By the late 18th century, wallpaper was the most fashionable form of interior decoration in wealthy houses. By the early 19th century, manufacturers were working hard to make affordable papers that would see households with lesser incomes adopt wallpaper in their own homes.

From raspberry-red and bunting-blue flowers with satinwood shells to cherry red with stamped gilt backgrounds and baroque florals, the Victorians knew how to create eye-catching wallpaper.  Here, we’ve rounded up eight weird but true wallpaper facts from the Victorian era and beyond.

1. The most expensive wallpaper costs over £430 per metre

The most expensive wallpaper available is called Les Guerres D’Independence and in January 2006 was priced at £24,896 for a set of 32 panels, making the price per metre £432.83. The military scene created from 19th century woodblock prints takes a year to make and is most popular in America.

2. Oscar Wilde’s last words were wallpaper-related

Oscar Wilde died in a second-rate French hotel. His last words were: “Either this wallpaper goes, or I do”. The wallpaper remained.

3. Green wallpaper was fashionable but deadly

In the 1850s, it became fashionable to have green wallpaper. Unfortunately, the wallpaper’s hue was due to arsenic. This duly poisoned many of those who spent too long in air-tight wallpapered rooms. It then featured as a murder weapon in many crime novels.

4. Play-Doh started off as a way to clean wallpaper

Play-Doh was originally invented to clean soot from wallpaper. In 1954, it was discovered that removing the detergent from the “wallpaper dough” and adding scent and colouring to it meant it could be made into modelling clay for children.

5. You can hang a full ping of ale on the wallpaper in a West Midlands pub

A West Midlands pub, Somerset House, has an unusual claim to fame: one can hang a full pint of ale unaided on the wallpapered walls for up to two days. The scientific theory is that a combination of wallpaper type, glue, tobacco smoke and grime is behind the trick, although locals, aware that the pub was once a manufacturing site for coffins, believe a more magical explanation is in order.

6. One firm made Jaffa Cake-flavoured wallpaper stickers

In 2012, a London communications firm wallpapered its lift with 1,300 Jaffa Cake-flavoured stickers to lift the spirits of its workers. After a worker licked each sticker, a lift attendant would remove and replace it.

7. Bubble wrap was once used as wallpaper

Bubble wrap was made so it could be used as 3D wallpaper when it was invented in 1957. It didn’t catch on.

8. There’s an incredible range of wallpaper out there

Renegade wallpaper designer Jon Sherman’s Flavor Paper brand, based in New York, produces seven-colour scratch-and-sniff tutti-frutti wallpaper, black light and glow-in-the-dark wallpaper. A tutti-frutti roll costs $550.

To find out more about paint and interior design in the Victorian style, download the Adrian Flux Victorian Homes e-book for free. It is full of tips on how to create a Victorian style house — even if you live in a new-build home — and advice on where to source original Victorian and reproduction fixtures, fittings, furniture, accessories and art.

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