Cole and Son wallpaper

Cole & Son wallpaper is printed in London and shipped to the United States by the roll, not off a domestic sample rack. American rooms suit it: smooth drywall, ceilings that often run to nine or ten feet (2.7–3 m), and open plans where one papered wall stays in view from the next room.

What these designs ask of an American wall

Many designs come on a non-woven ground, which makes hanging and later removal considerably easier. That counts in a two-story entryway or a stairwell, worked from a ladder. A powder room is the one spot where a dark colorway needs no restraint: little daylight to fight, and all four walls read at once. Above a chair rail, a tighter repeat stops the pattern arguing with the millwork.

European roll sizes and how the math changes

A European roll runs about 32.8 ft (10 m) long and 20.9 in (53 cm) wide: narrower and much longer than the single roll sold here. One covers roughly the wall area of an American double roll, so a whole-room order looks smaller than a domestic estimate. Factor in the pattern repeat before ordering, and buy a room's worth at once rather than topping up later.

Where to start in the Cole & Son wallpaper collections

With 326 designs on the site, the range is best browsed by collection. The Fornasetti wallpaper collection grew out of the partnership with the Italian design house Fornasetti, begun in 2007; Archive Anthology comes straight from the house archive. On the planted, painterly side sit Botanical Botanica and The Gardens; at the graphic end, Geometric II and Marquee Stripes. Historic Royal Palaces Great Masters is worth a look too.

The London printmaking behind the brand's papers

The company began in Islington in 1875; a wallpaper factory on Offord Road followed in 1883. Finely ground mica still lends certain papers a silky sheen, a luster that shifts as light crosses the room. Hand block printing and flocked designs come from the same tradition, and a screen-printing studio followed in 1948, among the earliest in Europe. Woods, Palm Jungle and Hummingbirds keep returning in new colorways because that archive stays in use.

Ordering the collection from Europe

Order samples first. Color on a screen is not color on a wall, and a mica sheen needs judging in your own light. US orders arrive with import duties and fees settled, so nothing is collected at delivery. Stuck between two colorways, or matching a print to paint you own? Message us; someone with the sample books in hand will answer.