. Two papers that look almost the same in the book can behave very differently in a bathroom with a shower.

Picking a pattern that works in your room

A small sample can be misleading, so we look at a few things with you before anything is ordered.

Scale. A large print in a small room can feel bold and enveloping, which is often exactly the point in a powder room or a dining room. The same print on one long wall of a living room reads very differently. We can show you how much of the repeat you will actually see between a door frame and a window.

Repeat and match. Patterns line up from one strip to the next in different ways: a straight match, a drop match, or a random match with no alignment at all. The type of match affects how much paper a wall needs and how the pattern lands at the ceiling line, so it is worth knowing before you settle on a design.

Light. North-facing rooms make cool colours cooler. A west-facing room in late afternoon warms everything up. Metallic and silk finishes catch side light from a window and can look quite different at night under lamps. If you can, look at your sample in the room at more than one time of day.

What else is in the room. A strong pattern on the walls usually wants calmer curtains and upholstery, and a quiet textured paper gives you room to use a patterned fabric at the window. Because our fabric books sit in the same showroom, you can test both directions side by side.

How the room is used. A guest bedroom can take a delicate paper. A back hall where the dog comes in after a walk needs something you can wipe.

Wallpaper in Natick homes, from the common to Lake Cochituate

Natick’s housing gives wallpaper a lot to work with, and each kind of house brings its own questions.

Victorians and two-families near the common

The older houses close to downtown Natick Center often have tall walls, generous ceiling heights, picture rails, deep window casings and long runs of wall up a staircase. Those are good conditions for pattern: a tall wall shows off a large repeat that would be cut short in a lower room, and a stair hall papered from bottom to top gives the whole house a sense of arrival. Plaster walls in older homes are rarely perfectly flat, though, so a paper with some texture or a busier pattern is more forgiving than a smooth, pale paper that shows every ripple behind it.

Two-family houses bring a practical side as well. Shared front halls and stairs take more wear than a single-family entry, so a washable or coated paper often makes sense there, with something more delicate saved for the rooms inside each unit.

Post-war capes and ranches

Further out from the centre, toward Lake Cochituate, much of the housing is post-war capes and ranches. Capes often have sloped ceilings and dormers in the upstairs rooms, which can be lovely papered all over, ceiling slopes included, so the angles become part of the design rather than something to work around. A small all-over print suits these rooms well because it hides where a strip meets an angled ceiling.

Ranches tend to have long, low walls and open living areas. One papered wall behind a sofa or a bed can give a ranch room a focal point without closing it in, and a horizontal pattern or a textured grasscloth can make a long wall feel calmer. Kitchens and baths in these houses are often due for a refresh, which is a natural moment to add a washable paper.

Walking in from Main Street

Because we are right in downtown Natick, you can simply come in. Many people stop by after a coffee or on the way home, look through a few books, and come back another day with measurements and a clearer idea. There is no need to book before a first look.

How the process runs, from the showroom to the wall

Every project is a little different, but most follow the same path.

1. Start in the showroom. Come in, tell us about the room, and look through patterns with us. Bring photos, paint colours you are keeping, or a cushion or fabric you love.
2. Narrow it down. We help you shortlist a few papers and check each one for scale, match and material against the room you described.
3. Measure the walls. Accurate measurements decide how much paper to order, and with a pattern repeat that matters. Professional measurement is offered, and we can talk through what is needed for your rooms. If you would rather we see the space, a free in-home consultation is available. Our page on what an in-home consultation involves explains what happens during the visit.
4. Order the paper. Rolls for one wall should come from the same production run so the colour matches across the wall. We order with that in mind.
5. Prepare the walls. Old paper usually needs to come off, cracks in plaster need filling, and most walls need a suitable primer before new paper goes up. Good preparation is the single biggest factor in how a wallpaper looks once it is up.
6. Hang it. Professional installation is offered. Ask us how it is arranged for your project and what the installer needs ready on the day.

For more on why careful measuring matters across our lines, see our page on measuring and installation.

