“To me, the most surprising element of the space is the interplay between the representation of the sun setting against the evening sky through an arched opening and twilight wallpaper, and the placement of the lighting pendants over the bar as the sun path,” shares Ly. The team’s lighting design partner, Sighte Studio, brought to life the sun path using fixtures that curve and gradually drop toward the horizon line along the back wall, adding what Ly calls “a thoughtful layer of meaning, in a simple, singular move.” We predict the sun won’t set on this sweet spot anytime soon.

By: Carlene Olsen

Photography: Reid Rolls Photography

A guest-designed wallpaper collection by New York–based interior designer Kelly Behun, Sylvan was inspired by the interplay of the shadows cast by stark trees on snow-covered mountains.

By Kendra Jackson 

Calico Wallpaper unveiled Impression. An homage to the 19th century impressionist art movement, the ethereal design features a mottled brushstroke pattern in six muted colorways that change tones throughout the day depending on the light.

By Caroline Biggs

Theme: Don’t Fence Me In

The human yearning to be surrounded by nature translates to a proliferation of panoramic wallcoverings designed to bring the outdoors into both domestic and commercial spaces. Varied scenes allow rooms to be enveloped in any picturesque vista, ranging from lifelike renderings of the Savannah and hip, motion-blur woods to primordial forests and palm-laden tropical idylls. Designers are experimenting with top-down and bottom-up layouts, draping wisteria from the ceiling and planting meadows at the floor. Leaves continue to take real estate from florals with imaginative illustrations—both botanical papers and embroidery looks feel fresh

If ever there was a vantage point to watch how light changes throughout the span of the day, month, or year, it would from designer Kelly Behun’s New York City apartment (see it here). Behun brings her unique vision to a new perspective through a collaboration with Calico Wallpaper. Sylvan is a hand-painted landscape reflecting shadows that cast around abstracted trees on snowy mountains. The pattern captures a moment in time, bringing together landscape, light, and shadow. Each of the eight colorways evokes a hypnotic effect, much like how it is watching light play around you as the day passes on and the sun moves west.

By Caroline Williamson

Calico Wallpaper has always aimed to move art beyond the frame and into everyday spaces through vibrant custom-fit murals tailored to each interior. Even though Rachel Cope, who co-founded the Brooklyn-based brand with her husband, Nick, is an artist herself, the duo often brings other talents into the fold. (Previous collaborators: Faye Toogood, Meyer Davis, Sabine Marcelis, Ini Archibong, and even their daughter, Willow.) The latest is Kelly Behun, the lauded interior designer who, through a hands-on approach, devises artful yet inviting interiors layered with vintage design classics, collectible one-offs, and no shortage of sunlight.

By Ryan Waddoups

Designed by Kelly Behun for Calico, the Sylvan wallpaper features a hand painted pattern that showcases an interplay of light and shadow, and is available in eight colorways (shown in Shadow).

By Kathryn Greene

Photographs the AB Concept Ed Ng cofounder took of Karuizawa, in the Japanese Alps, were translated into wallpaper using various painting techniques that capture the landscape’s dreamy light and color.

Calico Wallpaper debuted a dreamy wallcovering collection called Sylvan by New York designer Kelly Behun. Available in seven earthy colorways, the atmospheric design is outfitted in a hand-illustrated landscape motif with undulating lines that mimic the shadows trees cast on snowcapped mountains.

By Caroline Biggs

It was serendipitous, really. Rachel Cope, cofounder of Calico Wallpaper, was toying with the idea of a scenic panorama—a departure from the maker’s largely abstract and painterly collections—when an undulating forest scene on Instagram stopped her mid-scroll. Posted by Ed Ng—founder of international design and architecture firm AB Concept—the snow-capped terrain (which happens to be the view from Ng’s back porch in Karuizawa, Japan) was calling for a large-scale canvas. Lightly reinterpreted with varied perspectives and artisan finishes, the coniferous sight now dons the Tableau wallpaper, available in 8 colors allusive of the changing seasons in the Japanese Alps.

Among Calico‘s impressive range of decorative wall coverings are numerous designs that find inspiration in art—from Glow, which translates Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell’s ethereal light installations into an otherworldly layer of translucent forms, to Reverie, an expressive pattern of painterly swashes by founders Nick and Rachel Cope’s young daughter, Willow. The brand has even directly rendered works by Fernando Mastrangelo and Daniel Arsham into wallpapers. For their latest pattern, Gesture, the designers looked to the bold paintings of Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock.

By Jill Sieracki

Perhaps the most prevalent combination of art and
architecture, wallcoverings provide a unique opportunity for
these two disciplines to intersect. As architects put up walls
to achieve a certain spatial experience, artful and carefully
selected wallcoverings serve as a powerful tool in adding
further depth and poignancy. Color, texture, and pattern
are just a few of the unique features you’ll notice in these
latest wallcovering products from a group of established
manufacturers as well as new faces in the industry. We’ve
even included a number of collaborations with artists who
work in a variety of fields—fashion, set design, drawing, and
more.

By Sophie Aliece Hollis

The Project Runway judge and bestselling author reflects on her family’s inspiring space

By Elaine Welteroth

Photography by Frank Frances

Rachel Nuwer and Paul Dix’s rooftop garden is home to bees, trees, crickets, and gamboling rabbit friends.

By Wendy Goodman

Photographs by Christian Torres

Featuring Oceania Siren, Microcosmos Crest, and Topographies Winter

Trends from the largest global design event, celebrating its 60th year.

