Choosing retro wallpaper

Where it works

Retro pattern belongs in dens, kitchens, home offices and hallways, rooms that can take a joke. Stacked Blocks and Stepping Stones, both on linen-textured cream, will go a whole living room without tiring. Eames Parlour and Little Pots, furniture and plants in sage, mustard and teal, suit a study or a kitchen. Olive Ogee, its chartreuse waves blurred at the edges, goes up a stairwell. Bronze Shells, taupe and bronze fans packed tight on near-black, is the after-dark choice, cloakroom or bar.

Picking between the designs

Sort by decade. 1930s: Bronze Shells, Shell Fans. 1950s: Stacked Blocks, Teal Stars, Eames Parlour, Kiln Arch, Little Pots, Pottery Stars, Clay Stars. 1960s and 1970s: Olive Ogee, Stepping Stones, Petal Tiles, Soft Corners, Marmalade Roses. Then the palette, which is the real tell: rust, mustard, teal and olive over cream for the 1950s group; chartreuse and olive for the 1970s. Fan Rows and Dune Scene are the two that are retro by drawing rather than date, fine black line and teal toile.

Related

Mid-century wallpaper gathers the 1950s designs on their own; the shapes are in geometric wallpaper; and vintage wallpaper holds the whole century. For whether the look has come back, read Is wallpaper back in style.