This post was originally published in 2019, but I’ve since updated it by including a few more photos and additional patterns. The patterns from the original post remain!
I’m instinctively drawn to classic fabric & wallpaper; one of my few talents is being able to spot them from a mile away, through a poorly taken facebook marketplace photo, or in a well-known designer’s latest room featured in AD.
What makes a pattern important enough to be considered classic and timeless?
Is it the long history behind it? The high price tag? The fact that design icons like Mark D. Sikes or Bunny Williams have used it in their rooms? Or if you opened a magazine with one of these patterns in 30 years from now, it will still be considered timeless? Or are these patterns really just so breathtakingly gorgeous that people will never stay away from them?
‘Twas was a rhetorical question, but I think it’s a combination of all of the above.
Whether used via wallpaper or textiles like pillows, curtains or upholstery, I’m sharing a roundup of what I believe to be the most classic, legendary & luxurious patterns that will never go out of style – along with plenty of inspiration photos.
P.S. – you can purchase most of these fabrics or wallpapers through Stuck on Hue!
Via The Glam Pad: Bowood is named after a 19th century fabric the legendary decorator John Fowler found at England’s famous Bowood estate, which he then had manufactured. It has been in production since 1938 and is considered one of Colefax and Fowler’s most enduring classic prints. Fowler adored chintz because he wanted “the garden to spill into his rooms.”
Via Libby Cameron
Via Tori Alexander Interiors
Via Caroline Gidire
Via Justine Cushing
Our bedroom
Via J Kathryn Interiors
Via Veere Greeney
Hollyhock is a hand-blocked chintz that dates back to the mid 1800’s. Today, it’s available in several colorways as a linen or a cotton chintz.
It is an absolute masterpiece and I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this is the mother of legendary patterns.
Via Alex Kaehler Design
Via O Henry House
I can’t get through a blog post on classic patterns and not include my Althea drapes, which is the coordinating (less expensive) print to Hollyhock:
And as of this year, I had a chair reupholstered in the Citron colorway for my office. It was worth every penny!
From Sandberg’s Raphael product page: The inspiration for this pattern was partly taken from Central Park in New York – a leafy park surrounded by glass-and-concrete skyscrapers and a beautiful contrast to the bustling city. The pattern is also inspired by antique tapestries, where stylised leaves are often shown in fields of light and shade.
Lately, this Sandberg wallpaper seems to be a trending pattern, but I think it’s a true classic!
Via Erin Gates
Via La Dolce Vita: Based on an 18th-century document, this striking ikat pattern is often used in very traditional applications such as upholstered walls, draperies, and upholstery, oftentimes all at once the way that Chintz has been used in the most traditional of settings.
Via Aerin Lauder
Mark Hampton
Robert Moore
Sister Parish was founded in 1933 in Far Hills, NJ and AD noted in 2000 that the partnership between Sister and Albert Hadley influenced American decor for more than three decades.
Creative Director of Sister Parish, Eliza Harris.
Via The Glam Pad: When selecting prints for my home, I tend to be drawn to the “story” or history almost as much as the aesthetics. I am a lover of history, and it makes me happy knowing I’m surrounded by one of the favorite prints of the legendary Sister Parish, the Grand Dame of the grande dame of American twentieth-century decorators. Dolly is truly a timeless classic that will never go out of style!
Via Cameron Ruppert
Via Amy Berry
(I almost used this pretty purple color in the hidden cabinet in our bathroom)!
My office
Via AD: Brunschwig & Fils introduced a graphic, spotted fabric called Les Touches in 1965, and the design world went into a tizzy. Its origins, though, are as murky as the pattern is crisp. Handwritten records state it was inspired by “a portfolio of French black-and-white photographs.”
Another source traces it to a 19th-century textile reimagined for a modern audience. Whatever the truth, Les Touches, which resembles an abstracted animal print, delivers a visual jolt while remaining “classic enough that you don’t get sick of it,” says AD100 decorator Michael S. Smith.
Michael S. Smith
Les Touches in our bathroom renovation
Via Honey Collins Interiors
This chintz was first used by preeminent American Designer Albert Hadley in 1962 for his client, Nancy “Princess” Pyne. The original chintz fabric can be found in the book “Influential Interiors” and the July 2009 issue of “House Beautiful”. Mrs. Pyne has graciously lent her faded vintage fabric to Schumacher to interpret anew as a table print.
My friend Lauren of Studio LaLoc used Pyne Hollyhock her recent dining room makeover. It’s divine!
