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Wallpaper in a Swedish turn-of-the-century flat: work with mouldings and a tiled stove

Fredrik Hallengren
Fredrik Hallengren, Writer Guide ยท 4 min read ยท Updated Oct 2026
Garden of Myth and Memory, Sky in a dining room with tall ceiling mouldings
Garden of Myth and Memory, Sky in a dining room with tall ceiling mouldings

In a Swedish turn-of-the-century flat, the space between door frames, mouldings and a tiled stove determines how much wallpaper you see. Choose a repeating pattern for several smaller wall sections or a wallpaper mural for a clear wall with room for the composition.

Let the room's existing divisions guide you

First, look at where the visible wall starts and stops. If you have tall skirting boards, wall panelling or moulding below the ceiling, there is already a frame to work with. The design will fill the clear space between them.

A repeating pattern can follow several of these wall sections without each one needing to show a complete image. It is a good starting point in a room with several doors and windows. We would give a landscape or a larger floral composition a wall with more uninterrupted space.

If you are wallpapering above panelling, judge the design for that shorter section of wall. A branch that looks good in a floor-to-ceiling image may sit very differently when the wallpaper starts higher up.

A floral pattern can work across several wall sections

Magnolia Season is one of our most ordered classic designs. White flowers and winding branches repeat against a light blue background. We would choose it to carry the wallpaper around a whole room while leaving prominent door frames and mouldings room to show.

You can order a wallpaper sample, a small printed piece of wallpaper, to see how the colours and pattern work with the woodwork at home. For Magnolia Season, it shows the pattern at its actual size. Hold it against the wall beside a door frame. You will see how the size of the branches sits alongside the width of the woodwork. Look up close and from the adjoining room, especially if the doors usually stay open.

On tall walls, you also need to see the pattern across a larger area. The product image shows how the flowers repeat, while the sample helps you judge scale and colour. Use the two together to make your choice.

Give the tiled stove and the design their own space

A tiled stove is already a strong element in the room. It has its own colour, its own surface and often its own corner. We would treat it as part of the composition rather than something the wallpaper has to compete with.

Vintage Peonies has large drawn peonies on a grey-toned, weathered background. It is a wallpaper mural, so the composition is placed on the wall you choose. We would give it a wall where the whole image can show, not the narrow section beside the stove.

Use the preview on the product page with your own measurements. Check where the peonies sit in relation to the top of the stove and the height of the door frames. If the image is cut off right at a flower you like, move the composition before you order.

An older flat does not have to mean a historical wallpaper. Let the room's proportions decide the scale, and choose the design you want to live with.

A modern wallpaper in an older flat

An older flat does not have to mean a historical wallpaper. A contemporary design can sit well alongside mouldings and panelling, as long as the scale suits the wall.

Start from the room rather than the period. Measure the wall you want to paper, note where the woodwork interrupts it, then judge the design against those dimensions. A sample and the preview tool will tell you more than a style label will.

If the flat has several rooms in a line, look at how the walls read together. A pattern that continues through the doorway keeps the rooms connected, while a single mural gives one room its own character.