Presenting an unusual wallpaper border that reflects both the current wall fashion and the use of new technology. This paper border is embossed and die-cut, with many open or pierced areas within the design. The border consists of large bunches of purple grapes hanging on the vine with green-colored foliage. The vine is suspended from...
As the holidays draw near and decorations go up we begin to see the traditional hues of red and green, and their counterparts, silver and gold, appear around every corner. In accordance with this timing, it is appropriate to examine wallpapers that really exemplify this vein. Ceiling papers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth...
I always get a kick out of this wallpaper with its humor, its play on traditional design, and its spunk. Who would have thought the lowly meatball could be elevated to star status on a wallpaper? It’s unexpected to find a meatball slapped on a wall, outside of a food fight, and rather a new...
Whatever would William Morris think? How would he feel seeing how this clever sidewall takes his beloved wallpaper design (the first he ever created) and stylizes it into a series of dots? Whether it brings to mind the Ben Day dots used in comic books or an LED display, the result seems to have been...
William Morris wallpapers are quite extraordinary on several counts. Morris designs are all quite striking, even the patterns printed in a single color. Morris started designing wallpapers in the 1860s and most of these patterns are still being produced today. That says a lot about the appeal of his designs. Cooper Hewitt collection contains most,...
Landscape views have always been a popular theme on wallpaper, and with good reason. For the urban migration during the Industrial Revolution it allowed people to bring some country with them. For rooms with few windows or no view, the wallpapers provided one. The trompe l’oeil aspect of landscape papers also visually enlarged the size...
This week’s entries are dedicated to objects featured in the exhibition Thom Browne Selects, currently on view at Cooper Hewitt through October 23, 2016. Rombico is a recent acquisition to the museum’s permanent collection. I had begun a search for hologram wallpapers and after a few internet searches came across this paper by Osborne &...
In the early 1970s, “bright” was the name of the wallpaper game. Pop art and Op art influences from post-war decades coupled with new and improved printing techniques meant that a plethora of attention-grabbing patterns were put in production by wallcovering companies large and small. This trippy pattern was designed in 1972 by Getulio Alviani...
Many of the wallcoverings in the Cooper Hewitt’s collection were created by designers better known for their work in the fine arts. This sidewall, c. 1927, was designed by Charles Burchfield, a much-loved American watercolorist. A mint-green trellis embellished with cross-hatching divides the panel into regular diamond-shaped cells. Each cell contains a stencil-like image of...
