Architectural Digest: Designer Kelly Behun and Calico Wallpaper Launch a New Luminous Collection

Inspired by light and shadow, the AD100 designer delves into a new medium.

“We all know firsthand how light affects us,” reflects Kelly Behun, who has investigated the delicate dance between sun and shadow in interiors and products alike. The AD100 designer’s latest collections, created in collaboration with Calico Wallpaper, continue that exploration while culling her own life experience. The Sylvan pattern evokes childhood recollections of tall birch trees casting long shadows on the snowy slopes of Pennsylvania, where she grew up skiing. The Bask motif, on the other hand, depicts light filtering through slatted structures, raising the feeling of basking in the sun. Both feature a range of warm tones to showcase the therapeutic and mood-elevating capacities of color. “It’s a high bar to come up with patterns that make a statement and conjure an emotion when you walk into a room,” says Behun, who observes a seemingly aural sensation in spaces that work. “I want people to feel that almost vibration that happens.”

Design Milk: Kelly Behun Adds a Dance of Landscape, Light, and Shadow to Wallpaper

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 WallpaperSylvan 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

Surface: This Wallpaper Captures Light and Shadow’s Hypnotic Dance

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 ToogoodMeyer DavisSabine MarcelisIni 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

Interior Design: Fall Market Tabloid – Tableau

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.

Architectural Digest: 10 Design Collabs We’re Loving Right Now

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.

Galerie: The Artful Life: 5 Things Galerie Editors Love This Week

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

AN Interior: Wallcoverings

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

Curbed: Bunny Heaven in Williamsburg

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

CNN Style: Post-pandemic home design trends reflect a need for more fluidity and nature

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

Curbed: What Wendy Goodman Loved at This Year’s Milan Furniture Fair

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

Interior Design: In Shape: Spring Market Tabloid

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

Surface: Every Object in Bari Ziperstein’s Colorful New Studio Carries Meaning

With the help of emerging firm Foss Hildreth, the in-demand ceramicist unveils an expanded production facility and showroom for her burgeoning Los Angeles studio that’s outfitted with slick ‘70s Italian furnishings and sentimental objects from her favorite local makers.

BY RYAN WADDOUPS

Photography by Laure Joliet

ELLE Decor: Whimsical Wallpaper is Making a Comeback. Are You Ready?

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.

Domino: Rainbow Rooms: Jessica Ayromloo’s Venice California Project

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?”

Business of Home: New and Noteworthy Designs December 2021

Calico Wallpaper debuted a dreamy collection of ombré wallcoverings called Colorwash. Inspired by the gradient colors of the sky on a cloudy day, the wallpaper comes in eight soothing colorways, ranging from a sunny golden yellow named Arise to the earthy dusk-colored Transcend.

Wallpaper*: New York Design Week 2021 Highlights

The veteran design studio Meyer Davis unveils two collaborations with Stellar Works and Calico Wallpaper this week. Launched together under Meyer Davis’ product label William Gray, the new offerings include a pair of bespoke wallcoverings – the botanically inspired ‘Wilds’ design and the more collage-driven ‘Ephemera’ pattern – that are displayed alongside pieces from the brand’s existing furniture collection with Stellar Works. Transforming Stellar Works’ New York showroom into an evocative living room setting, the warm and eclectic display is hospitality at its best.

ELLE Decor: FORGET THE ’BURBS: THIS DESIGN-MINDED FAMILY FOUND LAID-BACK LIVING RIGHT IN NEW YORK CITY

At first glance, Rachel and Nicholas Cope’s New York home—with its stately front porch, tidy lawn, and statuesque dogwood tree—has all the hallmarks of an idyllic suburban retreat. But the six-bedroom residence isn’t located in a Hudson Valley hamlet or nestled in the bucolic wilds of the Catskills. Instead, it’s situated on a quiet street in Brooklyn, just five minutes from Prospect Park and a short subway ride from Manhattan.

