AN INTRIGUING TREND has emerged in TV production design while we’ve been sprawled on our couches. Patterned wall coverings are playing a starring role in some of the hottest streaming series, breathing life into scenes in a way that a coat of eggshell-white paint and artwork just can’t. Color and print reinforce characters’ milieu and frame a narrative whether it’s unfolding in the new home of a troubled young chess prodigy in 1960s Lexington, Ky., or the family townhouse of a privileged teenager on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “Wallpaper pulls the entire look together by adding texture, style and refinement,” said Ola...

AN INTRIGUING TREND has emerged in TV production design while we’ve been sprawled on our couches. Patterned wall coverings are playing a starring role in some of the hottest streaming series, breathing life into scenes in a way that a coat of eggshell-white paint and artwork just can’t. Color and print reinforce characters’ milieu and frame a narrative whether it’s unfolding in the new home of a troubled young chess prodigy in 1960s Lexington, Ky., or the family townhouse of a privileged teenager on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “Wallpaper pulls the entire look together by adding texture, style and refinement,” said Ola Maslik, production designer of HBO Max’s new incarnation of “Gossip Girl.” “It’s a chance to complement the storytelling.” Such notable TV wallpapers, however, can make our own homes seem relatively unremarkable. So we’ve found those wallpapers, or close facsimiles, so that you can buy them for yourself. Hang them, and the drama can continue even after your screen goes dark.

The classically designed dining room of the Hope family townhouse, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in ‘Gossip Girl.’

Photo: HBO Max

Gossip Girl (HBO Max)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

In the revamp of the salacious mid-aughts teen melodrama, Audrey Hope (played by Emily Alyn Lind) serves as a quasi-parallel to Blair (Leighton Meester) of the original series. Both are worldly, Audrey Hepburn fans and are fond of timeless, fine things. The pastel hues in the Hope family dining room represent the old-money sophistication of New York’s Upper East Side. Production designer Ola Maslik and her team used a chinoiserie-printed, metallic grasscloth from Scalamandre. “It’s a stunning, classic design with depth and detail,” she said, “and it really helps define Audrey’s character.” Blossom Fantasia Sky Wallpaper, $1,760 per roll, nicolettemayer.com

Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) arrives at the very 1960s home of her adoptive mother, played by Marielle Heller, in ‘The Queen’s Gambit.’

Photo: Netflix

The Queen’s Gambit ( Netflix )

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

When orphan and chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) arrives in her adoptive parents’ 1960s suburban Kentucky home, she stands smack in front of a striking plaid-ish background. “The wallpaper here is rather like a huge fence, or a cage made of flowers,” said production designer Uli Hanisch. “It’s almost too big for the hallway and shrinks the person.” He and set decorator Sabine Schaaf sourced vintage wallpapers from various suppliers and online hubs. “Using wallpaper makes a statement,” said Mr. Hanisch, “and each pattern has a story if you look at it.” Make your move with Diamond Plaid Wallpaper, $80 a roll, yorkwallcoverings.com

Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser with Noah Jupe, playing her son, Henry, in last fall’s limited series ‘The Undoing.’

Photo: HBO Max

The Undoing (HBO)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

For last fall’s buzzy whodunit limited series, the production team filmed inside an on-the-market $30-million Manhattan townhouse. In the master bedroom, against a backdrop of Gracie Studio wallpaper, Nicole Kidman’s character frets about the potential guilt of her husband (Hugh Grant) in a murder case. Hand-painted in golds on a handmade, silver background, the paper’s elegance contrasts with the frantic phone calls she makes from the room, said Jennifer Gracie, creative director of Gracie Studio. “Her beautiful, calm and curated life is being turned upside down.” Sepia Garden Handpainted Wallpaper, SY-206, $1,650 a panel, Gracie Studio, 323-266-9765

The Manhattan apartment of retired actor Charles Haden-Savage, played by Steve Martin, in ‘Only Murders in the Building.’

Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

In this wry comedy-murder mystery, former TV actor Charles Haden-Savage (Steve Martin) and his neighbor, a has-been Broadway director (Martin Short), investigate a possible murder in their Manhattan apartment building. (Their straight man? Selena Gomez, as another neighbor.) Of the bold walls in Mr. Haden-Savage’s apartment, production designer Curt Beech said, “The character is sophisticated but has a hidden playfulness. The colors, patterns and rhythm in his kitchen convey this.” The wall covering is actually vinyl stamped with metallic seals. Get the similarly patterned removable Pulsar Valencia Wallpaper. $199 a roll, spoonflower.com

One of the sitting rooms of the titular family’s estate, on ‘Bridgerton.’

Photo: Netflix

Bridgerton (Netflix)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

The walls in the regal Bridgerton drawing room circa 1813 are clad in an English damask-weave fabric. “The design was very popular at the time and continues to be,” production designer Will Hughes-Jones said of damask. As befitting the home of an effortlessly classy family, he chose a pale blue hue, as opposed to yellow and greens in the ostentatious Featheringtons’ estate. Mr. Hughes-Jones maintained the palettes throughout the respective manors. “We purposely kept the color palette for each family narrow so the audience were in no doubt whose house they were in when entering a scene.” Even judgy Lady Whistledown would approve of Thibult’s Licata wallpaper as a substitute for the Bridgertons’ elegant textile. $80 a roll, Janovic, 212-289-6300

One of the opening credits for ‘The White Lotus.’

Photo: Plains of Yonder / HBO

The White Lotus (Hulu)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

Viewers who zipped through the opening credits of this chilling HBO satire set in a lush Hawaiian resort missed the chance to study the sequence’s original computer-made wallcoverings and their deep narrative undertones. Katrina Crawford and Mark Bashore, directors of Plains of Yonder, a studio and creative consultancy in Seattle, conceived the main titles’ papers to look like the real deal—down to the misaligned seams and the effects of sunlight and shadow. While the palm fronds and jungle critters are quintessential tropical-pattern elements, the overall theme is of a plagued paradise: “It’s where wealth and privilege ultimately enable rot, even death,” the team said via email. For a less-ominous vibe, check out York’s Tropical Oasis Wallpaper. $80 a roll, mahoneswallpapershop.com

The ‘Trellis Room’ at the Lucia State Hospital of ‘Ratched.’

Photo: Netflix

Ratched (Netflix)

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

Forget the bleak institutional ambience of the 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” In this prequel series, set in 1947, about the menacing nurse (Sarah Paulson), creator-producer Ryan Murphy asked production designer Judy Becker and her team to make the interiors of Northern California’s Lucia State Hospital as elegant and inviting as a boutique hotel. (Little do the “guests” know that electroshock therapy is on the spa menu). Each bedroom was given a twee name that was engraved on a plaque, such as the Rose Room and the Ivy Room. This guest room, with its green and blue floral wallpaper and faux-bamboo Asian headboard, is known as the Trellis Room. For a similarly sweet floral, try Ikat Rose Wallpaper. $140 a roll, loveshackfancy.com

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