A few things worth knowing before you order

• Order enough the first time. Coming back later for one more roll risks a different run with a slightly different shade. It is better to have a little left over, which is also useful for a future repair.
• Keep a label. Hold on to the label or a scrap from your order. It records the pattern and run, which makes any later repair far simpler.
• Think about the ceiling line. In older houses where ceilings are not quite level, a strong horizontal element in the pattern will show it. An all-over or vertical pattern hides it.
• Check the bathroom. Steam and splashes are hard on natural textures and some papers. A good extractor fan helps any paper last, and a coated or vinyl paper is the sensible choice near a shower.
• Light switches and outlets. Busy patterns hide cut-outs well. Plain or graphic patterns show every one, so the hanging takes a little more care.

Places to use wallpaper you may not have considered

Walls behind a bed or a sofa are the obvious choice, and they work well. A few other spots are worth thinking about while you are looking through the books.

Ceilings. A papered ceiling in a dining room or a bedroom draws the eye up and makes a room feel finished. A soft texture or a small pattern is easier to live with overhead than a busy print, and a ceiling paper pairs nicely with plain painted walls.

Inside bookcases and cabinets. The back panel of built-in shelving, a glass-fronted cabinet or a pantry is a small area, so it is a good place to try a pattern you love but would not want on four walls. Leftover rolls from a larger room can often cover it.

Stair halls and landings. The wall that runs up a staircase is one of the largest uninterrupted surfaces in many houses. A paper here ties the floors of the house together and gives the entry a sense of welcome.

Below a chair rail. In older rooms with a chair rail or wainscot, a paper above the rail with paint below, or the other way round, splits a tall wall into comfortable proportions.

Closets and mudrooms. A practical, washable paper in a mudroom or a walk-in closet brings some personality to a space you use every day but rarely think about.

Looking after wallpaper once it is up

Most papers need very little care. Dust gently now and then with a soft, dry cloth. Washable and vinyl papers can be wiped with a damp cloth and a mild soap; test a hidden corner first. Natural textures, silks and grasscloths should only be dusted, never wiped wet. Keep spare rolls or offcuts somewhere dry and flat, so a damaged section can be patched with paper from the same run. If a seam lifts, it can usually be re-glued before it spreads, so it is worth dealing with early.

Where wallpaper fits with the other lines

Most rooms are not just walls. The advantage of choosing wallpaper at a store that also sells window treatments, drapery fabric, paint and flooring is that you can put the pieces together before anything is bought, rather than hoping they work once they meet in the room.

• Paint. Trim, ceilings and the walls you are not papering all need a colour that sits well with the paper. Our Benjamin Moore paint counter is a few steps away from the pattern books, so you can pull colour chips straight from the paper’s own palette.
• Drapery and fabrics. A patterned wall and a patterned curtain can work together when the scales differ. See our fabrics and custom drapery for the fabric lines we carry, several of which share names with our wallpaper books.
• Window treatments. A plain shade, a soft fabric shade or a full-length curtain each frame a papered wall differently. See our window treatments and custom blinds pages.
• Flooring. A wood-toned floor, a pale luxury vinyl or a patterned rug changes how a wallpaper reads at its base. Our flooring and carpet page explains the three categories we offer.
• Repairs. If your existing blinds or shades need attention while the room is being redone, we also handle blind and shade repair.

For a longer look at pulling these together, read our guide to coordinating paint, wallpaper and window treatments.

Wallpaper for homes beyond Natick

The showroom is in Natick, and we help with wallpaper projects across the surrounding towns as well. Each town’s housing raises its own questions, so we have written separate pages for them:

• Wallpaper in Wellesley, MA
• Wallpaper in Newton, MA

We also work with homes in Framingham, Ashland, Sherborn, Dover, Brookline, Waltham, Weston, Concord and Lexington. Wherever you are, the starting point is the same: a visit to the showroom, or a conversation about your rooms.

Visit the showroom or get in touch

The easiest way to start is to come into the showroom on Main Street in Natick and look through the books with us. If you would like to plan a visit, arrange an in-home consultation or ask a question first, use the contact page or the call button and we will take it from there.