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The Detroit Wallpaper Company is an environmental graphics company that specializes in custom wallpaper. Our unique approach to design and manufacturing has been the driving force behind our comprehensive offerings of pattern and color. We work with residential and commercial clients to achieve their visions of a unique and customized space full of color and pattern.
We haven’t always been the champions of bespoke we are today. We started off with an idea, and the passion to carry us along. Our First business was under the name, Great Wall Custom Coverings, in 2004. This company was more of a boutique printing company that was geared toward the residential client. We mostly produced custom wall murals on wallpaper based on our library of high quality photographs. In working with clients, we started becoming a full service graphic design company to create original murals using all sorts of artistic influences and motifs. Our clients’ vision became our only goal. This was successful for us, but was limited by the amount of design time we had for each project. We also started getting requests for wallpaper reproductions of patterns that were out of print. We would digitally scan the sample, recreate the complete pattern repeat, and produce new rolls. This service was not available elsewhere at the time, and became a valuable resource for our clients and interior designers alike. As time went on, we evolved again. Designers wanted to produce wallpaper patterns of their own design, and we obliged once more. Private label relationships became a significant portion of our business.
After seeing the success of Private label printing, we started to generate our own line of patterns. Being in Detroit has shaped our design language and patterns in ways that we felt were unique to our part of the country, and worth exporting to the rest of the nation and the world. With the addition of our online custom color tool, we started The Detroit Wallpaper Company in 2012 strictly devoted to our patterns and colors and their customization. In a few short years, we have risen in the interior design community to become a very active member of this thriving industry. Our passion has served us well. Even though we are still a small company compared to the giants in the wallpaper industry we have been able to carve out our place and are here to stay.
We now offer many different types of wallpaper; from our standard eco-friendly material, commercial material options, and even a digitally printed metallic grass cloth. We look forward to a future filled with continued innovations in pattern and material offerings. Keep an eye on us. The best is yet to come.
Product With Purpose
Here at The Detroit Wallpaper Company, we are committed to art and design, but not at the expense of our environment. We strive to produce our custom wallpaper in the most socially responsible ways we can.
The largest component of our wallpaper is, as you guessed, the paper. The paper ground that we print most of our residential products on is a PVC free paper that is sourced here in the US. The wood pulp is comprised of 10% post consumer waste, and the rest of the pulp comes from FSC certified forestry practices. 'FSC' stands for Forest Stewardship Council, an organization that works to promote the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide. The Forest Stewardship Council sets standards for forest products, independently certifies that these standards have been met, and bestows their labels upon the products that qualify. FSC certification gives customers the option to choose forest products like paper and wood that have been sourced in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible, and economically viable manner.
Ink is the next major component of our production process. We choose Latex inks to print with for a multitude of reasons: Latex is water-based, produces a durable finish, contains no harmful chemicals, and it is odorless. Pets and children are safe in homes with The Detroit Wallpaper Company line of custom wallpapers.
The Detroit Wallpaper Company goes one step further to reduce our corporate carbon footprint. We've even been thoughtful about our design repeats. Our patterns are primarily straight match, and we produce custom roll lengths. This allows our clients to only order the yardage they need, reducing waste yet again. We want to make sure as little of our wallpaper as possible ends up in a landfill.
Our ecosystem doesn’t stop at our property lines, and we are committed to do whatever we can to help heal the planet.
Detroit Design
Detroit has long been a bastion of design and artistic expression. Certainly, the most well known facet of Detroit design relates to the auto industry. The automakers have provided a haven for designers to spread their creative wings, and influence how Americans move. But today, an exciting renaissance of Detroit design doesn’t impact the way we move, but how we rest, and enjoy the sanctuary of our homes.
There is an evolving cornucopia of Detroit-area based designers and makers creating home goods, enabling the consumer in the know to design every aspect of their abode with products from the Motor City.
The backdrop to this renaissance is a town emerging most recently from bankruptcy, and before that, decades of a racially steeped downtrodden economy that drove down prices and opened the door to a creative group of outcasts who go against the grain; a cohort whose mission is to create in a city known mostly to outsiders for ruin.
The work coming out of Detroit’s newest startups is certainly buoyed by area designers who have weathered the storm of economic desolation. Folks like Richard Bennett, who has been creating sculptures and home goods for decades, and Pewabic, a pottery studio operating in Detroit since 1903, has inspired generations with classes and outreach.
Building upon this foundation, there is a staggeringly wide array of products by makers, from home goods to high-end furniture. Alex Drew And No One has received high praise for their Golden Blaze table, and a new line of mirrors. Ali Sandifer makes stunning modern furniture, offering customization to accommodate client’s home sizes and needs. Hunt & Noyer produces unique furnishings with classic dovetail jointing that is awe-inspiring.
Another maker practicing classic craft is Smith Shop, a blacksmith studio whose enviable signature serving ware set is only one of their offerings, alongside jewelry and custom work.
