Vintage Wallpaper
Vintage wallpaper has the softness of age about it: archive florals, faded chintzes, old botanical prints and storybook scenes, many of them reproduced from original documents rather than merely inspired by the past. It is a gentler look than retro wallpaper, which belongs to the bold graphic shapes of the sixties and seventies. Vintage is about patina and nostalgia, the feeling of a room that has been loved for a long time.
The Morris & Co archive is the richest seam. Pure Honeysuckle and Tulip in Pure Morris North was reproduced from an 1876 document, Snakeshead was first produced in 1876, and Blackthorn, by J.H. Dearle, dates to 1892. Montreal, in Archive IV, takes its trailing florals from a Dearle carpet of the 1890s. GP & J Baker's Original Brantwood and Sanderson's Curios bring the same sense of an old pattern book.
Vintage need not be grand. Cath Kidston's designs come from archive prints, with Cowgirls among the best loved, and they suit a kitchen, a child's room or a cosy spare bedroom.
Pair a vintage paper with classic and traditional designs or a pretty floral wallpaper. For more ideas, read The Beauty of the Well-Worn and The Naturalist's Wall on Decorating Notes.
