About this pattern
Pimpernel was registered as a wallpaper by William Morris in 1876. Each sheet was printed by hand from carved woodblocks in distemper colors, and the design belongs to the run of large, richly colored papers he had started the year before with Acanthus. Morris chose it for the dining room of Kelmscott House, his London home. A specimen from his first pattern book survives in the V&A (E.499-1919).
This colorway softens the big flower heads to blush, setting them among sage and slate-blue leaves with cream buds and curling stems. The field is so full that the pale ground barely shows, which gives the wall a gentle, upholstered feel. In a bedroom the pink warms the light at dusk without ever turning sugary. Try it in a dressing room too, where the large repeat looks generous behind a mirror, or a nursery that needs color without cartoons.
See all William Morris wallpaper designs