DecorMaison Wallpaper

In homes, restaurants and retail shops alike, it's common to see a single wall covered in loud, brightly patterned wallpaper—an easy design strategy that packs a powerful visual punch. Plenty of great graphic designers have embraced wallpaper as an ideal medium for pushing the envelope. The new collections from DecorMaison caught my eye, both for the art of the paper itself and for the super cool choice of styling for their photo shoot.

DecorMaison is a Swedish brand, sold widely in Europe but still not available in the US. Their Oas collection, one of the newest, was designed by Teija Bruhn, a textile designer who brought her love of texture from fabric into paper. Photographed in a cutaway trailer on the beach, on the forest, and against the backdrop of a cityscape, the Oas patterns do a good job holding their own any setting. The Saga collection (shown at the bottom) are a more fanciful array of patterns, intended to be "fairytales for adults." I was reminded of Dwell's 2008 Detour in Reykjavik, Iceland, which mentioned the important cultural role of sagas (nature spirits) in Scandinavian culture.