The palm has always meant more than a tree. To the ancient world it was a symbol of victory and triumph, its fronds strewn before heroes. To the traveller it has forever signalled the oasis, the promise of shade and water and rest. And in the twentieth century it became the very emblem of leisure and glamour, from the potted palms of the grand hotel Palm Court to the banana leaf drama of Hollywood at its most golden.
To put a palm on the wall is to invoke all of that: warmth, ease, and a life lived somewhere sunnier. There is also a simple, sculptural beauty to the palm leaf, its clean arching lines as elegant as any pattern in decoration. Here is where the romance comes from, and the designs on the site that carry it best.
"The palm has always signalled the good life: warmth, ease, and somewhere sunnier."
The Palm as Paradise
The gentlest versions treat the palm as a drawing rather than a statement, and one of them names the method in the design. Plein Air Palms in Green, from Lemieux Et Cie by York Wallcoverings, borrows the Impressionists' own term for painting outdoors and lives up to it, with fronds and stems built from loose artistic brushstrokes in organic greens on white. Miso in Yellow, from Rima by Tres Tintas, takes the palm somewhere else entirely, setting it with magnolia blossom and figures drawn from Japanese culture over a brushed fabric ground. And Palm Print in Cream, from Next SS26, is the airiest of the three, watercolour fronds in ocean blue on a soft cream that reads as coastal rather than tropical.
Plein Air Palms, Green by York Wallcoverings
Miso, Yellow by Tres Tintas
Palm Print, Cream by Next
Effortless Glamour
The palm sits at a happy crossroads of two enduring appetites: the biophilic love of greenery, and the eternal glamour of the tropical resort look. That is why it never quite goes out of style. Veraneo in Noir, from Coco Dávez Colortherapills by Coordonné, is the most glamorous thing here by a distance, gold palms ranked like columns against black, and its name is the Spanish word for the summer holiday itself. Palmera in Verdant, from Wild by Ohpopsi, is the opposite temperament, trailing leaves in a painterly green that generates real movement across a wall.
Veraneo, Noir by Coordonné
Palmera, Verdant by Ohpopsi
"A palm design is elegant and holiday-light at once: a permanent holiday on the wall."
How and Where to Use It
Palm and leaf designs are wonderfully versatile. A bold, large scale palm makes a glamorous statement in a bathroom, a bedroom or a hallway, and looks especially striking in the classic combination of deep green on white, while a softer, more scattered leaf print brings a fresh, airy calm to almost any room. It is a natural choice for a bright, sunny space or one that opens onto a garden, and it brings a welcome lift to a windowless cloakroom that could do with some greenery.
Keep the surroundings crisp and simple and let the green do the work, pairing it with rattan, natural textures and a few real plants. Look to Matthew Williamson, Harlequin and Clarke & Clarke for palm and leaf designs from the elegant to the exuberant, and order a sample first to judge those greens in your own light.
It is, in short, a permanent holiday on the wall, and who could argue with that.
Not every palm has to announce itself. Congo in Forest, from Sanctuary by Boutique, keeps the leaf and drops the volume, a tonal sage that wraps an arched alcove without shouting once. It is a heavyweight vinyl, which is why it suits a hallway or anywhere that takes a knock.
Congo, Forest by Boutique
Ready for a Little Paradise?
Browse the full Palm Trees & Leaves collection, or narrow it down in Tropical, Jungle and Botanical.
