The paisley is properly called the boteh, and it began its life thousands of years ago in ancient Persia and India, where the little teardrop, thought to represent a sprouting seed or a cypress tree, stood for life, fertility and abundance. It travelled west on the backs of the exquisite woven shawls of Kashmir, which so beguiled Europe that whole towns set about copying them. One of those towns was Paisley, in the west of Scotland, whose mills produced the motif in such quantity that the pattern took the town's name for good. Centuries later it found yet another life as the emblem of sixties psychedelia.
Few patterns have lived so many lives. To hang a paisley wallpaper is to hang a small piece of world history on the wall, a motif that has meant something to almost every culture it has touched. Here is that journey, and the designs on the site that carry it.
"Paisley has travelled from ancient Persia to a Scottish mill town to the Summer of Love."
A Motif With a Passport
You can read the route in the names alone. Cashmere Paisley, from Sanderson's Art of the Garden, points straight back to Kashmir, where the shawls that carried the boteh west were woven, and cashmere is simply that place-name worn down by use. Pamir, from Nina Campbell's Cathay, holds two waypoints in one label: the Pamirs are the mountains the Silk Road had to cross, and Cathay is what medieval Europe called China. Elswick Paisley in Blue Umber, from Zoffany's Cotswolds Manor, is the end of the line, the imported motif fully naturalised into an English pattern book.
Cashmere Paisley by Sanderson
Pamir, Cathay by Nina Campbell
Elswick Paisley, Blue Umber by Zoffany
Rich, Warm and a Little Bohemian
Paisley has a warmth and an intricacy few patterns can match, an ornate, swirling richness that feels both exotic and deeply comforting. It sits perfectly within the current love of craft, colour and gently collected interiors, and it gives a room the sense of having been put together over years rather than bought in an afternoon. Paisley Patches in Sage, from Eijffinger's Amber, makes that literal: the motif cut into panels and reassembled like a quilt, which is very close to how the pattern actually spread, copied and recopied from one workshop to the next. Paisley in Teal, from Sketch Twenty 3's Savile Row, is named for the shawl's final address: once the great Kashmir shawl went out of fashion the boteh survived in tailoring, in tie silks and jacket linings, which is exactly the register this one is pitched at.
Paisley Patches, Sage by Eijffinger
Paisley, Teal by Sketch Twenty 3
There is nothing cold or minimal about a paisley, which is rather the point. It is a pattern that rewards a closer look, its curling forms revealing more detail the longer you gaze.
"Paisley brings a room soul, and the sense of having been collected over time."
How and Where to Use It
Paisley suits a room you want to feel rich and enveloping. A large-scale design makes a warm, characterful statement in a bedroom, a study or a snug, and Annecy in Red, from Nina Campbell's Honfleur, is the one for it: a deep madder red that turns a whole room the colour of a good rug. A smaller, tighter paisley works beautifully as an all-over pattern instead, wrapping a room in intricate detail without raising its voice, and Paisley in Taupe, from Coordonné's Victorian, does that job, and is aptly named: the Victorian decades were exactly when the Paisley mills were at their height.
Annecy, Red by Nina Campbell
Paisley, Taupe by Coordonné
Paisley has a natural affinity with the layered, gently bohemian interior, at home among rugs, textiles and warm colour, but it can also bring a welcome shot of soul to a plainer, more restrained scheme. Keep the palette rich, jewel tones, warm reds, deep blues, and let the pattern set the mood. Look to Sanderson, Nina Campbell and Eijffinger for paisleys with genuine depth, and order a sample first to appreciate the intricacy properly in your own light.
One last note on how to use it, which the paisley makes easier than most patterns: it takes beautifully to being repeated in the room rather than only on the wall. Campania Paisley, from Anna French's Belvedere, is shown with a chair upholstered in the same design, and it works because the boteh here is drawn large and single, one clean teardrop rather than a dense field. That is the motif in its oldest and simplest form, which is a good place to leave it.
Two thousand years of history are folded into that little curling teardrop. Few patterns give a room quite so much to say.
Ready for a Little Soul?
Browse the full Paisley collection, or see where it sits among its neighbours in Ikat and Damask. If you are not sure how a jewel tone will read in your own light, our Sample Service lets you order a swatch of any design before you commit to a full roll.
Campania Paisley by Anna French
