The Heritage Papers wallpaper collection Farrow & Ball

The Heritage Papers by Farrow & Ball bring three archive designs to the wall: Vine Leaf, Sweet Pea and Gothic. Each picks its own subject, leaves, climbing flowers and church architecture, yet they share soft, chalky grounds, so they suit an older house as well as a new room that wants some history.

Three designs in the Heritage Papers

Vine Leaf is the smallest and densest of the three. Stylized vine leaves with fine veins scatter across the ground without an obvious direction: up close you see leaves, from across the room a quiet texture. Sweet Pea sends sweet pea vines up the wall in vertical bands, drawn with curling tendrils and small flowers, which gives a wall rhythm without making it busy. Gothic swaps plants for stone: arches, columns, pinnacles and tracery set over vertical stripes, with shading that makes the architecture look carved.

Where the Heritage Papers work best

Vine Leaf is the easy one, a calm backdrop for a dining room or a guest bedroom. Sweet Pea belongs in a bedroom, a cottage-style hallway or a bathroom with white paneling. Gothic wants a room with some weight: a study, a library wall or a powder room where the pattern can take over. For more designs in the same spirit, look at historical wallpaper and botanical wallpaper, or the full Farrow & Ball wallpaper range.

Roll size and hanging the Heritage Papers

Each roll is 20.5 inches wide and 33 feet long, about 56 square feet. The pattern repeats run from 16.5 inches (Gothic) to 21 inches (Sweet Pea), so allow for that when you work out how many rolls you need. This is a paper you paste strip by strip, and the printed face takes only a light wipe while you hang it, so keep paste off the front. Order a sample first: the paint-based colors shift with your own daylight. Orders to the United States ship with duties and fees included.