June 4, 2025

Architectural Digest: Visiting the Calico Wallpaper Founders in Their Charming Upstate New York Abode

When visiting homes for sale in New York’s Hudson Valley, Rachel and Nick Cope, the married founders of the hit brand Calico Wallpaper, developed a code word to indicate, discreetly, that a house was the one—blueberry. It was the pandemic era and the then Brooklyn-based couple had set out to find their own slice of paradise, heeding the siren call of country living. An off-market listing in the town of Ghent promised to be just the refuge they were seeking for their young family. “It checked every box,” recalls Rachel, citing the property’s generous acreage, environmentally conscious construction, pond, and proximity to a like-minded school for their son and daughter. Blueberry.

The couple’s own designs have their place, of course, from the watercolor-like tableau that envelops the dining room to the gestural motifs of Nick’s office, which overlooks the backyard and nearby school. (“Even if the day is stressful he can see the kids playing,” says Rachel.) Still the couple exercised restraint in deploying Calico patterns, often turning to plaster finishes for walls. “They didn’t want it to feel like a showroom,” notes Stief.