Chamomile in Flax and Madder from The Unfinished Works by Morris and Co, a dense cream and madder floral covering a sitting room with a pale sofa, a sage painted door and a brass plant stand
Decorating Notes

A Nation of Pattern-Lovers: The Great British Wallpaper Houses

By Wallpaper Sales

No country on earth has given the world more beautiful wallpaper than Britain. From a Victorian radical's willow boughs to the bold colourists of today, a guide to the houses that made this small, damp island the spiritual home of pattern.

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It is no accident that so much of the world's finest wallpaper comes from Britain. This is the country that gave us William Morris and the whole Arts and Crafts movement, and a nation that took to the decorated, layered, pattern-rich interior with an enthusiasm it has never quite lost.

While other countries flirted with stark modernism, the British kept faith with the floral and the chintz, the stripe and the damask, and built a tradition of domestic decoration that runs unbroken from the great Victorian houses to the terraced hallway today. What follows is not every name worth knowing, but it is a fair map of a remarkable landscape, and a sense of where to begin.

"No country has given the world more beautiful wallpaper than this small, damp, pattern-loving island."

The Grand Heritage Houses

At the top sit the archive houses, the keepers of the flame. Morris & Co carries the designs of the master himself, still drawn from the original documents, as in Chamomile from The Unfinished Works. Sanderson, founded in 1860 and holder of a royal warrant, is very nearly the definition of English style, whether in the small sprigged Arboretum or the soft damask of Mapperton. And Zoffany brings a painterly, connoisseur's eye and an unrivalled command of colour, nowhere better than in Peacock Garden.

Colefax and Fowler more or less invented the country-house look, and its faded, lived-in elegance is all there in a flowering branch trail like Delancey, from Messina.

Truffle Arboretum in Blue Clay by Sanderson, a small sprigged print beside a patterned blind and a pleated wall light

Truffle Arboretum, Blue Clay by Sanderson

Mapperton in Green and Cream by Sanderson, a soft damask behind a weathered pine cupboard, two blue upholstered chairs and a vase of flowers

Mapperton, Green / Cream by Sanderson

Peacock Garden in Green and Coral from Indienne by Zoffany, a painted garden scene behind a dark table with a vase of delphiniums

Peacock Garden, Green / Coral by Zoffany

Delancey from Messina by Colefax and Fowler, a soft blue and cream flowering branch trail above a painted cupboard with a cream urn on it

Delancey, Messina by Colefax and Fowler

Around them gather the names that have dressed the English country house for generations. GP & J Baker, London-founded in 1884 and as British as any of them, and Mulberry Home hold the rich heritage prints; Nina Campbell brings a lighter, prettier touch, as the Honfleur collection shows in both Hollingbourne Trellis and the more ornate Karabali; and Anna French carries a lace-maker's love of the delicate, as in François. These are the houses to turn to when you want pattern with genuine pedigree.

Forest Flower in Spice and Ochre from Kit Kemp Wallpapers II by GP and J Baker, a scattered folk floral behind a yellow painted chest of drawers and a blue armchair

Forest Flower, Spice / Ochre by GP & J Baker

Hollingbourne Trellis in Green from Honfleur by Nina Campbell, a soft trellis above a window seat piled with gingham and ticking cushions

Hollingbourne Trellis, Green by Nina Campbell

Karabali in Blue and Green from Honfleur by Nina Campbell, an ornate medallion print above painted panelling with a small dog in a basket

Karabali, Blue / Green by Nina Campbell

Francois in Green and Blue from Clermont by Anna French, a delicate blue and green trailing floral on sage behind a side table with lily of the valley in a blue and white jar

François, Green and Blue by Anna French

The Colourists and the Contemporaries

Then there are the houses that took British pattern somewhere bolder. Harlequin has made colour its life's work, from the exuberant Wonderland Floral to the quieter Indienne and Zenith in the Zamora collection. Its livelier sibling Scion brings a playful, mid-century Scandinavian cheer, Osborne & Little has been fearless and artful since the 1960s, as Cynara from Ananda makes plain, Clarke & Clarke offers stylish versatility at a friendly price, and the fashion designer Matthew Williamson brings pure jewel-toned glamour to the wall. This is the Britain that never did restraint, and thank goodness for it.

Wonderland Floral by Sophie Robinson for Harlequin, a vivid green and coral floral in a bedroom with a striped headboard and an orange chair

Wonderland Floral by Harlequin

Indienne in Cornflower and Pine from Zamora by Harlequin, a fine blue and green trailing floral above a console table with a lamp and a jug

Indienne, Cornflower / Pine by Harlequin

Zenith in Blush and Forest from Zamora by Harlequin, a stylised pod and leaf design in green and cream behind a wooden console with a lamp

Zenith, Blush / Forest by Harlequin

Cynara in Raspberry and Cobalt from Ananda by Osborne and Little, exotic flowers and birds in raspberry and cobalt behind a pale sofa and an embroidered cushion

Cynara, Raspberry / Cobalt by Osborne & Little

"From archive florals to jewel-toned glamour, there is a British house for every possible taste."

The Independents and the Makers

Perhaps most exciting of all is the current wave of independent British studios, many of them still printing here at home. Lewis & Wood prints wide-width papers in Gloucestershire with a wonderfully eccentric eye, as Voysey Park shows. 1838 Wallcoverings still runs the surface-print machines in Lancashire and draws on the V&A's own archive for Wisteria Bloom, from Decorative Papers III.

Brand McKenzie fills walls with hand-drawn storytelling, and Disco Lemons is exactly that, while Mark Alexander works texture and natural fibre into the quietest sort of luxury: Marelle, from Collage IV, is a surface you want to put your hand on.

Voysey Park wide width by Lewis and Wood, a pale scenic of trees and figures above a green painted banquette with a straw hat on it

Voysey Park Wide Width by Lewis & Wood

Wisteria Bloom in Heather from V and A Decorative Papers III by 1838 Wallcoverings, a hanging wisteria and chrysanthemum mural in a room with a fireplace and a buttoned armchair

Wisteria Bloom, Heather by 1838 Wallcoverings

Disco Lemons in Dark Teal from Groove Inferno by Brand McKenzie, lemons among deep green leaves above white metro tiles and a mint painted kitchen counter

Disco Lemons, Dark Teal by Brand McKenzie

Marelle in Jasper White from Collage IV by Mark Alexander, a fine natural weave in a room with a leather sling chair, a low table and a doorway beyond

Marelle, Jasper White by Mark Alexander

That, in the end, is what sets the British wallpaper tradition apart. It honours its past without being imprisoned by it. Whether you want a Morris willow that has graced walls for a century or something hand-drawn in a studio last year, the same island and the same deep love of pattern is behind it. Browse the whole British Design Houses edit, and order a sample of two or three to see which house you really are.

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