The genteel – and not so genteel – decay of abandoned homes is always moving to observe. You can’t help imagine the grandeur of past lives, what befell the people who abandoned the house, or why so many personal goods have been left behind. So prepare for some nostalgia-tinged sadness, as we take you through 28 impressively decaying homes with retro wallpaper.
The collapsed ceiling signals the decline of this once grand living room and entertaining space. The walls are covered in an ornate damask wallpaper.
A cobwebbed and gloomy living room would have once been warmed by the gas fire. Now the green floral wallpaper is one of the few reminders left that this was once a welcoming home.
A dramatic staircase with a curving banister tells you that this wallpaper-clad hallway once had time and money invested into it.
This bedroom has seen better times – but still the flowers on the floral wallpaper creep gently up the walls.
A living room in a grand old house would have once hosted parties – now its host to abandoned furniture and a retro patterned wallpaper.
This bedroom has had the stuffing knocked out of it, but it would have once been a comfortable space with floral wallpaper and heavy floral curtains.
A dramatically dark abandoned hallway contrasts with the retro red patterned wallpaper, peeling off the walls.
The sands of time are well and truly passing at this house in the American desert. The yellow sand contrasts beautifully with the blue wallpaper.
This impressive renaissance style wall mural contrasts with the empty abandoned room around – perhaps once a dining room or a living room.
An impressive rococo living room at the Castello degli Animali still features a red and white retro wallpaper.
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Image credit: Stefan Baumann
Inside the dining room at Chez Bobonne, a retro patterned wallpaper looks out over the slowing fading room.
This living room may be damaged and decrepit, but somehow the patterned wallpaper remains a vibrant blue.
In the Grand Hotel Regnier, the wide stairs and piano remind you that grand parties once took place here. Now the walls are peeling and covered with the remains of a retro wallpaper.
A dramatically styled bedroom has been abandoned, but the blue wallpaper is still vibrant on its walls.
In the hallway of an abandoned home in Germany, retro patterned wallpaper peels from the walls.
Shafts of light fall across the floor of an abandoned living room in Brazil. The grand floral wallpaper on the walls tells you that this was once an impressive entertaining space.
A bedroom in an abandoned castle in Italy may be missing a floor and a wall – but the blue wallpaper retains its vibrant and deep colours.
In Germany, this abandoned house is home to spiders and their webs. The retro striped wallpaper in the hallway and the bedroom survive in good condition, despite the cob webbed front door.
A scene from an abandoned living room in a Palazzo in Italy. With the wood burner, books and rococo wallpaper, it looks almost as if it has been styled – shabby chic at its most extreme.
At the Falling Stars Hotel in Austria, this dining room would have once hosted concerts and dinners. Now it’s abandoned, with the peeling floral wallpaper one reminder of the good times past.
In the abandoned Ferme des Templiers, this grand old staircase and hallway still shows some of the decorative flourishes that would have once made it a stunning hallway. Patches of the simply patterned wallpaper survive on the walls.
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