Art Deco has a birthday, which is rare for a design movement. It takes its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs, held in Paris in 1925, where a dazzling new look burst upon the world: sleek, symmetrical and unapologetically modern, in love with the speed and glamour of the machine age. Its motifs are instantly familiar even now, the sunburst and the fan, the chevron and the stepped ziggurat, the scallop and the stylised palm, rendered in gold, black and jewel colour. It gave us the Chrysler Building, the great ocean liners and the glittering interiors of Gatsby's imagination.
What makes it endure is that it manages to be both grand and disciplined at once: opulent, but held together by clean geometry. A hundred years on, Art Deco wallpaper is having another moment, and the wall is where it looks its best. Here is why, and the designs on the site that carry it with real polish.
"Art Deco is opulent and disciplined at once, glamour held together by clean geometry."
A Style Born at a Single Exhibition
The designs closest to that 1925 moment are the ones built on the fan. Rene in Rose Gold, from Graham & Brown's Established, is the motif at its cleanest: a great diamond lattice of fanned rays in blush and copper, the sort of pattern that would have looked entirely at home in a liner's first-class lounge. Prosperity, from Caselio's Elegance, takes the same shape into deep blue and gold and scales it down into a tighter repeat, which is what lets it run round a whole room rather than stopping at one wall.
Rene, Rose Gold by Graham & Brown
Prosperity by Caselio
Why It Feels Right Again
Every so often the mood swings back towards glamour, and it has done so decisively of late. After years of pale, pared-back rooms there is a renewed appetite for drama, for metallic sheen, for interiors that feel a little dressed up, and Deco delivers all of it with a confidence that never tips into chaos. Tourmaline in Emeraude and Doré, from Casamance's Ecrin, is the jewel of the eight in more ways than one: tourmaline is a gemstone, an écrin is the case you keep gems in, and the paper is a scalloped emerald and gold that behaves exactly like something taken out of a box and held to the light. Laureate Vine Trellis in Black, from York Wallcoverings' Jardin, is the most classical: the laurel wreath, the oldest emblem of victory there is, drawn as a gold trellis over charcoal. Tourmaline in Doré Foncé is the same design taken to its richest, the scallop worked in deep antique gold on gold, and it is the one to reach for when a room is meant to glow rather than gleam. And Art Deco in Natural, from Graham & Brown, is the restrained one, a soft fanned repeat in oyster and pale gold for anyone who wants the geometry without the glitter.
Tourmaline, Emeraude / Doré by Casamance
Tourmaline, Doré Foncé by Casamance
Art Deco, Natural by Graham & Brown
It helps, too, that a strong geometric reads as sophisticated rather than fussy, which makes Deco a rare thing: bold pattern that grown-up rooms can wear with ease.
"Deco is that rare thing: bold pattern a grown-up room can wear with ease."
How and Where to Use It
Art Deco loves a room with a sense of occasion. A fan or sunburst brings instant drama to a dining room or a cocktail corner, especially by lamplight, when the metallics come alive. Etienne in Bordeaux and Cuivré, from Casamance's Isadora, is the one for that: a claret and copper geometric that turns a whole room the colour of an evening. A subtler design makes an elegant, hard-working backdrop in a hallway or a study, and Florin in Gold, from Laura Ashley's Volume One, does it beautifully, a fine gilded trellis named after a gold coin and shot here running up a staircase. A powder room papered floor to ceiling in something gilded and graphic is one of the great small pleasures of the style, and Effervescence, from Caselio, is made for it: black and gold, all fizz and scallop, low risk and high glamour.
Florin, Gold by Laura Ashley
Effervescence by Caselio
Pair it with rich, saturated colour, a little brass or velvet, and restraint everywhere else, so the pattern can hold the room. Look to Casamance, Caselio and Graham & Brown for Deco-inflected designs with genuine polish, and order a sample first, since metallic and gilded effects shift dramatically between daylight and the evening light they were really made for.
A hundred years after that Paris exhibition, Art Deco still does the one thing every host wants a room to do: it makes an entrance.
Ready to Add a Little Glamour?
Browse the full Art Deco collection, or see where it sits among the wider shapes and sheens in Geometric and Metallic. If you are not sure how a gilded effect will read in your own light, our Sample Service lets you order a swatch of any design before you commit to a full roll.
Etienne, Bordeaux / Cuivré by Casamance
