5 Creative Ways to Use a Decorative Wall Panel Beyond the Living Room

Decorative wall panels are not limited to the living room space and can be used in a number of creative ways.
Now, imagine decorative wall panels in a place other than the living room! Explore 5 surprising ways luxury wall panels can truly make a statement — and which style for each.

Decorative wall panels can work beautifully outside the living room when used thoughtfully:

Most people first notice decorative wall panels in living rooms – a feature wall behind a sofa, a textured backdrop behind the TV, a finished, intentional floor to ceiling statement wall. Most people eventually start wondering where else wall panels can work:

In reality, wall panels can work well in almost any room. A decorative wall panel works more like an architectural surface than a decorative accessory. The challenge is knowing what wall panel design is best for what space – and what is the best way to apply it that’s considered and not copied. This guide takes you through five rooms where luxury wall panels can truly enhance the luxury experience — and provides design insights for each.

1. The Master Bedroom: Headboard Wall Reinvented

The headboard wall is the main focus of a bedroom and sets the overall mood for the room.
It frames the bed and is the first element that is seen on entrance to the space.
This wall is typically underutilized in most bedrooms, and is often simply painted, covered in art or wallpaper.
A decorative wall panel brings the room’s architecture to life and adds depth to the space.

• Vertical panel lines naturally draw the eye upward and make ceilings appear higher.
• Textured wall panels create a rich texture and dimension that flat paint cannot replicate.
• The headboard wall panel design makes the room feel purpose-built and luxurious instead of merely decorative.

Using softness, balance, and proportion in the design of bedroom wall panels is ideal.
Fine vertical rhythm produces panels that result in a more ordered and tranquil feel.
Warm neutrals and deep muted colours can help to create an elegant and restful bedroom ambience.

Consider using Dexarte’s Altura Infinite decorative wall panels, which come in a variety of sizes up to 10 ft × 8 inch. It’s almost seamless in terms of height, it’ll bridge a standard headboard wall with a minimum amount of seams, and the streamlined vertical design is the quintessential quiet luxury a feature wall in the bedroom can offer.

2. The Dining Room: A Backdrop That Earns Its Place

Rooms that are frequently forgotten in interior design are dining rooms.
Dining rooms are the places where one’s experience is closer and longer than in transitional spaces.
The walls in a dining room are usually the ones that are given visual attention while having a meal or when people talk.
The main dining wall has a decorative panel for anchoring the space.

• Wall panels for the dining room should help to establish a sense of scale, structure and confidence.
• Large panels featuring horizontal lines work well with the size and shape of dining furniture and fixtures.
• Vertical wall panel designs visually balance the height of chairs, table sightlines and the position of pendants.

A well-designed panel layout helps the dining space feel more structured and intentional
The paneling is updated and carefully designed, adding an elegant touch to the dining room’s architecture.
Dexarte’s 12 inch × 8 ft wide-format decorative wall panel, Iconica, promises the elevated and expressive style one can imagine in a dining room. Its broad silhouette is deliberate, composed, and effective, especially for walls which are viewed head-on.

3. The Home Office: Luxury Wall Panels as a Productivity Signal

Home office luxury wall panels come with more advantages than just looks.
The back wall of a desk is now a key professional background in video-calling.
A beautifully designed decorative wall panel can make all the difference when designing a workspace that looks polished, thoughtful and professional.

• Wall panel designs with texture give a more elegant and understated appearance compared to plain walls or overflowing bookshelves.
• Textured surfaces reduce the visual flatness and emptiness of open spaces.
• A well-designed wall surface helps create a more productive and focused work environment.

Wall panel designs are commonly employed by professional interior designers to make the interior space more functional and aesthetically pleasing in the workplace. The design of a workspace can directly influence focus and comfort. A fluted or textured wall panel design is a good choice for a home office since it provides depth and interest without becoming distracting. Dexarte’s panel in fluted acrylic sheet, Engrave, produces an intriguing light and shadow effect, which looks great in photographs and brings texture into what can be a plain and simple room.

4. The Hallway: First Impressions, Last Surfaces to Consider

Hallways can be among the most underutilized rooms in the house, yet they are among the most-used.
They also happen to be among the initial regions a tourist will notice as they enter your property.
A decorative wall panel in the entrance corridor instantly creates a more thoughtful and refined first impression.

• Narrow and rhythmic wall panel designs work best in hallways.
• Vertical wall patterns add movement, texture, and visual depth without overwhelming the space.
• Vertical lines can make corridors appear longer and ceilings appear higher.

A hallway wall panel designed well will give a sense of consistency to the interior design of the house.
The design of hallways can be difficult due to their typically small size, limited width and door openings or frames.
Hallway decor can also balance and make hallways interesting with decorative wall panels.
Dexarte’s 4 inch × 8 ft narrow-profile Altura Max decorative wall panel is specially designed for such uses. The fine and repetitive vertical detailing affords a beautiful textured rhythm that looks great in a corridor, even if there is a narrow width of wall, and its 8-foot height offers a clean uninterrupted line from floor to ceiling.

5. The Bathroom or Powder Room: Where Wall Panel Design Meets Practicality

Bathrooms need wall surfaces that can handle moisture without sacrificing aesthetics:

• Bathroom wall panel designs need to be moisture-resistant, durable, and easy to maintain.
• Moisture resistant spaces like bathrooms and kitchens are best suited to engineered polymer and high performance acrylic wall panels.
• Powder rooms are ideal spaces for expressive wall panelling and bold design statements.

Color is as significant as the design in bathrooms. Some conventional wood panel products might not be suitable for a humid space. The panels have a textured, metallic or deep tone to them, which gives a luxurious “jewel-box” effect. A bathroom or powder room designed with a decorative wall panel is a great design element for visitors.

The moisture resistance that a bathroom requires and the true quality of the wall panels that form its walls, is found in Dexarte’s Innova APT, a 1 mm engineered polymer laminate sheet which comes in Glossy/Matt Solid, Metallic and the Serié Linéa herringbone texture. It’s 8.4 ft tall, so there’s very little horizontal joint on a standard bathroom wall, and the herringbone texture variant adds a tactile aesthetic to the tile that most tiles don’t possess.

The Takeaway: Panels Work Where Design Thinking Goes

The rooms above have something in common: They are rooms in which a decorative wall panel does more than look good.

• Anchoring a bed headboard
• Raising a dining backdrop
• Professionalising a workspace
• Enlivening a corridor
• Making a small bathroom feel thoughtful and considered

These are all applications that are covered with the correct material chosen for the correct environment by means of the full range of Dexarte from the sweeping verticals of the Altura family to the textural depth of Engrave and the moisture ready performance of Innova APT.
Give your walls something more than paint; explore the possibilities of creating statement-making wall panel designs from Dexarte that will add depth, elegance and personality to every room.

Visit dexarte.com to explore the complete range — from Essenczza and Dexiglas Crystal to Luxeline and Imparo.

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