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The wallpaper business is centuries old, but an Estonian company gives it a digital facelift by allowing customers to select, order, and install designs on demand using an online interface. The venture, called BaubauwallIt is an offshoot of the Tallinn-based print house Digiprint, allowing users to order new wallpaper online from home.
The business was established in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, according to Baubauwall’s Creative Business Developer Anna-Kai Tõrs, a time when print houses were looking for new opportunities, and people, stuck at home during lockdowns, wanted to refurbish their homes.
“When you are a printing house owner amid COVID, you are forced to rethink your business,” says Tõrs. Digiprint had previously printed murals for galleries and offices and was comfortable producing large-format designs. They understood there was an opportunity to make those capabilities available to everyday consumers as wallpapers.
“During COVID, people wanted to change their home decor,” says Tõrs. “There was nothing much else to do, and home decor became a business opportunity.”
For Tõrs, who has a background in marketing but has always loved home decor and photography, the opportunity to initiate Baubauwall was a calling. It took the company a year to get the online interface right, working with an Estonian IT company. Then Baubauwall launched, accepting orders from anywhere and delivering wallpaper on demand.
That was three years ago. Baubauwall now employs six people full-time from its office in Tallinn. The company has received some state support in its development, taking part in the incubation and growth programs of the Tallinn Business Incubator and winning a €10,000 design master class through the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency in 2021.
The whole wallpapering experience
In some ways, Baubauwall’s story of offering a digital solution for home decor falls slightly outside of Estonia’s everyday digital success stories. Estonia is known for its online banking platforms, e-governance services, and other digital deliverables. There are fintech startups, edtech startups, and cyber security expertise abounds. But, as Tõrs points out, this same mindset that has driven the creation of these services and products is apparent in the consumer sector. She notes the success of Bolt as a solution for customers who need transportation. What Baubauwall does aligns with the same principles of using digital technology to simplify life.
“If I think about a customer in Oslo, New York, or Tallinn, she just wants to decorate her kid’s room or a living room easily with no hassle and without thinking about the technical solution behind it,” says Tõrs. “Our idea is that with the clever system we have created, we can make the whole wallpapering experience easy and digital,” she says. “You don’t have to leave your home to browse stores or catalogues as in the past. The wallpaper business can be fully digital, similar to many others.”
Baubauwall has about 900 designs available for customers to choose from and personalise. And rather than finding a design they like at a regular store and being disappointed when it doesn’t fit their walls at home, customers can order wallpaper to fit the necessary dimensions.
“Our system doesn’t dictate the design or size to the customer. Our role is to provide a tool that makes DIY easy and aesthetically professional,” says Tõrs. Customers have to measure their wall at home, input the measurements, and Baubauwall will print it. Users can also order samples before placing a whole order and use an online display to visualise how their walls will appear with their wallpaper.
“Many people are afraid of wallpaper,” she notes. “It seems complicated, messy, and difficult to install. We made a digital tool that takes away all those fears.”
Perhaps the most challenging part is deciding which wallpaper to choose.
“The wallpaper business is not a fast business,” remarks Tõrs. “I would say that design tech is also slow. It takes time for customers to consider a particular design.” That means it sometimes takes months between a sample order and when the user makes a final order.
Ever evolving
Baubauwall has partnered with Estonian IT developers to create its service’s front and back end. The company’s website was designed using WordPress and custom-built features.
“What I like about digital solutions is that they are ever evolving,” she says. “What was hot three years ago is already yesterday.” She notes that the company faced challenges initially building its platform, as it took longer to go live. Initially, we were optimistic that we would be faster. Also, at the same time, we needed to have at least 50 different wallpaper designs available for the launch.”
In addition to the online platform, digital printing is Baubauwall’s workhorse technology. The company also intends to stay at the forefront of new technologies.
“Digital printing has developed so much in the past 10 years,” says Tõrs. “We use a digital printer that has excellent quality, is fast, and uses environmentally friendly UV printing colours,” she says.
There is some scepticism regarding the idea that quality wallpaper can be purchased this way. Also, given the way people have bought wallpaper in the past, customers often want to see the colour and texture of the wallpaper before making a final purchase. This is where samples, which can be delivered within three business days, come into play.
Original designs
With that kind of technology, Baubauwall can take on interesting projects. One is remaking the original wallpapers in homes that might have last seen light half a century or more ago. There is a desire to restore the original appearance of the interior, particularly in old manor houses. Often, customers have very little to work with. Tõrs recalls a client who came in with a small wallpaper from the 19th century obtained from behind layers of paint.
“This was just a piece of striped wallpaper, small in size,” she says. “The customer wanted to have the same design as the original.”
Some projects are also architecturally challenging. Baubauwall’s latest project was a rooftop restaurant at Solaris, a major shopping centre located in central Tallinn, to cover the walls of a staircase leading to a rooftop terrace through three floors. “This was one of the most difficult projects,” she says. “Now the staircase has been reopened and looks fancy, colourful, and beautiful.”
As it moves into the second half of the 2020s, Baubauwall is looking for more interesting projects and is trying to reach customers worldwide. “If you are in the field of anything digital, the world should be your oyster,” says Tõrs. “Our goal is to scale the business and sell more internationally.”
She notes that the US is an attractive market with 330 million people and a general interest in home decor. “Many people love wallpaper in the US,” says Tõrs. We have done some projects there already, and that’s a goal for the coming years.”
