Brand McKenzie built its name on wallpaper with a sense of humour, and Viva Vintage might be the most fully realised expression of it yet. Ten designs make up the collection, each one a small, impeccably dressed drama: dogs deal cards in a velvet-lined casino, crabs throw a party under a seaside pavilion, a whole circus balances on high wires above the clouds, and a grand old house runs its own gossip and glamour up the wall. It is nostalgia with the rose tinted glasses removed, playful rather than twee, and every design is printed to order in the United Kingdom on non-woven paper.
A House Full of Small Dramas
Heritage House, pictured below, sets the tone for the whole collection. It is a grand, ornate townhouse rendered in teal and pink, its balconies packed with tiny figures mid-scene: a maid on the stairs, a couple on a balcony, someone practising ballet in a first-floor window. Look closely and you find a new detail every time, which is really the point of every design in Viva Vintage. These are papers built to be read as much as looked at.
Heritage House, Lagoon by Brand McKenzie
The rest of the collection sends its characters further afield. In Canine Cards, a table of impeccably dressed dogs deal hands of poker under low lamplight, martinis in paw. In Wired, an entire big top's worth of performers, tigers, zebras, tightrope walkers, balances above a sea of clouds. Both are shown here as they were meant to be seen, papering an entire wall rather than sitting quietly as an accent.
Canine Cards, Casino Blue by Brand McKenzie
Wired, Kaleidoscope by Brand McKenzie
Crab Cabana takes the seaside in a more architectural direction, its bowler-hatted crabs dancing under a run of scalloped arches, while Ocean Waves goes properly nautical, mermaids and tall ships and diving whales rendered in a moody charcoal blue. Both prove the collection is not just one joke told ten times: the humour changes register from design to design, from a kitchen-friendly cabana scene to something almost painterly enough for a formal hallway.
Crab Cabana, Olive Grove by Brand McKenzie
Ocean Waves, Charcoal Drift by Brand McKenzie
Beyond these four, Tally Ho! sends a very dapper goose out for a spin in a vintage sports car, Sky Fair conjures a whole vintage funfair, and Showtime, Resisting Arrest and Cabin Class each dress their own cast of characters for a night at the theatre, a spot of amateur detective work, and a rather glamorous journey abroad. It is a collection built for a room that wants to start a conversation rather than sit quietly in the background: a downstairs loo, a stairwell, a playroom, anywhere a bit of theatre is welcome.
Behind Viva Vintage: How the Designs Are Made
Every one of these characters starts life on paper rather than a screen. The studio's process is proper hand-painted illustration: watercolour and gouache, real brushes, sketchbooks fanned out across the desk. The Tally Ho! goose gets his green sports car built up in careful washes of colour, and the Cabin Class characters, a bespectacled leopard among them, are painted portrait by portrait long before they ever become a repeat. It is a slower, more considered way of working than most wallpaper design today, and it shows in the finished paper: every character keeps a hand-drawn warmth that a purely digital illustration rarely manages.
Painting Canine Cards
Painting Tally Ho!
Painting Cabin Class
Because every design is printed to order, delivery takes a little longer than an off-the-shelf paper, and the finished roll is not returnable, so it is worth ordering a sample first. Given how much detail is packed into each repeat, a sample is also the best way to see the characters properly before they go up on a whole wall.
Ready to Meet the Cast?
Browse the full Viva Vintage collection by Brand McKenzie, and order a sample from any product page via our Sample Service before you commit to a room.
