Mid-Century Modern Wallpaper

Nine mid-century wallpapers, and not a boomerang among them. Stacked rectangles in blue and olive, rounded squares shuffled through greys and coral, half moons on salmon, rings on petrol blue linen, paddlers in conical hats. The colours are 1950s, the drawing is by hand.

Choosing mid-century modern wallpaper

Where it works

These designs are built for flat modern rooms: a home office, a hallway with a plain floor, a bedroom with teak or walnut furniture. Linear Block pulls the eye upward with its vertical bars, so it suits a low-ceilinged room. Rounded Squares and Half Moon are the calm ones, two or three close tones with soft edges, and they work behind a bed or along a corridor without shouting. Teal Geometric, cream and ochre rings on dark petrol blue, is the evening choice, for a den or a dining room.

Picking between the designs

Pick by shape first. Grids and bars: Linear Block and Retro Check, where slate blue and chocolate bands cross and blur into each other. Circles: Teal Geometric and Half Moon. Rounded rectangles: Rounded Squares and Orange Geometric, burnt orange ovals on off-white linen, the warmest thing here. The two outliers are Sky Stripe, glossy sky-blue bands that bend into hairpin arches, and Geometric Paddlers, angular figures in conical hats holding rust-red paddles on sage green, the one to choose if you want a story on the wall rather than a pattern. Black Wave, rows of hatched swells in ink, is the only one without colour.

Related

The wider set of shapes is in geometric wallpaper and the looser, painted ones in abstract wallpaper; the warm end continues in orange wallpaper. For how a repeating grid is built, read What is a tessellating pattern.