By Aileen Kwun

After a year off due to the pandemic and a scaled-down iteration in September 2021, Milan’s Salone del Mobile — the international design fair that’s been held annually since 1961 — was back in full force last week. Beyond the trade show itself, which was packed with household names in the world of interiors, the Fuorisalone saw young creatives and smaller brands take over galleries, abandoned spaces and art hubs across the city with shows and installations, proposing new ideas for what our homes of tomorrow might look like.

Written by Marianna Cerini, CNN

AB Concept teamed up with Calico Wallpaper to create a serene wallcovering collection inspired by the changing seasons of the Japanese Alps

The Milan Furniture Fair (or Salone Internationale del Mobile) rebounded in a big way after two years that included a downsized show in September and a canceled one in 2020. The event usually takes place in April, but Salone president Maria Porro pushed the comeback to June, which resulted in even more anticipation for the design world’s biggest exhibition. Here are some standouts I saw at the sprawling, citywide showcase.

By Wendy Goodman

Calico Wallpaper

The New York-based wallpaper outfit founded by Rachel and Nick Cope has long been inspired by global art practices, including traditional ones from Japan and Turkey. Their newest endeavor, Glow, is inspired by artists closer to home-including Light and Space legend (and California native) James Turrell. Squint and you can see vast fields of pale-colored bands gracing the wallpaper designs. Six colorways include the pink-tinted Flame and the gray-and-mauve Gleam, as well as Lumen, Flume, Crosslight, and Blend. The product was created by experimenting with collage, mixing vellum and translucent Lucite, to create a distinctive and welcoming play of light and pattern.

Spring Market Tabloid (Print) — May 31, 2022

Discover the 60th edition of Salone del Mobile (7 – 12 June 2022) and what to see in Milan during Fuorisalone 2022 (from 5 June 2022) with our ongoing report as the events of the week unfold.

By ROSA BERTOLI

The AD100 architect joins forces with Calico Wallpaper for a historically-inspired collaboration

Thanks to digital printing, full-scale wall murals are now almost as accessible as the repeating patterns of yore.  Calico Wallpaper, for instance, creates artful, abstract motifs rich with atmosphere that never repeat.  The company’s latest introductions include designs resembling supersize wood grain, paintbrush strokes, and free-form paper cutouts as well as washes of color evoking gauzy clouds and electric sunsets.

In the context of the Venice canal area—which is known for its anything-goes fashion scene, graffiti art, and quirky architecture (their neighbor’s facade has dog heads painted on it)—saturating the former beige and gray space in expressive shades of turquoise, pink, and green just made sense. Plus the homeowner, a former artist, has an unwavering opinion about the value of color. “It really has to satisfy my emotional palette,” she says.

That fascination with “odd” chromatic combinations stems from her artist days: Many of her hard-edge paintings, which can be found throughout the house, were grounds for experimentation. And so covering the stairs and kitchen walls in Calico’s gradient Aurora wallpaper turned the space into something special.

The same treatment makes an appearance in the main bedroom, this time in a wispy blue version that speaks to the aqua headboard (the bespoke tufted piece was inspired by the equally chunky sofa downstairs). Yellow was a natural jumping-off point from there, but Ayromloo still felt like the room needed a third hue. “Pink came into the picture because it just softened everything up,” she says. “Why throw in something muted when all the other rooms are so saturated?”

This month’s Designer Desktop is a collaboration between long time favorite Calico Wallpaper and their guest, French designer Sam Baron. Titled Noir, the new wallpaper design is an exploration in refined restraint and essential materials. Paper, paint and brush were the only tools used in the creation of Noir, resulting in the detailed broad brushstrokes that characterize the collection. Noir is also inspired by French artist Pierre Soulages and his famous “Outrenoir” style that highlights the endless depth that the color black produces, which the artist sees “both as a color and a non-color. When light is reflected on black, it transforms and transmutes it. It opens a mental field all on its own.”

Featuring Noir in Velvet

Following their moody Noir collection, the Brooklyn-based wallpaper brand chronicles the ephemeral nature of the ever-changing sky in its latest launch titled Atmosphere. The eight-part series channels atmospheric clouds and abstracts their hues into a medley of hand-painted scenes that take inspiration from the amorous works of artist J.M.W. Turner.

Featuring our Atmosphere collection

When they first worked together, renovating a home that had once been a church, they never imagined they’d eventually get married there.

Featuring our collection Overgrow in Alice

When Calico Wallpaper founders Rachel and Nick Cope designed their Aurora collection, consisting of 16 different multicolored ombrés, in 2013, they drew on memories of the various horizons they’d seen on their extensive travels — from seascapes in Tulum to sunsets in Tuscany. Stuck in their New York home last year, the couple found a new way to bring a global perspective to their work: They invited four international design studios to craft their own Aurora prints, each one just as personal as the originals.

“When designing clothes, you always think about the space the person would be in,” says Humberto Leon, cofounder of cult fashion brand Opening Ceremony and former creative director of Kenzo. With his latest venture, a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles named Chifa after the popular fusion food, he’s realized that space. And, oh, what a world it is: From heart-shaped windows to zebra-print wallpaper to scalloped tables and wavy flatware, his cool, colorful stamp is everywhere…”

Our Heartwood Collection, made in collaboration with Humberto Leon, is featured in the photos above wrapping the entire restaurant in a custom color.

Photography by Jarod Wang

The New York-based gallery Friedman Benda’s stand is a zen-like space in the middle of the bustling fair. Fluttering marbled fabric, designed by Calico Wallpaper, encloses a contemporary take on the traditional Japanese rock garden.