Bradbury vintage wallpaper designs now available as fabrics, too

If you’re thinking of using one of Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpaper’s reproduction vintage wallpapers in your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, office… or wherever…. now you can also consider getting all matchy-matchy and use the same design on window treatments, pillows, an apron or… you think it up. Yes, you can now get Bradbury designs on fabric, too. The company has recently launched its 18 of its wallpaper designs as fabrics for sale on spoonflower.com. These first fabric designs come from Bradbury’s Mod Generation line of 1960s and 1970s inspired wallpapers. You 1940s and 1950s fans, sit tight, the company tells me that they will continue to introduce more designs moving forward.

Interestingly, you can get the Bradbury fabrics in either “full-sized” or “petite” versions of the wallpaper. So, you could use the full-sized wallpaper design on your walls… the petite size on a window valence or make-your-own fabric window shade. This makes particular sense as a design strategy, I think, when you are using the op-art 1960s design. It would be great fun to play with the scale of these designs.

Spoonflower offers their prints on 10 different kinds of fabric. I like the idea of the organic cotton sateen — otherwise known as chintz, always an excellent retro choice. Spoonflower says this fabric is “appropriate for clothing and pillows.” The linen-cotton canvas also looks like a good choice for window valances — sort of heavier duty, like a barkcloth. Spoonflower says the linen-cotton is “appropriate for table cloths, tea towels, dresses, bags, and pillows.” Want even heavier duty? Try the heavy cotton twill, “appropriate for upholstery projects, home decorating, pants, tote bags, banners, coats and jackets, window draperies, tablecloths, and place mats.”

I do caution that, in my experience, printed fabrics are tricky for upholstery, they will wear much harder and are harder to clean than a woven design (in which the color is in the threads themselves). I have successfully used printed fabrics on curtains, pillows, seat cushions and slipcovers, but I wouldn’t use them on “real” upholstered pieces.