Material · Metallic, foil, and mica
Foil, mylar, mica, metallic leaf, and beaded surfaces, installed to the specification each house publishes. Level 5 walls lit at a raking angle. Gloves throughout. Seams planned against the room's light. Installation-only, headquartered in Park City.
What metallic is
Reflective wallcoverings: metal foil laminated to paper, mica flake in a coating, mylar film, gilded leaf, and glass-bead surfaces. They move light around a room like nothing else we install. A powder room with one sconce reads as if it had four.
They also reflect every wave in the wall beneath them and hold every fingerprint that touches the face. A foil installed over a painter's finish shows the joints as bands of light. A foil touched with a bare hand keeps the print. The material is unforgiving in exactly the ways that make it beautiful.
Metallic, foil, and mica are specified across Park City and Deer Valley for powder rooms, dining rooms, bars, and ceilings, and in retail and hospitality work along the Wasatch Front, and they are installed by the same crews that carry our silk and grasscloth work.
Four reflective surfaces
The word metallic covers four different constructions. A foil is a thin aluminium laminate on paper, mirror-flat, and it reports every wave beneath it. Mica is mineral flake suspended in a coating, a soft shimmer that forgives the wall almost entirely. Leaf is gold, silver, or a base metal laid by hand in squares on size, and the squares read in raking light. Beads are glass set in adhesive, and they are never rolled.
What they share is a backing that takes the paste and a face that is the only part the room sees. What separates them is how much the wall beneath reports back through the face, and that decides how the substrate is prepared and how the seams are planned.
Metallic guide
Each reflective construction asks something different of the wall, the paste, and the light in the room.
| Surface | Construction | Reflectivity | Shows the wall? | Best rooms | At the wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal foil | Aluminium laminate on paper | Mirror | Everything | Powder rooms, bars, ceilings | Level 5 proven under a raking light. Gloves. Slow cure. |
| Brushed foil | Foil with a directional grain | High, directional | Most | Dining rooms, dressing rooms | Grain direction kept consistent. Seams planned for the light. |
| Mylar | Polyester film, often printed | High | Most | Feature walls, ceilings | Non-breathing: paste matched, ventilation, long cure. |
| Mica | Mineral flake in a coating on paper | Soft shimmer | Little | Dining rooms, bedrooms, corridors | The most forgiving; still sealed and sequenced. |
| Gold and silver leaf | Leaf laid by hand in squares on size | High, warm | Some; squares read in light | Powder rooms, bars, ceilings | Never wetted. Squares aligned drop to drop. Seams set by hand. |
| Glass bead | Beads set in adhesive on paper | Sparkle | Little | Powder rooms, bars, dressing rooms | Never rolled. Seams bridged, not pressed. Dusted, never wiped. |
| Metallic grasscloth | Natural fibre over a mica or foil ground | Shimmer through texture | Little | Entries, dining rooms | Handled as grasscloth: dye lots mapped, seams choreographed. |
| Pearlescent print | Metallic ink on paper or non-woven | Low sheen | Some | Bedrooms, halls, hospitality | Installed as a printed paper with a sealed wall. |
Where metallic performs
What metallic demands at the wall
The material is correct more often than the installation. These are the steps that close the gap.
A reflective surface shows every trowel mark under it. The wall is finished to Level 5 and lit at a raking angle to prove it before the primer goes on.
Gloves throughout. The face is never touched with a bare hand or a dry roller, from the crate to the last smoothing pass.
Reflective seams read differently by time of day. The seam plan is set against the room's light at the hours it is used, not against its geometry.
Foil, mylar, and mica take specific adhesives. The wrong one shows through as a shadow. The house's instruction and the paste's data sheet decide.
Non-breathing surfaces cure slowly, and slower in a dry winter. The schedule allows for it, and the crew returns to check the seams after the cure.
The raking-light check
A painted wall hides a great deal. A joint feathered a millimetre proud, a trowel mark, a sanding scratch: under paint they vanish from across the room. Under a foil the same wall becomes a map of every one of them, because a mirror-flat face turns each rise into a band of light and each dip into a band of shadow, the full width of the wall.
So the wall is finished to Level 5, a full skim coat sanded flat, and then proven. A work light is held flat against the surface and walked along every joint. What it shows is corrected before the primer goes on, because after the primer there is no second chance. Where the painter delivers the wall, the light check still happens before the first drop.
