Walk into almost any apartment or home and you will be confronted with the infamous white wall. If its a rental, the percentage goes up even further, for fear of landlord hostility, loss of security deposit or plain laziness. As a designer I’ve come to learn that the average person has a phobia of color on walls. Art is more versatile, less committal, and better yet, you can take it with you. My testament against the white wall is proven by the reaction I see when a great color or texture replaces the chalky white. Wall color and coverings can add character to a room without taking up space or costing lots of money.

Paperforms. Designed by Jaime Salm.

The issues of painting and gluing said character to the wall are not to be ignored. A good friend of mine has a gorgeous dark blue wall in her apartment, but I shudder to think of the number of coats of primer it will take to cover it. Wall covering would benefit from being more like art, a case that is being solved by Jaime Salm’s new Paperforms. Paperforms are a three-dimensional textured wall panel that add both color and texture to a room. The panels are 12×12, and can be attached with double stick tape or more permanently with wallpaper paste. Paperforms come in a few different designs and colors which are whimsical as well as geometrical, adding an air of sophistication to the potentially quirky wall coverings. The colors are bright or neutral, the neutrals being my favorites as they emphasize the three-dimensional nature of the panels through shadow. A quick mention of the material make-up: Paperforms are made from 100% post and pre-consumer waste paper, which makes them affordable as well as environmentally friendly.