This beautiful pattern is an adaptation of an English textile made in 1785 and is still popular amongst designers today.
Bornonfifth’s bathroom
Via Tory Burch’s home in AD
Designer unknown (if you know the designer please share)
Via Alexa Stevensen
Via Hannah Ozburn
It turns out that a lot of high-end brands make a “Le Tigre” fabric. Quadrille, Lee Jofa…the list goes on. But I believe Scalamandre is best known for their silk velvet Le Tigre (and Leopardo)!
Via Linda Ruderman
Bowood & LeTigre, a perfect combo! Via Caroline Gidiere
2023 updates with additional patterns:
This pattern seems to have made it’s way into a lot of my favorite designers projects lately. I recently swapped out the Althea drapes in our living room after finding these gorgeous Jasper Willow Grace drapes secondhand:
Matching pillows were made by Stuck on Hue!
Via Nina Marie Nash
Via Betsy Anderson Interiors
Via O Henry House
Via Katie Davis Design
Via Alex Kaehler Design
Via Caroline Hill
Via Jenny Keenan Design
Via Lark and Grace Interiors
Right after I decided on blue Chinese Peony for our family room, I found 6 yards of Malmaison on Facebook Marketplace in MO and it’s being shipped to me right now. Ah! I can’t wait to use it….somewhere. Someday.
Also, someone sent me the above photo of Malmaison against light blue walls and I practically fainted. I’m really so excited about Chinese Peony but this photo had me drooling.
Via Lauren duPont
Via Leah O’Connell Design
Via Jennifer Beeker Hunter
Via John Bossard
Via Redd Kaihoi
Via Whitney McGregor
Beyond excited to have chosen this exact pattern for our Family Room drapes:
Via Society Social
Via Mark D. Sikes
Via My Chic Nest
Via Lauren Elaine Interiors
Via Gramercy Home
Via Laura Normanton
Via Julia Amory
Via Summer Thornton
Via Mark D. Sikes
Via Janna McCalley interiors
Vian Anne Pearson Design
Via Paloma Contreras
SHOP THESE CLASSIC PATTERNS:
My favorite non-trade sources for purchasing designer wallpaper and fabric are eBay, Etsy and Decorator’s Best. Decorator’s Best would be my last choice because they have a pretty high markup, so I’d check eBay first, then Etsy 🙂
More Best of Classic Design posts:
xo
Alisa
This post is right up my alley, of course! You know I already sell Althea and Bowood pillows in my shop, plus I’m in the process of a rebrand and will be adding several more of these classic patterns to the shop this spring, along with lots of other grandmillenial/”new trad” favorites.
One can’t go wrong with any of these classic patterns. I’m certainly happy that they’re getting more attention these days and enjoy seeing how they can be done in so many ways, yet never feel tiresome.
This post was so fun and helpful. Love a good history lesson. Pattern-wise, my favorite might I love when the headboards match the wallpaper and then they line them up perfectly so they almost blend in.
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful and informative. Thanks!
I love all of these patterns! So glad I found your site! Do you have another chintz or pattern of wallpaper you would put with the Bowood or do you think it’s best just to go all in – everything Bowood. I love lots of patterns mixed together but I’m overwhelmed trying to decide what will work. Thank you!
This post is giving me so much inspiration! Thank you for sharing all of this great info!
Gah, so beautiful, Alisa. I love love love educational posts like this. Makes me feel like an expert when I can spot and name this kind of thing in the wild! I’ll have to work really hard to convince my other half that this is not “hideous grandma” but timeless and glorious and worth the $$$$…
Side note: I’m taking the NYIAD course you mentioned a while back and I’m hoping to figure out some trade sources. I already have the llc and website, which seem to be helpful at least on the few generic trade discount applications I’ve seen. Where do you shop to the trade, and do you have to have more credentials than I do to access them? It’s so hard when you don’t even know where to start looking for sources. I totally understand if you can’t share but I’d be most grateful if you can.
Hi! Great informative post. The designer of the aqua Bird and Thistle is Charlotte Coote if Coote and Co (based in Australia).
I just saw your missing attribution of the blue Bird and Thistle bench/wallpaper combo! It’s by Australian designer Charlotte Coote and it’s the custom banquet she designed for her office. I don’t know the photographer though. Charlotte Coote has a great design book you might enjoy (I just checked it out from the library this week and then was researching patterns for our entry/hallway on your site and saw your missing citation), called “Color Is Home.” I’m torn between Raphaël (cheaper) and Bird and Thistle (which I love but seems so sharp and pokey).