Seams and the light
On a printed paper the seam plan follows the wall: centred on the focal wall, balanced at the corners. On a reflective surface that plan can put a seam exactly where a sconce grazes the wall every evening, and the seam reads as a line for as long as the light is on. The same seam a foot to the side disappears.
So the room is read at the measurement at the hour it is used, with the lights it will have. Sconces, the chandelier, the window, the reflection of the table. The seams are planned against that, drop widths shifted and the start point chosen so no join lands in a grazing path. On a brushed foil the grain direction is planned the same way.
Ventilation and cure
Paste under a printed paper dries through the face in a day or two. Under a foil or a mylar there is no face to dry through, so the moisture leaves only through the backing and into the wall. The seams stay soft for days. A bubble that would settle overnight under paper takes a week here, and a room heated hard to hurry it produces a wall that shrinks at the joins.
So the schedule allows for the cure. The room is ventilated, no heat is aimed at the wall, nothing is hung on it, and no one touches it. The crew returns once the surface has cured to check every seam and set anything that needs setting. In a Wasatch Back winter, when interiors run at fifteen percent humidity, the wall side of the cure runs slower still, and the primer is chosen for it.
Living with metallic
A reflective surface, treated as one.
Foil and mica: a soft, dry microfibre cloth, no pressure, no cleaners. Leaf and bead: a soft brush or a feather duster only. Water and sprays mark a metallic face; a mark is referred to the house's guidance.
On a foil or a leaf, they show and they stay. The wall is not touched after installation until it has cured, and afterwards it is treated like a mirror: hands off, and the switch plate is the place for hands.
Mica and leaf hold their colour well. Foil and mylar can dull or shift under direct, sustained sun. Walls that take the sun are identified at the measurement.
In a room with normal humidity and no steam, a reflective face is stable for decades. Baths with a shower and laundry rooms are declined at the measurement.
Installed on a Level 5 wall, kept out of the sun and away from hands, a foil or a mica serves a decade or more without dulling. Leaf serves longer.
A damaged drop on a foil can be replaced if the roll batch is available, which is why the surplus we leave with you matters more here than on any other material. Keep it flat, dry, and in its wrapping.
Why Mancini
Walls proven flat under a raking light. Seams planned for the light. Hands never on the face.
A metallic wall shows the wall beneath it and the hand that set it. The standard is measured in what you do not see: no bands, no prints, no seam that appears at dusk.
Installed to the instructions each house publishes, roll by roll.
Every house writes an installation specification for its foils and micas: the primer, the paste, the seam method, the cure. We read it before the order and follow it at the wall. No shortcuts, no substitutions.
Four active crews. Twelve trained installers. Scheduling measured in weeks.
Multi-crew capacity means a metallic project moves on the designer's timeline, with the cure window and the return visit built into the schedule.
Metallic, installed
Metallic, foil, and mica are installed by the same crews that carry Mancini's silk and grasscloth work across the Wasatch Back and its retail and hospitality work along the Wasatch Front: four crews, twelve trained installers, fully insured and bonded, with 70+ five-star reviews.
The houses
Each house builds its metallic differently and publishes its own instructions. These are the ones we install most, and what each asks for.
Foils, micas, and metallic grasscloths alongside its natural fibres. Paste and seam instructions are published per collection and differ by backing.
Installation notesChicago. Beaded, mother-of-pearl, and metallic-leaf wallcoverings with handling protocols per product: beaded and shell surfaces are never rolled.
Installation notesBelgian mica, foil, and metallic textile, often combined on a single roll. The paste follows the backing, never the face.
Installation notesBelgian texture innovation, including metallic and mica-ground collections sold by lot with collection-specific instructions.
Installation notesContract-grade foils, micas, and metallic vinyls for hospitality and retail, with tested data published per product.
Installation notesFrench contemporary metallics and foils, often wide-width. Wide goods change the seam count and the paste.
Installation notesPearlescent and metallic-ink printed papers sold by the double roll; installed as printed paper on a sealed wall with quantities confirmed from the measurement.
Installation notesSend the sample and the room. If it is reflective, we have installed something built the same way, and we read the manufacturer's instructions before the order.
Send the sampleDesign house and manufacturer names referenced on this page are the property of their respective owners. They identify materials we install and completed project history. Mancini Wallpapers holds no partnership, certification, or endorsement from any house named, and installs every product to the instructions its manufacturer publishes.
