Wallpaper

A wealth of design inspiration for any home: wallpaper styles to suite every taste, from nostalgic floral prints to playful retro revivals. While it has long been an essential element of interior decor, wallpaper is currently experiencing a creative boom. This everyday material has always reflected social shifts as well as changing fashions, and now designers everywhere are rediscovering its versatility, using it to achieve a variety of imaginative effects. It can add texture, warmth, wit, or personality to any space, becoming a tranquil backdrop or a striking conversation piece. A room may be papered with a profusion of patterns, or a wallpaper mural can make a bold statement, even blurring the boundaries between design and art installation. This book explores the art of wallpaper from its historical beginnings to the present day. Beginning with the handcrafted papiers peints of the eighteenth century through the Arts and Crafts movement, modernism, and Pop art, it traces the influences behind today’s popular motifs and showcases a dazzling selection of the very best in contemporary wallpaper. Some designers are reviving and reinventing traditional craft techniques while others embrace the latest in digital printing technology, even incorporating glow-in-the-dark effects or LED lights.

A wordless picture book about using imagination to overcome shyness

She has just given birth to their child. He labels her postpartum depression as »hysteria.« He rents the attic in an old country house. Here, she is to rest alone – forbidden to leave her room. Instead of improving, she starts hallucinating, imagining herself crawling with other women behind the room's yellow wallpaper. And secretly, she records her experiences. The Yellow Wall-Paper [1892] is the short but intense, Gothic horror story, written as a diary, about a woman in an attic – imprisoned in her gender; by the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist novella was long overlooked in American literary history. Nowadays, it is counted among the classics. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860–1935), born in Hartford, Connecticut, was an American feminist theorist, sociologist, novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright. Her writings are precursors to many later feminist theories. With her radical life attitude, Perkins Gilman has been an inspiration for many generations of feminists in the USA. Her most famous work is the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper [1892], written when she suffered from postpartum psychosis.

Wallpaper was initially used as an affordable substitute for lavish coverings, such as frescoes, tapestries, leathers, or hangings. Its current form debuted in sixteenth-century England, and its popularity took off at the end of the eighteenth century following advances in reproduction techniques. Wallpaper transformed the world of interiors, offering depth and perspective, creating the illusion of panoramic vistas, and incorporating narrative sequences, collections of engravings, or brief morality or history lessons. It eventually developed into the wide range of styles that have marked four centuries of decorative art, from Raphael to conceptual art, and from frescoes to photography. This stunning contribution to wallpaper’s current revival offers a comprehensive review of a savoir faire that continues to thrive.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

"Wear poetry as both perfume and armor." In Turning to Wallpaper, lush, elegant language contrasts with the disturbing and at times gruesome imagery to create a collection that knows exactly how to haunt the reader. Wong’s words and artistry are vibrant with color, richly textured, defiant, and unapologetic in their boldness. Her speaker undertakes a spiritual journey of remembrance that transcends body, tradition, and even nation in the pursuit of authentic art—art that is constructed using radical acceptance of the past as a means to leave it all behind. This is a story where no wounds are softened or left unconfronted. Unconcerned with conventional beauty, it is undeniably beautiful.

We agonise and argue when choosing it; we admire, compliment and criticise it (or keep politely quiet about it); and the rest of the time we don't even notice it. Wallpaper has been the backdrop to our homes for hundreds of years. It can make a house feel cosy or trendy, modern or traditional, and it is one of the key elements of home décor through which to express personal taste. Despite the threat from plain-painted minimalism, wallpaper maintains a strong presence in modern domestic decoration. Zoë Hendon traces the history of wallpaper in Britain and its foremost designers, examining how social mobility and new technologies have influenced design trends. From early Chinoiserie, through William Morris and on to the 'feature wall', this book looks at wallpaper's surprisingly controversial place in shaping our sense of home.

Featuring the latest designs and expert advice for creating beautiful room schemes this season.