a wall covering having a long dimension and a short dimension and comprising a laminate of a facing matrial bonded to a woven fabric backing material . the backing material is woven with warp and filling yarns with each filling yarn comprising a percentage of thermoplastic fibers . the remaining fibers in each of the filling yarns and the warp yarns are not capable of being autogenously bonded to the facing material . the warp yarns lie in the direction of the long dimension and the filling yarns lie in the directon of the short dimension so the wall covering is rendered more stiff and less flexible in the directon of its short dimension as compred to its long dimension .