Victorian Wallpaper

Victorian wallpapers: old-master bouquets on pure black, burgundy grounds packed with chrysanthemums, mirrored damasks in sage and claret, and a parrot among oversized blooms. Dark and crowded, with that Victorian refusal to leave a gap anywhere. We print each one to order.

Choosing Victorian wallpaper

Where it works

Victorian pattern was made for rooms with tall windows, deep skirting and furniture that stays put, and it still likes them best. A dining room. A front parlour or a study, or a bedroom with a proper headboard. Put Midnight Bouquet or Painted Bouquet on a dining-room wall and the black ground falls away until the room is a box of lit flowers. Lamps with these, never spotlights. For a bedroom or a landing, lighten the ground rather than the pattern. The cream and grey grounds (Speckled Sparrow, say, or Plum Tapestry) carry all that density and the walls still don't lean in on you.

Picking between the designs

Roughly three families live here. The bouquets are the painterly ones, blooms lit from one side against black or burgundy, and Wine Chrysanthemum and Burgundy Sunflower belong with the two above. Then the damasks, mirrored, and they want you to see the repeat. Claret Damask is the obvious one. Leafy, Teal and Silver Damask follow the same plan, with Sage Camellia and Rose Medallion not far off. And the birds. Black Parrot sits in the middle of coral and magenta blooms, looking pleased with itself, while Butterfly Peony has striped butterflies on olive-taupe. Speckled Sparrow and Bluebird Fence make up the rest of the flock. Want the weight without all that red? White Anemone keeps the black ground and the pale foliage and leaves the reds out.

Related

The mirrored designs also sit in damask wallpaper. The dark bouquets turn up again under moody floral wallpaper, and the parrot and sparrows in bird wallpaper. What is Victorian maximalism gets into the era's more-is-more thinking.