Blight and ruin porn has widely filtered into people’s perceptions of Detroit. But while some view these husks of homes as merely eyesores, creative companies see something entirely different. Indeed, what is old, is new again with makers using reclaimed materials from Detroit’s rampantly available abandoned housing stock.
Leadhead Glass deconstructs old windows and flooring to create terrariums. Mutual Adoration uses reclaimed wood to create a line of home goods ranging from serving trays, picture frames, and furniture as well. Workshop, housed in the iconic Fisher Building, creates modern furniture from reclaimed wood – their Grand Blvd. collection used 2x4’s to stunning effect.
It is impossible to discuss Detroit’s design community without mentioning the Detroit Creative Corridor Center, better known as DC3. The non-profit helps to position and grow Detroit’s creative economy through a number of initiatives, but most excitingly, DC3 spearheaded Detroit’s recent designation as a Unesco City of Design. DC3 had certainly illuminated the local design scene, but with the city of design designation, that illumination has become a spotlight, highlighting the creative culture of Detroit to the world.
While the makers listed above only scratches the surface of Detroit design, we hope you explore and discover the larger landscape of the work emanating from Detroit. Whether you are shopping for your home, or are looking at Detroit as a manufacturing hub for a new business, there is an abundance of goods and solutions to fit your needs.
Detroit Candy
Having the ability to customize your surroundings is a trend that’s been around since we first made dwellings. This in no way has gone away. but now you can design your own space quickly and more cost effectively. It used to be that if you wanted custom furnishings or custom wallpaper in your home, you had to commission an artist handsomely and then wait patiently for them to complete the work. This process could take months, if not years. Artistry like that is rapidly becoming extinct, and not even an option for most of us with a budget. Relying on craftsmanship for quality goods and furnishings produced in mass was the next best option. Technology gifted us the opportunities afforded with mass production, but with mixed results. We ended up with inexpensive goods that were poorly constructed and of lower quality. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel: Technology never stops advancing. Now artistry and technology have learned to play together in real time. The artist can create, and technology can produce for immediate gratification. This means that as a consumer most of us can afford a unique, one-of-a-kind addition to our homes. There are fewer and fewer limits to the amount of customization incorporated into every product, but more specifically your walls, floors, and furniture.
At The Detroit Wallpaper Company you to customize the color, scale, and even pattern elements of their entire library of designs. Our design team can assist with any facet of this collaborative process. The creative and raw materials are warehoused and utilized only when the final order is received and approved. With the increased speed of production, you can get custom wallpaper in a period of days, rather than months.
Advancements in production and design are critical to the ever evolving way in which we imagine our daily surroundings. Individuality is becoming a driving force in interior design now, and for the foreseeable future. Be an active participant in this conversation, and customize your life.
Color Story
A color wheel should not be used like a dart bored when picking colors for your room. At first glance, you may think that it’s easy to choose a color for a living room because you choose what you love and what you think you would like on the walls. Choosing in this way can work because as humans we instinctively understand ourselves and color better than we think. However, if you don’t know much about color or its’ uses, you might get an unexpected result.
Most interior designers have a solid background in color, and know which colors compliment one another best, as well as their psychological effects. I’ve always liked the idea that by adding a particular color or combination of colors to a room, you can change the mood, create a sense of purpose, or even deceive someone onto thinking the room is more spacious or cozy.
Let’s start with some basics. We have three primary colors: yellow, red, and blue. When we combine these primary colors together, we get the secondary colors: yellow and blue make green, yellow and red make orange, and blue and red make purple. By mixing primary colors with secondary colors, we get the next level of color shades called tertiary colors. Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel, like red and green for instance. Each pair of complementary colors produces a neutral when mixed together. Each person perceives color differently, but generally as cool, or warm tones. If you look at the color wheel, those colors in the blue/green range are considered cool and those in the yellow/orange range are warm. Color can predispose us to a certain state of mind. It can energize us and elevate our mood, or make us feel tired and depressed. Certain colors can make us feel safe, calm, and relaxed or even increase our ability to concentrate. Generally, everyone responds to colors in the same way, but the effects may vary from person to person. For example, the color black may be associated with mourning or death for some, while others may feel like it is formal and classy. Taking the time to choose the right color is a large step in right direction to creating your own happy and healthy living space.
Color Tips:
1. Take each room: Think about how long you’ll spend in it, at what times of day, what activities will take place in that room, and the mood you want to convey.
2. Take into account if the sun is a factor and at what times of day: morning, afternoon, throughout the day, or not at all, depending on room position.
3. How large is the space? A light color will make a room feel larger than it is, while a darker tone can make a space feel a bit heavier and comfortable.
Using color psychology in interior design doesn’t guarantee that every guest in your home will see and feel exactly what you do, but at least they won’t be bored!