The impulse to put flowers on our walls is very nearly as old as walls themselves. It reached a fever pitch in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when block-printed Indian chintzes, or indienne, arrived in Europe in a riot of exotic blooms and sent fashionable society into such a frenzy that France briefly tried to ban them outright. William Morris drew his flowering boughs from the English hedgerow. Every generation since has reached for the floral and remade it in its own image, and no pattern has been reinvented more often, or loved more consistently.
The reason is simple, and rather lovely. A floral wallpaper is optimism made visible, the promise of spring on the wall whatever the season outside. Here is where the idea comes from, and the designs on the site that carry it best.
"A floral is optimism made visible: the promise of spring, whatever the weather."
As Old as Decoration Itself
Morris is the shortest route back to that hedgerow, and his own house still prints him. Honeysuckle & Tulip in Woad & Thyme, from Morris & Co's Morris & Friends, is a dense, twining scramble of the two flowers, and the colourway is named for woad, the ancient plant that gave Europe its blue long before indigo arrived. Woodland Weeds in Rose & Weld, from the same house's Colours of Morris, does the same trick with weld, the old yellow dye, and takes as its subject the plants nobody plants: cow parsley, campion, the hedge bank in June. Between them sits Blackthorn Damask in Fresh Meadow, from Hoopla Walls' Eden II, a hedgerow blossom worked into a proper mirrored damask, which is the same hedgerow seen through a formal frame.
Honeysuckle & Tulip, Woad & Thyme by Morris & Co
Blackthorn Damask, Fresh Meadow by Hoopla Walls
Woodland Weeds, Rose & Weld by Morris & Co
Endlessly Reinvented
The great strength of the floral is its sheer range, which is why it never dates. It can be a tiny sprigged ditsy that whispers or a great blowsy peony that fills a wall, sugary and romantic or dark and moody, the flowers set against inky grounds for a look that is anything but sweet. Uffington Roses in Plaster Pink, by Laura Ashley, is the romantic end, full-blown roses on a warm chalky pink that reads as a whole room rather than a feature. Vallmo in Red and Yellow, from Boråstapeter, is the blowsy end of the range and named for its subject: vallmo is simply the Swedish for poppy, and the whole collection takes the flower's name. Great scarlet heads sprawl across an ochre ground, and it is shown here behind a brass bed, which is exactly where that much flower belongs. Woodland Floral, Sophie Robinson's design for Harlequin, is the opposite instinct: peridot, ruby and pearl thrown together with real nerve, shot in her own dining room.
Uffington Roses, Plaster Pink by Laura Ashley
Vallmo, Red and Yellow by Boråstapeter
Woodland Floral by Harlequin
Whatever the mood of the moment, there is a floral to match it. That is a rare kind of longevity.
"Sugary or moody, tiny or blowsy, there is a floral for every room and every mood."
How and Where to Use It
Floral is the most versatile pattern in the book, and the same flower will behave completely differently depending on how it is drawn: Poppy Flow in Pink and Beige, from Boråstapeter's Treasured, takes the poppy of Vallmo above and reduces it to a fine trailing sprig in chalky pink, quiet enough to paper a whole sitting room and live with for years. Tulip Trail in Coral, from Hoopla Walls, is the step up from it, a neat coral tulip on olive that is cheerful without being sweet, and easy in a kitchen or a hallway where you want colour but not commotion.
Poppy Flow, Pink and Beige by Boråstapeter
Tulip Trail, Coral by Hoopla Walls
A soft, small-scale design makes a restful, pretty backdrop in a bedroom, and Sweet Pea in Dove Blue, from Gotain's collaboration with Boråstapeter, is exactly that: a fine sweet pea sprig, barely there, the sort of paper you live with rather than look at. A larger, blowsy design brings drama and joy to a living room or a hallway, while a dark, dramatic floral turns a dining room or a study into something moody and grown-up by lamplight. Festival Flowers in Antique White, by Joules, splits the difference and shows how well a floral takes to a painted dado, the flowers doing the colour and the woodwork holding the line.
Sweet Pea, Dove Blue by Gotain x Boråstapeter
Festival Flowers, Antique White by Joules
It papers a whole room beautifully, or makes a single, glorious statement wall. Let the flowers supply the colour and keep the rest of the scheme simple, or lean right in and pair a floral with a coordinating fabric for the full, layered effect. Look to Morris & Co, Harlequin and Laura Ashley for florals from the delicate to the dramatic, and order a sample first to see the colours truly in your own light.
And at the far end of the range sits Maria Luisa in Carmesí, from Coordonné's Feria, which makes no concessions at all: crimson chrysanthemums packed edge to edge, carmesí being simply the Spanish for crimson. It is the loudest paper here and the proof of the argument.
Fashions in decorating change with the years. The flower, somehow, is always in bloom.
Ready to Bring the Garden In?
Browse the full Floral collection, or narrow it down in Small Prints, Botanical and Country & Cottage. If you are not sure how a colour will read in your own light, our Sample Service lets you order a swatch of any design before you commit to a full roll.
Maria Luisa, Carmesí by Coordonné
