Stuck with unsticking dreadful, decades old wallpaper, design aficionados and average homeowners alike put a stop to the papering trend and began opting for paint years ago. But these days, wallpaper is surging toward a comeback, and it's left the brash, fussy and fuzzy behind.

Today's wallpaper covers tastes for trends, modern sophistication, sustainability and modular needs. It gets bold with stark geometric prints, fun with abstract flowers and artistic in hand-painted sheets. But it's the organic warm looks in cork, wood, grasscloth, textiles, even mother of pearl and glass, that have helped lead wallpaper manufacturers to almost $8 billion in sales in 2005, and showed the faux finishing crowd that walls can shine with luminous depth sans telltale sponge marks.