What Do You Know About Contemporary American Wallcovering?

This post, What do you know about contemporary American paper? is a follow up after the Never Say Never post about a wonderful book titled Wallpaper A History of Trends and Styles by Carolle Thibaut- Pomerantz. In it, you can find all you want to know about Chinese, European and American wallpapers.

What do you know about contemporary American paper? After World War II, lifestyles became simpler and homes were designed differently. Fashion changed rapidly and people moved more frequently. Consumers wanted wallcoverings that were new, cheerful, practical and fit with the new way of living. Thanks to new developments in printing and the use of synthetic and washable materials, consumers were able to find what they wanted. Well-known artists like Alexander Calder, Henri Matisse and Joan Miro’ collaborated to produce collections. Even the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright designed geometric papers that were conceived to be part of the architecture, not just as decorative elements. There was a rekindled interest in the replication of natural materials like wood and leather.

So many years latter and the resurgence is still going strong with contemporary American wallcovering.

We have our own replication of natural materials in our Organics Collection contemporary American wallcovering, like Zebrawood, Faux Bois and Satinwood, which are repositionable, removable and reusable.

Zebrawood

When I moved into my home as a bride in 1961, the walls in many rooms were covered in grass cloth paper.I recently re-decorated my bedroom and found some remnants of that covering behind a baseboard.I do recall it was difficult to remove 40 plus years ago!

Then along came pop artists like Andy Warhol who translated their art to wallcovering and brightly colored graphics became the rage. The next decade saw the pendulum swing in the opposite direction favoring softer designs and colors. Currently, new printing techniques like digital printing and new substrates such as vinyl and PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) offer boundless choices of wallcovering and there’s an increased interest in offering eco-friendly products that are sustainable.

Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz ends her book with the following, “Today, one must above all distinguish industrial mass-production from work by designers and craftsmen-manufacturers who use the medium of wallpaper to explore other means of artistic expression. Thus, these artists or designers use wallpaper to turn a wall into a totally new work of art.”

-Lorre Lei