Join a stylish interior today and the chances are good that you can see a touch of history on the walls. From romantic flowers to elegant women and bucolian wallpapers, the old global paper returns a great and graceful return. Once a license plate of mansions and European countries, these abundantly detailed patterns record houses with newly discovered relevance and charm.
In order to explore this revival, we turned to Paula Taylor, Senior Stylist and Trend specialist at Graham & Brown, James Yarosh, interior designer and gallery owner by James Yarosh Associates and Jennifer Dalorio, Content -Marketing Manager for York Design Group. Together they unzip why these timeless prints swing back on how today's flavors reinterpret them and how they can bring their character stimulation into their own space.
- Paula Taylor is the senior stylist and trend specialist at Graham & Brown, a British brand and leading interior in wallpaper.
- James Yarosh is an artist and senior interior design and gallery owner of James Yarosh Associates, an art gallery and interior design.
- Jennifer Dalorio Is the content marketing manager for York Design Group, a manufacturer
What should know about the trend
“Old-World Wallpaper typically refers to patterns that are from classic European design traditions support-damass, effort, baroque flowers, architectural etchings and pastoral vignettes,” explains Taylor. These motifs, she states, often date from the 18th and 19th centuries, as wallpaper as a luxurious decorative art and a medium for storytelling, which reflects cultural efforts and intellectual ideas. “Today we bring back this art medicine, but with modern tools and sensitives.”
“At the moment there is a collective desire for comfort, character and connection to the past-and the old world wallpaper delivers all three,” says Taylor, who has an impact on the impulses behind the resuscitation. After years of minimalism and contemporary, dependent interiors, people are looking for depth, storytelling and art in their interiors. “Background images with historical motifs such as pastoral scenes, classic landscapes or complicated women offer an immediate feeling of tradition and timelessness that feels deeply on the floor in today's fast -moving world.”
This return to tradition is not just nostalgic. In a fast -moving, digital and uncertain world, wallpapers offer both emotional and sensory postponement. “People reacted to the current world context by making their houses as comfortable and personally as possible,” says Dalorio. “There is great comfort to accept familiar patterns, especially those that remind us of childhood houses or family heirs.” Even if the era is not the case that we have lived through, these designs remind a feeling of warmth, security and romanticized stability.
How designers modernize history
While these background images come from history, today's designers give them their new life. “One of the most effective possibilities, as designer revitalize old prints, is the color,” says Daltorio. “Jewel tones such as Burgundy and Pflaum embody the drama that the classics have always maintained, and at the same time offer updated wealth and satiety, which feels significantly fresh and modern.”
The scale is another important modernization tool. Traditional prints are enlarged to create brave, graphic statements and a gallery-like presence. “A greater floral pressure feels dramatic and fresh, while more structured designs such as blockprints make a wonderful addition on a smaller scale,” says Daltorio. Taylor agrees and uses the Graham & Brown Tate collection as an example. “Our murals from Tate X Graham & Brown accept classic works and reorganize them for modern houses so that customers can experience the story in a fresh, accessible way,” she says. “It's not about replicating the past, it's about reinterpreting it.”
The texture also plays a crucial role. From grass loop and linen-look surfaces to mats and glowing effects, new wallpaper substrates soften formal designs and introduce tactile, modern quality. “Homeowners can choose surfaces that correspond to their personal style, whether the traditional or modernity,” says Taylor. “With this versatility, art in the old world can feel fresh, urgently and completely at home in today's interiors.”
Tell new stories with old prints
For Yarosh, the historical wallpaper is not about reproducing the past. It is about laying it sensibly into the present. “The design of a room that interweaves historical references alongside new elements creates deep and visual interest,” he says. “Patterns are added to storytelling devices and joining a room.”
A project in one of Yarosh's NYC Apartment projects illustrates this approach. An oversized Heron print from Gucci on a retro pink background forms a striking focus that is compensated for by the clean geometry of the skyline of Manhattan. “It caused the spirit of the cocktail culture of the 1920s and contributed to determining the tone for the entertainment,” he notes. Elsewhere in the apartment, a small Hermès mosaic wallpaper gives the city's grid lines and creates a visual bridge between the interior and outside.
How to use old-world wallpaper today
If you plan to show an old-world wallpaper as a visual anchor of a room, Dalorio recommends that you lead the pressure to lead the rest of your design and to keep the surrounding elements subtly and coherent. “Select your color palette based on the wallpaper, pull out either colors from the design or for more monotonic patterns to choose complementary tones to round off the remaining room,” she says. “Accent patterns should contrast on the scale in order to keep the appearance overlaid, but not chaotic.”
Due to the contrast, traditional and modern patterns and furniture feel deliberately curated and unique. “Equality is everything,” says Taylor. “If we work with a detailed mural or a wallpaper, we recommend combining you with clean furniture, natural materials and layered textures such as linen or velvet.” Dalorio agrees and recommends that strong wallpaper prints with a few moments of calm to balance through solid colors and negative space so that the pattern can really be valued. “The structure in this contrast increases the effects and intentionality of courageous selection.”
This means that if you worry about the contrast between your decor and wallpaper, which is too strong, Dalorio suggests “bridging” the epochs by overlapping vintage accessories such as lamps or decorative pieces of jewelry under the modern furniture. “These details expand the ambience of their wallpaper throughout the room and create a feeling of visual cohesion.”
Wallpaper samples are your best friend you explore full room wallpapers, Dalorio recommends ordering a sample for each wall to compare what it looks like all day. “Leave your wallpaper samples for at least a week and make your selection of intestinal incentives,” she says.
Paul Costello
Where old -haul wallpaper works best
Historically speaking, wallpaper started with the taste of steps and modest rooms of commercial houses. Five centuries and designers closed the circle and returned to small, utilitarian rooms to make large decorative statements. “Bathroom is the perfect place for dramatic wallpaper,” says Yarosh. “Damask and panorama designs soften hard surfaces such as tiles and porcelain and transform a fundamental need into an unexpected experience for the guests.”
Home offices also benefit from the old world wallpaper. “The size that lends these styles gives the room a feeling of self -meaning that inspires it to work there, and the unmistakable appearance helps visually to separate the work from home,” says Dalorio.
“These patterns work best where bold design can be intended rather than feels out of place,” summarizes Taylor. For them, the bedroom and dining rooms benefit, especially from romance and visual depth that offer these prints. “We even saw how you applied on blankets – which we like to call the fifth wall – add with a striking effect and an unexpected sense of size.”
Will the trend take?
Does this trend have a utilization? Our experts think that. “I see the wallpapers of the old world as a permanent movement. While the visual language could develop, the desire to surround us with importance, history and beauty will not change. If we bring ourselves to our houses with the old wallpaper, we can have a way to live with culture every day.”
Yarosh reflects this feeling: “With today's focus on personal interiors, the lifespan of a” trend “has stretched-but the old wallpaper was never just a trend,” he says. “These designs have been so long for centuries and they took so long because they pass the test of the time. Beautiful is beautiful.”