In the wake of my epic office craft room remodel — with its 277 square patchwork quilt of vintage wallpaper hand cut by moi — Hannah turned me on to Flair Squares. Looks like Flair Squares were precut, prepasted 12″ wallpaper squares made and sold by Dupont, sold in packs of 15 squares. I found an ad for Flair Squares for 1980. So let’s guess: 1970s into the 1980s. You know I love these to heck. How can I not love designs called Mums Galore, in fab 1970s colors. Above: Mums Galore from vakvar on etsy.com. (now sold).
Above (as if there were any doubt): Strawberry Patch Flair Squares — Four packages of 15 squares, $10 per package — also from vakvar, also now sold.
Above: Two packs of Wildflowers from Daisy’s Attic on etsy for $12. (now sold)
Above: Old Country Flair Squares, two packages for $10, (now sold) from Repurposed Vintage on etsy.
Above: A yellow bamboo pattern, two packages available, $9.35 each (now sold), from PorkyPieDesigns on etsy.
Four packages of Easy Plaid, $25 take all four (now sold), from iprefervintage on etsy. Well, we do, too! 😉
And: There is another one (???) package of this pattern — Daisy Daisy — $5 per square (???) — from AuntBonniesCloset. Daisy Daisy! You know I love my flower power!
Okay. So the way I count it, there are about 16 packages available in just these (easily found) listings. That would be about what it took me for my whole room, although I did use an even greater variety of designs. I basically kept adding designs until I felt I had “the mix right.” A good thing about these Flair Squares: I think all these colors would actually harmonize well together — in a crazy 1970s patchwork quilt way, of course..!
More photos from vakvar’s listing provide more information and inspiration:
Above: I would not trust that the “pre-paste” would still work. I believe that some of the vintage wallpaper I used was pre-pasted. We didn’t even try that route. We used our own wallpaper paste — see my detailed instructions, how we hung the vintage wallpaper. So far so good, the stuff’s not peeling off. Yet. Argh.
hehehehehehehehe
If — unlike me — you do not have some 300 rolls of vintage wallpaper hoarded in your basement waiting to be cut into squares or otherwise used for undetermined future projects — or, if you don’t want to start hunting down wallpaper — or, if you don’t want to spend hours cutting squares — BUT, you want to make a patchwork quilt accent wall or backsplash or entire room like I did, now you know about Flair Squares.
Many thanks to all these etsy sellers for giving me permission to feature their photos, and to Hannah, who discovered these. Note, I did find Flair Squares on ebay, too, but at this moment, etsy is the better source.
More flair square finds
Vintage Dupont Flair Squares from Ebay seller crazy4rock. (now sold)
Aleta says
Ah yes, I sold some of these earlier this year in my Etsy shop – they were white on white – great for a kitchen wall:D
Jen says
Oh the memories. I was about 19 years old when I put up some bright green bamboo patterned wallpaper squares in my first apartment. It was still up when a friend rented in the same place years later and mocked it. I denied any involvement.
hannah says
Well, I noticed when I logged on to Etsy after getting home from work that several of the Flair Squares I’d been watching had sold! And, that’s all good. I wasn’t planning on buying, just wanted to note when they did sell. Congratulations to the lucky buyers!
Thanks for the recognition via a ‘shout out’ Pam! 😀
The way I found these was not by searching brand name, or DuPont, or wallpaper. But by doing a simple NOS search for one of my treasury’s. And viewing page after page. I’d never seen them either, even though that’s the era I was raised in. So, they were new to me too! Now, I actively keep an eye out for them. For the right price and the right pattern I think I might want in my kitchen.
I’ll be interested to hear back from the buyers how the glue held up and what they might have had to use to supplement it.
Rebecca@midcenturymodernremodel.com says
Precut wallpaper squares in vintage patterns? Do I hear a business calling anyone’s name? “Pa-aaammm oh Paaaa-ammmmmm.”
hannah says
+1 (that’s a ‘thumbs up” for your posts message). 😉
dipsterdeb says
Wow, can’t believe I’ve never seen these before. How could I have missed those???
Jan says
I remember them, too! They were so popular at the time – why don’t they still have this cool stuff?
Eartha Kitsch says
I remember those! My childhood best friend’s family had the plaid one on the wall of their kitchen with dark, dark wood cabinets and yellow countertops. Sweet.
Jody says
WOW. Thanks so much for posting. Strawberry tiles coming my way!
Jay says
Blast from the past! I remember sticking these up on a wall in the kitchen of my parent’s neighbor. Hmmm… probably 1979 or 80. Might have been Wildflower, I seem to remember a lot of yellow and orange on them.
BungalowBILL says
That’s gotta make you go “D’oh!” But I guess it’s like buying pre-cut fruit salad at the grocery store. It’s easier but you get what you get.