The Copes, who purchased the house in 2019, had previously been living in a loft above a grocery store in Red Hook. The industrial enclave by the Brooklyn waterfront is where they first hatched their business, Calico Wallpaper, which turns out fashionably bespoke wallcoverings in an extensive array of patterns that range from the whimsical to the otherworldly.

AN Interior: Better Together: Calico Wallpaper and Stellar Works co-retail in New York’s storied Pearl Paint building

Many months in the making, the new flagship of Stellar Works and Calico Wallpaper outpost has opened in the historic Tribeca building once occupied by the beloved, long-defunct Pearl Paint art supply store. Both illustrious design brands—often grabbing headlines with their dynamic wares—decided to join forces late last year and adopt the now popular co-retail model. The mutual benefits of this approach are wide-reaching, especially in the post-pandemic climate. While Calico Wallpaper continues to produce sought-after hand-painted collections, Stellar Works’s high-profile collaborations grow its already robust offering of well-crafted, soberly-styled furniture and lighting. Transforming 4,000 square feet of post-industrial Italianate storefront was a labor of love.
Images by Matthew Williams

Design Milk: Designer Desktop Wallpaper September 2021

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

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

dezeen: Ten Joyful Interiors with Decorative Printed Wallpaper

Brooklyn studios, Workstead and Calico Wallpaper teamed up to create this installation inside New York’s Arcade Bakery, which was also designed by Workstead. The abstract Relic wallpaper was used to decorate the bakery’s cosy alcoves and features a mixture of sheer tissue paper and metallic and matte elements.

Contrasted against the bakery’s marble floors and wooden panelling, the wallpaper adds a sunny splash of colour that is still in keeping with the historic 1929 building.

Curbed: A Design Exhibit of Work Made Entirely by Mothers

For this wallpaper (Duet), Calico co-founder Rachel Cope gave her 6-year-old daughter a few oil crayons and invited her to scribble on the wall. After Willow was finished, Rachel filled in the gaps to make the final abstract — and satisfyingly unruly — motif.

Chicago Tribune: Wallpaper that transforms your home into a serene sanctuary. OMG, did you see this?

If you’re looking for a way to refresh your home this spring and want to create a calm, relaxed refuge, Brooklyn-based company Calico Wallpaper creates atmospheric wall murals that envelop a room in luminous washes of color based on nature.

The custom fit, nonrepeating wall murals evoke sunrise, sunset and subtle landscapes wrapped in fog or water that turn a room into a serene, immersive environment.

The Aurora Collection is featured above in the colorways Ray and Heaven along with the Cirrus Collection in colorway Inlet.

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.

Wallpaper* Magazine: New Global Design Destination House of Wang Opens in Beijing

Set within Beijing’s ancient Baofang Hutong, House of Wang is a new retail concept offering the best international design in a historical setting.

Initially launched as a digital platform soon followed by a physical store, House of Wang follows the unprecedented growth of the luxury design market in China. With the aim of bringing together a diverse range of creative influences, founders Ruby Ren and Eric Wang focused on selecting the best contemporary brands and designers ranging from Apparatus and 1882 Ltd to Nada Debs and Calico Wallpaper…

Calico Wallpaper’s Woodlands Fields Moors Collection in the colorway Woodlands is featured as an accent wall and shown in the imagery above.

DesignMilk: 2020 Year in Review: Designer Desktops

If you’re like most people, you stare at your computer or tech devices more hours than not throughout the day, so why not make it something cool to see? Each month we enlist artists, designers, and companies to create cool desktop wallpapers with beautiful patterns and quotes that you can download for free to use on desktops and mobile devices… January 2020 by Calico Wallpaper in collaboration with artist and sculptor Fernando Mastrangelo featuring a quote by Georgia O’Keefe

Calico Wallpaper’s collaboration with Fernando Mastrangelo – the Escape Collection – in the colorway Muir was featured with a Georgia O’Keefe quote as a desktop background for Design Milk this year.