Red Wallpaper

When William Morris designed Strawberry Thief in 1883, it became the first of his indigo discharge prints to add red to the blue, using a dye called alizarin. Acanthus also came out in a reddish brown colouring alongside the green. Our red Morris wallpapers are Strawberry Thief Red, Acanthus Red, Persian Red and Hidden Treasures, his Vine pattern on a deep russet ground.

See all William Morris wallpaper designs

Choosing red wallpaper

Where it works

Deep red belongs in a dining room first and a study second, and it looks its best by lamplight. Burgundy Sunflower packs its burgundy ground so tightly that the whole wall reads as one warm textile (Wine Chrysanthemum does the same), which is kind to a room where people sit all evening. Got a kitchen or a bedroom with real daylight? Go cream-ground instead. Trailing Fuchsia hangs crimson bells on ivory, and so does Garnet Fuchsia. Painted Cherries saves its red for the fruit.

Picking between the designs

How much of the wall do you want red? Ivory Damask and Garnet Peony are red on red. Scrolling acanthus sits a shade off the ground, the flowers picked out in ivory or gold, and from across the room it looks like plain deep red with a sheen on it. Burgundy Sunflower and Maroon Flora keep the red ground too, then bury most of it under flowers and leaves. Morris's Acanthus Red and Strawberry Thief Red are the loud pair. Tomato and raspberry, not wine. Neither one needs dark furniture to hold a room. Then there's Gold Artichoke, the odd one out, with crimson thistle heads caught in a teal cage of leaves, more gothic than Victorian. We'd put it in a hallway, or behind a bar.

Related

The dark-ground florals overlap with moody floral wallpaper. The scrolling ones cross over into damask wallpaper, and the cherries and pears into fruit wallpaper. Not sure what makes a damask a damask? What is damask explains it.