FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE INTERIOR DECOR USING DIGITAL PRINT
Digital Prints for Contract Interiors - Wallpapers and Textiles
Wallpaper printed using Latex or UV technologies...
Waterproof Outdoor - Dye Sublimation printed Textiles
Glass, printed using UV Technology...
Wood - Printed using curable UV Technology
Five inspiring ways to use digital print technology to decorate a Home or Business environment.
Digital printing is becoming more and more accessible and affordable. This leads to an increase in creative ways to create interior decoration using on-demand printing.
Author: Mark Sollman, Application Manager at Mimaki
With any innovative technology, it can initially take time before we recognise and acknowledge its full potential. Think about the introduction of the iPad in 2010. At the time, everyone wondered what they would do with such an oversized iPhone, but since then, more than 350 million iPads have been sold — a multiple of that of tablet computers from other brands.
In 2010, it was difficult to recognise the broad number of uses for the tablet, and in 2018, we see the same thing in digital printing for decoration of homes and businesses. The essence of the technology is clear, but what can you actually use it for?
Focusing on a few inspiring examples of innovative digital print applications has the ability to drive a revolution in the field of Interior decoration.
Here are five tips to get you started:
1. Wallpaper
Wallpaper is indeed the most obvious use of digital printing for interior decoration. For a long time, wallpaper had a very corny and old-fashioned image, but new modern designs and on-demand digital printing changed this.
As a result, this decor staple from way back when has suddenly become cool again in recent years.
Nowadays, suppliers can provide wallpaper in just about any design, either based on their own designs or according to a customer’s specifications. Do you want wallpaper with a specific photo, colour scheme or maybe of a certain structure or fabric? Thanks to inkjet print technology, all of this is completely possible, namely using sublimation, UV, or Latex printing.
2. Upholstery
Digital printing and upholstery is a golden combination. The design of a fabric no longer needs to be generic and suitable for mass production.
Various types of fabrics can be printed on-demand (even silk!) with any possible design and in any required quantity. As such, the uses are endless and affordable.
Think about unique curtains, upholstery for chairs and couches, bedding and pillows. The upholstery can be designed to perfectly blend in with the colour scheme or print required by the interior decorator.
Sublimation print technology also delivers very lively colours, enabling even bright tropical colours to be used effectively.
3. Glass
When we mention decorative glass, most people think about stained glass windows. Thanks to UV, Curable digital printing technology, printing can be done on more and more materials, including glass! An additional benefit of this technique is that the printed designs are scratch- and waterproof and it will not fade with time. This sounds awesome, but does this mean we are going to print masses of one type of stained glass window? No, there are many more uses of glass printing besides stained glass windows.
Keep in mind that glass does not always need to functionally fit in a frame. Glass panels could, for example, also be used to give an artsy or modern twist to the architecture or interior decoration. It is possible to print more than two thousand transparent or covering colours on standard glass or structured glass. This can be done to completely transform a bathroom, meeting room, office, hotel lobby, or a wall.
4. Tiles
In addition to glass, it is also possible to print directly on ceramic tiles. This offers amazing new opportunities to print unique designs on floor and wall tiles for kitchens, bathrooms, swimming pools or to create a complete mural.
Printing on demand enables a design to be distributed seamlessly across multiple tiles, or even an entire wall. This introduces a new level of interior decoration potential for these areas.
Finally, there is also another recognisable use: do you need more tiles for a certain project where the original tiles you purchased are no longer available? A small batch can be reproduced on request using digital printing technology.
5. Wood
We started with the most obvious use of digital printing and end with probably the most surprising: wood. For those who like a more rustic, country atmosphere in the home or business environment, digital UV printing technology can be used to print directly on wood. This can be done on small objects or panels, but there are also large format printers that can be used to print directly on a door!
This gives restaurants, cafés or hotels new options to include unique printed wooden elements in their interior design. Without digital printing technology, this would indeed be almost impossible and unaffordable, due to the manual labour required.
Now this unique design element is within easy reach for projects of any size.
Colour Is Too Important to Leave to Chance
Print will always be the part of the garment people see first.
But the sum of all parts — the fabric, the trims, the fasteners, the finish — is what determines whether a design actually delivers on its promise. Brands that continue to treat colour as a single creative decision, rather than a coordinated technical discipline spanning their entire supply chain, will keep paying for it in re-dips, delays, and disappointed design teams.
A Century of Textiles, and an Ever-changing World
Few companies can trace their roots back more than a century and still count themselves among their industry's innovators. Texia, headquartered in Monistrol de Montserrat, Spain, is one of them.
But the story of Texia is not simply one of longevity.
It is a story of continual reinvention. As the textile industry has grown more global and competitive, Texia has repeatedly reshaped its business, investing in technology, developing its own brands, and placing sustainability at the centre of its mission. In doing so, it offers a compelling example of how a heritage manufacturer can lead rather than follow through a period of profound industry change. Image Credit: Texia
What are we craving Ultimately?
The instinct to slow down while simultaneously optimising every measurable aspect of life isn't a passing curiosity. It's a structural response to a world that feels increasingly unstable, and it's reshaping what people expect from their homes, hotels, workplaces and healthcare environments alike.
For the design and manufacturing sectors, this means rethinking both product and process.
The Structual Shift is Real and its Already Here
Volumes are moving east, where digital production is accelerating rapidly. Consumer behaviour has shifted.
Demand is now driven by personalisation, shorter buying cycles, and an expectation of near-instant responsiveness. Regulatory pressure is intensifying, with supply chain transparency now a legal and commercial fact in many markets. And margins? They are under sustained, structural pressure.
