New vintage wallpaper repro’s from Bradbury

Bradbury & Bradbury has introduced four new vintage wallpaper reproductions — classic damasks that, as owner Steve Bauer says, “would be appropriate in almost any style of home, with the exception of perhaps the most sterilized of midcentury modern homes, where ‘ornament is crime.'”

The four papers — Berkshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire and Essex — are all taken from 1920-1940s documents in the Bradbury archives. Read on for more from Steve…

Steve writes,

Hi Pam,

Thanks, I’m glad you’re interested in our new papers. All four are from early 1920-1940s documents in our archives. These are always harder to date because many damask patterns originated from even earlier examples, some of which may go as far back as the 16th century. Because of that “timeless” quality and their visual elegance damasks have never really migrated away from popular taste. We wanted to make this new collection adaptable to a wide range of tastes and so chose to be less “period specific” in the colorings, using more neutrals and soft metallics which can blend with either historic or more contemporary styles of decorating.

As far as uses, they are more probably best suited to the main living areas, unless there is a desire to go a little more formal in a master suite, for example. As I mentioned earlier they would be appropriate in almost any style of home, with the exception of perhaps the most sterilized of MCM homes, where “ornament is crime”.

And yes, we will be developing more traditional patterns like these, as long as our customers ask for them!