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Annie Elliott Design, Washington DC

Annie Elliott Design

Greater Washington DC

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Big patterns are IN!

Annie Elliott | March 12, 2023

Our wonderful Schumacher rep Kate came to visit us the other day, Gentle Readers, and something became extremely clear. Large-scale patterns — on fabric, on wallpaper — are IN! And they are glorious!

Queen Fruit by Schumacher
Light blue and coral floral wallpaper
My main man Manuel – Canovas, that is. Through Cowtan & Tout

I felt a bit validated, to tell you the truth. I’ve been looking for large-scale stuff recently, mostly because I’ve had big windows and walls to cover. Large patterns just felt right.

Living room with floor to ceiling chartreuse patterned wallpaper
Timorous Beasties’ Totem Damask wallpaper in a double-height space. A particularly fun project ;)
Scenic black and white waterfall mountain print as window treatments
Same house: the Roman shade is Pierre Frey, Les Rocheuses

It’s not that large-scale patterns are new. Of course they’re not.

Red wallpaper with zebras
Scalamandré’s iconic Zebras

There just seems to be more of them now.

Manuel Canovas again
Black and white horse print on linen
Schumacher
Colorful bird pattern wallpaper in dining rom
Canopy by Schumacher

In addition to large patterns that repeat, panels are in as well. You know those:

Red and white floral wallpaper panels
Schumacher
Light wood cabinet in front of mural with stylied trees
Schumacher

To get a taste of the large without the commitment, you can frame a single panel as art, if you want to. An actual frame can get awfully heavy, though…my preferred method is to use picture moulding on a wall, as we did below.

Large aqua Chinoiserie panel on a dining room

I wonder if big patterns are a thing in clothing, too? Let me know ;)

2 pink velvet chairs in front of floral wallpaper

You can thank my daughter Ruthie and her fabulous ultimate frisbee team for blocking a blog post about how blues are becoming less aqua and more cornflower, and how greens are becoming less yellow/kiwi and more blue/teal. Ruthie et al were coming through town this weekend and weighed in: not enough there for a whole post. They were right, of course.

Annie Elliott Design is based in Washington, D.C. We’re experts in creating joyous, pattern-filled homes and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.

Category: WallpaperTag: Cowtan & Tout, fabric, large scale, Manuel Canovas, Pierre Frey, Scalamandre, Schumacher, Timorous Beasties, wallpaper, Zebras

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Sep 23

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For this week’s Wallpaper Wednesday we go into the Woods… Woods is a great example of Cole & Son’s innovation in serigraphy, a traditional method of screen printing. The pattern is available on fabric and wallpaper in a variety of soothing yet elegant colorways. Due (I’m sure) to the booming success of the original, there are now some whimsical variations on Woods: Cole & Son added metallic stars to some colorways and pears to others. As you may imagine, however, this traditionalist prefers the original 🙂For some reason, Woods is especially popular for nurseries. Maybe those babies really wanted out of their cribs. 👶🏼In 2005, Woods deservedly won the ELLE Decoration International Design Award for Wallcovering of the Year. And it’s still going strong.

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Sep 9

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It’s Wallpaper Wednesday! This week, feast your eyes on @timorous_beasties Fruit Looters. TB claims that William Morris’s Strawberry Thief pattern inspired Fruit Looters, but only the name indicates the connection: Strawberry Thief, Fruit Looters…get it? Whereas Morris’s iconic pattern is medium-scale, rhythmic, 2-D, cartoon-like, and muted, Fruit Looters is the opposite in every way but subject matter. The scale is huge, with the foliage “stripes” providing a geometric order, and it oozes TB’s trademark edginess. The crisp pattern is finely drawn; pull it apart, and each element — a flower, a bird — could be in an English botanical print. Fruit Looters comes in vivid, saturated colorways, some with a metallic sheen, and dramatic black is present in all.Recently, a client (who originally introduced me to Timorous Beasties!) and I used Fruit Looters wallpaper in her stairwell, in the Alabaster colorway. The drama. Oh, the drama!
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