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.”
Surface: New and Notable September 2021
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
New York Times: For Two Designers, a Onetime Collaboration Wasn’t Enough
When they first worked together, renovating a home that had once been a church, they never imagined they’d eventually get married there.
Design Milk: Calico Wallpaper Enlists Top Designers for New Gradient Collection
Calico Wallpaper unveiled a new collection of one-of-a-kind wallcoverings called Dawn designed in collaboration with top designers. Nick and Rachel Cope, co-founders of Calico Wallpaper, enlisted Ini Archibong, Sabine Marcelis, Dimorestudio and Neri&Hu to expand their signature collection, Aurora, with a series of gradient designs that aim to inspire hope and optimism during these challenging times.
New York Times Style Magazine: Colorful Wallpaper Inspired by the Horizon
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.
AD.com: Heart and Scallop Motifs Set the Scene at This New L.A. Restaurant
“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
Elle Decor Italy: Via Maroncelli Turns into a Design Journey from The United States to Brazil
During the 2019 Fuorisalone, a series of showrooms and pop-up exhibitions awaken the usually silent via Maroncelli, a few steps from the Feltrinelli Foundation. Among wallpapers with oversize feminine motifs, sculptural lights and furniture signed by Brazilian masters, here is a series of projects for which it is worth visiting this corner near the Brera Design District.
The second collaboration between Faye Toogood and Calico Wallpaper – a company based in Brooklyn (New York) specializing in fine wallpapers – gave birth to Muse (photo above), a fresh and spontaneous wall covering. The aesthetic and the distinctive color palette of the British designer animate a series of female silhouettes, each different from the other, which intertwine and dance on the walls of the space in Via Maroncelli 7, open on an inner courtyard. Founded in 2013 by Rachel and Nick Cope, Calico Wallpaper has developed a technique that allows the company to customize and apply Muse to any environment.
In the room adjacent to Calico there is the Still / Life exhibition created by the American lighting company Ladies & Gentlemen, in collaboration with MUD Australia, a Sydney-based brand specializing in ceramics. The long friendship and the shared aesthetic and design approach have led the two companies to jointly present their respective collections in a welcoming setting imagined by Jean Lee, co-founder of Ladies & Gentlemen. The delicate and sinuous curves of the Myrna series of lamps (the name is a tribute to the American Actress Myrna Loy, NDR) dialogue with the delicate porcelain collections of MUD Australia, handcrafted in a range of soft and opaque colors.
The Art Newspaper: In Pictures: must-see works at Design Miami
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.
Introducing Cope: Uniquely designed textiles and home goods
Rachel & Nick Cope, co-founders of Calico Wallpaper are excited to announce the launch of their new sister company Cope – a new brand of textiles. Under the family name of its founders, Cope represents a unique vision for the world of soft goods. The brand draws inspiration from nature, science, and the arts to bring unique expressions of essential forms into the home. Celebrating the creative process of art-making, Cope explores the past and preset. Looking through a lens of curiosity, experimentation with both technique and gesture brings the shape and pattern to life that comes out of this process.
Pillows, textile yardage, and samples are now available for purchase via the Cope website. All of our products are printed on a variation of 100% linen that has been made from flax sourced exclusively from the Flanders region or greater Europe. We are proud to have all of our design, printing, and finishing done in the United States.
NYT Style Magazine: New York’s Foremost Champion of American Design
Inside the apartment of David Alhadeff, whose gallery-cum-shop the Future Perfect has nurtured some of this country’s greatest designers…
Aurora Peat is shown above, wrapping the entirety of his master bedroom