We have been putting animals on our walls since we first had walls to paint. The beasts of the medieval bestiary carried moral tales, the great verdure tapestries filled noble halls with birds and hunting scenes, and the butterfly collecting Victorians pinned nature's jewels into cabinets and prints with something close to obsession. To bring an animal into a room has always been to bring in a little of the wild, a little movement, a little life, and often a little meaning too, because creatures have always been our storytellers and our symbols.
That is what a creature adds that a flower or a stripe cannot: character, and the sense that a room is inhabited. Here is where animal and insect wallpaper comes from, and the designs on the site that bring a room most to life.
"A creature on the wall adds what no flower can: character, and a sense that a room is inhabited."
Beasts on the Wall Since Forever
The oldest idea in the whole style is that an animal comes with a story attached, and one design on the site says so in its name. Aesop, by Linwood, is named for the fabulist whose animals carried the morals, and it is a fantastical world of tigers, horsemen and peacocks, hand painted by their own design team onto a gently shimmering mica paper. Woodland Chorus, from Arboretum by Sanderson, takes the Victorian naturalist's approach instead: British birds perched among English foliage, drawn closely enough that you could name them. And Under the Elder Tree, from Icons by Boråstapeter, has a single elder standing tall and offering shade and sanctuary to the forest fauna gathered beneath it, all in a sage green so soft it will paper a whole bedroom.
Aesop, Green by Linwood
Woodland Chorus, Botanical & Multi by Sanderson
Under the Elder Tree, Light Green & Beige by Boråstapeter
Wit, Whimsy and Wonder
These designs are riding a real wave of affection, and it is easy to see why. They speak to the biophilic longing for nature, and to the renewed appetite for whimsy and wit after years of cautious, pattern shy interiors. Balancing Act in Nightfall, from Carnival Fever by Brand McKenzie, is a network of vines hosting flamingos, zebras and monkeys against a night sky, and against dark green kitchen cabinets it is pure pleasure. Jungle Jamboree in Damson, from Woven Reverie by Graham & Brown, is the same instinct in a deeper register, with elephants parading through palms and deer standing poised in patterned coats. A room with a creature or two has personality, and personality is what people remember.
Balancing Act, Nightfall by Brand McKenzie
Jungle Jamboree, Damson by Graham & Brown
"A room with a creature or two has personality, and personality is what people remember."
How and Where to Use It
Animal designs suit almost any room, but they shine where a little life and wit are welcome. A naturalistic bird or animal print makes an elegant statement in a study, a hallway or a dining room, while a bolder, more characterful menagerie is a joy in a cloakroom or a child's room. Insects and butterflies in particular work beautifully scattered across a light ground, bringing delicate movement to a bedroom or a small space.
Give a bold creature design a wall of its own and keep the rest calm, or let a subtler print run through a whole room. Look to Sanderson, Clarke & Clarke and Scion for animal and insect designs from the naturalistic to the whimsical, and order a sample first to see the detail properly in your own light.
Two of the newest arrivals both happen to be birds, and both are water birds. Sprig & Heron in Green, from Tea Garden by York Wallcoverings, has graceful long legged birds lifting their wings between stylised bonsai pines, and its collection is meant as a meditative path from the outside world to a quieter one. Humedales in Sky Blue, from LUR by Coordonné, is named with the Spanish for wetlands and fills a wall with waders among reeds and lilies. The collection came out of a real experimental garden in the Oyarzun Valley, planted to study nature and rebuild lost landscapes, which is a rather serious origin for something this pretty.
Sprig & Heron, Green by York Wallcoverings
Humedales, Sky Blue by Coordonné
A room without a single living thing can feel a little lifeless. A hare, a heron or a handful of beetles is often all it takes to fix that.
Ready to Fill a Room With Life?
Browse the full Animal & Insects collection, or narrow it down in Feathers, Woodland and Jungle.
