Tip Sheet.(revival of wallpaper)

Byline: Anna Kuchment, Michelle Jana Chan, Chee Pearlman, Raina Kelley, Karen Springen

Design: Wallpaper Gets Down

By Anna Kuchment

Knitting needles, brooches and swing skirts aren't the only vintage accessories making a comeback. At May's International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York--an annual showcase of high-end design for the home--a crop of start-up companies showed off a fresh take on something long associated with Grandma's house: wallpaper. Instead of yellow daisies and toile, there were sequins, fringe and trippy Mylar. "Wallpaper is getting a new lease on life," says Arlene Hirst, a senior editor at Metropolitan Home.

The return of attention-grabbing graphics for walls is only the latest sign that minimalism is dead. Austere, Zen-like spaces, so popular in the 1990s, are giving way to bright colors and witty designs. The ICFF was brimming with examples, like LED lamps that looked like stacks of yellow, orange and blue children's blocks (glide-inc.com ), furniture made from loose change (johnnyswing.com ) and chandeliers decorated with gilded leaves and flowers (artecnicainc.com ).

Plain, painted walls are the last bastion of restraint. "Customers are going for a more complete, decorated look," says Kathy O'Brien, a vice president at home-furnishings supplier F. Schumacher Co., which has seen an uptick in sales of wall decor over the past two years. But this time around, clients will use the stuff more sparingly, predicts Gregory Herringshaw, assistant curator of wallcoverings at New York's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Perhaps that's because designers are creating patterns --that are wilder than ever. London-based Tracy Kendall ($180 to $350 per roll; tracykendall.com ) stitches or tags buttons, sequins and Post-it-like squares onto paper. Jon Sherman, founder of New Orleans-based Flavor Paper, hand-screens psychedelic 1970s prints onto Mylar ($150 to $250 per roll; flavorpaper.com )--and just installed some in Lenny Kravitz's Creole cottage in Louisiana. Kyra Hartnett of Brooklyn, New York-based Twenty2 also has unveiled new Mylar prints ($111 to $175 per roll; shoptwenty2.com ).