Client reviews
Where we install metallic
Four crews, twelve trained installers, most projects on the calendar within weeks.
Old Town, Thaynes Canyon, Aerie, Pinebrook, Silver Springs, Trailside.
Empire Pass, Deer Crest, Bald Eagle, Silver Lake Village.
Heber City, Midway, Red Ledges, Victory Ranch, Tuhaye.
Alpine, Highland, Traverse Mountain, Cedar Hills.
Golf and mountain club residences above Kimball Junction.
Federal Heights, The Avenues, Holladay, Cottonwood Heights.
Questions
The questions homeowners and designers ask before, during, and after a metallic, foil, or mica installation.
Mancini Wallpapers, headquartered in Park City. Foils, micas, leaf, and beaded surfaces are installed by the same crews that carry our silk and grasscloth work across Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, and Utah counties, and our retail and hospitality work along the Wasatch Front, to the instructions each house publishes.
Yes. Ceilings are among the best uses of a reflective surface: a foil ceiling over a dining table doubles the chandelier. The plaster is finished to the same Level 5 standard, proven under a raking light from a scaffold, and the seams are planned against the fixture that hangs from it.
On a foil or a leaf, yes, and they stay. That is why the crew works in gloves from the crate to the last smoothing pass, and why the wall is not touched after installation until it has cured. Afterwards it is treated like a mirror: hands off.
A foil seam reads differently by time of day, so the plan follows the light rather than the wall. Seams are placed away from the grazing path of a sconce and the reflection of a window, at the hours the room is used, and set by hand. Placed that way they read as one surface.
Foil is a thin aluminium laminate on paper: mirror-flat, and it reports every wave in the wall beneath it. Mica is mineral flake in a coating: a soft shimmer that forgives the wall almost entirely. Both take paste on the backing, and both are installed on a sealed wall, but foil demands a Level 5 finish proven under a raking light and a long cure.
A mirror-flat face turns every rise in the wall into a band of light and every dip into a band of shadow, the full width of the wall. Level 5 is a full skim coat sanded flat, and it is proven with a work light held flat against the surface before the primer goes on.
Longer than paper. Paste under a foil or a mylar dries only through the backing and into the wall, so the seams stay soft for days and a bubble that would settle overnight under paper takes a week. The schedule allows for it, the room is ventilated without direct heat, and the crew returns to check the seams once the surface has cured.
Foil and mica: a soft, dry microfibre cloth with no pressure and no cleaners. Leaf and bead: a soft brush or a feather duster only. Water and sprays mark a metallic face. A mark is referred to the house's guidance rather than treated at home.
In a powder room without a shower or tub, with ventilation, yes; it is the room metallic is most often specified for. In any bath with a shower or steam, no. Those rooms are declined at the measurement.
Foil and mylar can dull or shift under direct, sustained sun; mica and leaf hold their colour well. Walls that take the sun are identified at the measurement, and the specification follows the room.
Yes. Beaded and leafed surfaces are handled in gloves, seams are set by hand and never rolled, and the house's handling protocol is read before the order. Beads are bridged at the seam, not pressed; leaf squares are aligned drop to drop.
No. Existing wallpaper comes off, texture is skim-coated flat, and the wall is brought to Level 5 and proven under a raking light first. That preparation is part of the scope and is written into the proposal when the walls need it.
It depends on the wall heights, the roll width, the repeat if there is one, and where the seams must fall for the light. James measures every wall, plans the seams against the room's lighting, and derives the quantity from the cut lengths. The proposal shows the arithmetic, and the surplus stays with you because a foil repair years later needs the same batch.
No. Mancini is installation-only. Material comes through your designer's trade account, a showroom, or your own order, and we install what arrives. Designers keep their procurement chain and their markup; we are the execution at the end of it.
With a complimentary on-site measurement, taken at the hour the room is used where the room is an evening room. James walks the space, reads the light and the wall, and measures it himself. A written proposal follows, with the cure window and the return visit in the schedule. Send the property address and a photo of the room to begin.
Begin your metallic project
Send the property address and a photo of the room. James will come back with a time to walk the space, read its light at the hours it is used, and measure it himself. A written proposal follows.
hello@manciniwallpapers.com · Mon–Fri 8 AM – 7 PM MT · Saturday by appointment