Our infatuation with wall coverings with big, bold patterns is turning out to be more than a brief fling. It looks set to continue at least until the property-market ice caps melt.

This year, the premium wallpaper brands are offering more extravagantly decorative designs than ever, including flocks, florals in metallic inks and animal prints. You may not want to use such statement designs on all four walls, but a panel or one feature wall will brighten any room on a budget.

At the pricey end of the papers game, there’s a return to old-fashioned opulence, albeit with a contemporary edge. Meg Mathews has unveiled a fabulous hand-printed snakeskin pattern called Snake Rattle ’n’ Roll, which goes on sale in Liberty on August 1 (£87 per metre of 1.4-metre-wide paper; 020 7734 1234, liberty.co.uk). Osborne & Little has an Indian-inspired range by Henry Wilson: pomegranates and palms in a palette of fuchsia, turquoise, orange and dark brown (from £44 per 10-metre roll; 020 7352 1456, www.osborneandlittle.com).

Laura Ashley’s new collection offers glamorous big prints with exotic dark backgrounds and glittery inks, such as the charcoal floral Isodore (£26 per 10-metre roll; 0871 230 2301, lauraashley.com). This autumn, Zoffany promises us Ocelot, “a subtle animal-print paper with a touch of mica to add a pearlescent highlight” (from £48 per 10-metre roll; 0844 543 4600, zoffany.com).

My favourite papers this year are the shabby-chic designs that mimic old scrapbooks and collages: very English and understated, with a handmade feel. Brian Yates brings us romantic postcard walls, with images of pressed flowers and faded photos in muted colours (£120 for three 280cm x 46.5cm panels; 01524 35035, www.brian-yates.co.uk). The textiles designer Catherine Hammerton mines a similar nostalgic vein with her Collection 09, launched last month. The two-panel mural is a digital print of one of her collages, featuring scraps of old wallpaper, stamps and envelopes (£159, each panel 52cm x 300cm; 020 7603 8851, catherinehammerton.com).

If you are set on handcrafted prints, but can’t afford a handcrafted price, then buy a narrow panel, such as the butterfly paper from Rockett St George, which is designed to be hung, like a floor-to-ceiling banner, on rods (£125 for a 270cm x 56cm panel; 020 8350 5450, www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk).

The real story of 2009, however, is unfolding at the budget end of the market. Our thrifty, crafty mindset has given rise to an abundance of ingenious, inexpensive decorative devices. We’re using colourful graphic wall stickers to warm up white-painted expanses and hanging narrow wallpaper panels instead of papering feature walls. Decals or transfers are available to suit every room, from the nursery to the kitchen. Check before you buy, but most can be fixed to and removed from walls without damage to paintwork.

Prices are also extremely reasonable. A set of a dozen falling maple leaves, in black, gold or silver, costs £34.95 (from Rockett St George, as before). Brume, meanwhile, has a shimmering shoal of 40 fish for £49 (24cm x 28cm; 01364 73090, brume.co.uk).

Ferm Living’s Velo, a black silhouette of a penny-farthing bicycle, can be had from EZStyle (£34, 50cm x 45cm; 0845 652 0525, ezstyle.co.uk), while B&Q has stickers in a variety of shapes, including elephants, glitterballs, poppy fields and city skylines (from £24.98 for a 31cm x 31cm design; diy.com). Graham and Green’s witty twist on the sticker trend combines a black decal in the shape of an old-fashioned hall coat rack, with an actual hook on which to hang your 3-D clothes (150cm x 50cm, £62.50; 0845 130 6622, www.grahamandgreen.co.uk).

Talking of DIY quick fixes, that dinosaur of 1980s decor, the stencil, has staged an unexpected comeback. Crown Paints, collaborating with the Royal College of Art, has launched Baroque Cat by Alex Mattsson, a hip young Swedish designer who has been tipped by Dazed & Confused as one to watch (£50, 75cm x 69cm; stencil-library.com/crown-rca-stencils.html).

Clare Bareham, who started The Stencil Studio 18 months ago, has a theory on why stencils are cool once more: she puts its revival down to the celebrated graffiti artist from Bristol. “I think Banksy using stencilling as an art form has made it acceptable again,” she says. Accordingly, her firm sells numerous Banksy-inspired images. Most popular this summer is her homage to his Balloon Girl (pictured left; £6; 01453 889175, thestencilstudio.com).

Finally, if you appreciate the appeal of an afternoon spent artfully arranging a shoal of fish or stencilling a trompe l’oeil chandelier on your wall, you’ll adore Sally Pawson’s new interactive wallpaper. Pawson designs colourful, playful products into which she incorporates games. Her “join the dots” paper features a meadow of flowers on a fresh white background. The outline of each bloom is a rash of dots, waiting for a homeowner and friends to link them up (£40 per 10-metre roll; 07886 680115 sallypawson.co.uk). You’ll have to buy your own coloured crayons, though.

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