This is not a temporary disruption. It is a fundamental reordering of how textile manufacturing must operate.
The Challenge: Standing Firm as the Industry Shifts
The wallpaper landscape has changed dramatically. Digital printing has lowered the barrier to entry, spawning countless direct-to-consumer brands and pushing much of the market towards faster, cheaper production.
At the same time, manufacturing in the UK has grown steadily harder - rising minimum wage, national insurance, energy and substrate costs all bear down on margins. Surface Print have embraced all of these challenges - and stand resolutely prepared for the future.
From Helsinki's printing mill to Paris's Le Marais, discover how Marimekko is scaling a design-led brand with purpose, craft, and bold innovation.
But what makes Marimekko's story compelling is not just its aesthetic legacy?
The word "toxic" carries weight. It conjures danger, harm, and things best avoided.
“Yet in the textile industry - Where between 3,000 and 10,000 chemicals move through the supply chain, a reflexive fear of the term is one of our biggest obstacles to progress.”
This article distils the key takeaways and what buyers, designers, and brands should be asking right now.
What Is the Digital Product Passport?
At its core, a Digital Product Passport is a digital record attached to a physical product - For a printed textile product, this means the DPP would capture data on the substrate, inks and dyes used, the printing process and technology, chemical compliance, environmental impact (including water and energy use), supply chain traceability, and end-of-life instructions.
The Market Gap that Changed Everything
Future Fashion was founded in 2019, timed deliberately to coincide with a pivotal moment in global textile technology: the commercial launch of the EFI Reggiani BOLT Single-Pass digital printing system.
The founders recognised that single-pass architecture had fundamentally changed what was industrially possible - and that Pakistan's domestic market had yet to catch up.
Print is no longer defined by the inefficiencies that once characterised it…as advances in production processes and technology have significantly improved its environmental performance.
Taran Rai, Corporate Sustainability Manager at Epson explains why?
The story of what happens when young designers access digital technology is still being written.
What once was a theoretical sustainability goal seems to have shifted into an active regulatory reality.
Is the Textile Market Finally Recovering?
After a difficult few years, there are genuine reasons for optimism. Duncan was candid about the challenges: "The market for textiles has been very difficult over the last three years. I'm not going to hide the truth there. But the tide is turning.“
A profound shift is currently reshaping the sector
Changing consumer expectations demand greater design diversity, faster turnaround times, and sustainable manufacturing practices.
To thrive, interior brands must adapt their supply chains, bringing production closer to the end consumer and moving away from bulk manufacturing.
Digital textile printing offers a definitive solution to these operational bottlenecks.
Digital transformation doesn't announce itself.
It accumulates - one innovation at a time - until an entire industry looks back and realises the ground has shifted beneath its feet. That's precisely where textiles stands today.
The conversations happening now about AI, automation, sustainability, and digital product passports are not theoretical. They are shaping decisions being made on factory floors and in boardrooms right now.
“By leveraging advanced digital textile printing, Marylene Madou has successfully merged traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. Her approach offers a blueprint for how independent designers can scale their brands globally while maintaining a minimal environmental footprint.”
The textile industry is undergoing a vital transformation. As the insights from Techtextil and Texprocess reveal, the path forward relies on a combination of sustainable hardware, intelligent chemistry, and seamless digital workflows.
From Zimmer's industrial-scale energy reductions and Stratasys's on-demand 3D embellishments, to Kornit's single-step technical printing and the unified digital ecosystems of NedGraphics and Optitex, the tools for change are here. To stay competitive, brands and manufacturers must adopt these innovations, moving away from fragmented, wasteful processes towards a truly connected, circular economy.
Friedmans stands as a testament to the power of combining traditional textile knowledge with forward-thinking innovation.
“Operating from their UK headquarters, Friedmans now serves a diverse array of sectors, including swimwear, dance, entertainment, sportswear, interior decor, prosthetics, and even pet apparel. With a strategic supply chain that reliably serves clients worldwide”
The apparel decoration industry is decisively moving away from isolated, analogue production tools toward connected digital manufacturing environments.
"Kornit’s unwavering commitment to transformative technology continues to disrupt the status quo. For business leaders and innovators ready to capture the future of apparel manufacturing, the path forward is clear”
The Urgent Need for Sustainability at Scale
The transformation at Coats provides a vital blueprint for the wider textile and apparel sector. True sustainability cannot be achieved in silos. As Dearing emphasised:
“Cross-industry collaboration is the engine of meaningful change. Brands, machinery suppliers, chemical providers, and fibre producers must act as an interconnected ecosystem”
Today’s customers demand superior product quality, real-time data visibility, and lightning-fast turnaround times.
For large-scale garment decorators, managing these expectations while balancing seasonal demand fluctuations - such as the massive surges seen during Black Friday - presents a monumental challenge.
"Relying on transactional vendor relationships and outdated legacy equipment is no longer sufficient to secure long-term stability and growth.”
Printing method is never a secondary detail. It shapes the entire life cycle of a product, from concept to customer. In today’s fashion industry, where margins are tighter and speed matters more than ever, technical knowledge has become a competitive advantage.
“The future of textile design belongs to professionals who can combine creativity with execution, aesthetics with practicality, and vision with production reality”.
![EDMUND BELL [PRINTLAB]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a802676b7411c2497540b80/1535628933285-QO8QXRA0U6Z52VO6DBWR/EDMUND+BELL-PRINTLAB-TEXINTEL.jpg)
