Holiday inspired wallpapers are perfect for creating a joyful vibe at home all year round. Designs draw inspiration from warm, sunny climes and natural landscapes to extend the relaxed summer feeling and happy holiday memories. From palm trees and tropical leaves to seashell patterns and even pineapples, each wallpaper has a fascinating story behind it. Explore the stories behind some of our favourite patterns below.
Calico Shell
Calico Shell is a beautiful and finely detailed shell motif wallpaper created with a hand-crafted look. The pattern gracefully dances across the wall evoking the mesmerising ebb and flow of the ocean. Viewed from afar it forms a trellis pattern, revealing the delicate intricacies of the design as you move closer. A perfect wallpaper for bathrooms, ensuites, guest cloakrooms and powder rooms with a stylish nod to coastal décor schemes, especially in Cobalt Blue.
Calico Shell Archive inspiration: Design for a printed chintz textile, England, 1760s–70s
The exquisite pattern was taken from a tiny, hand-painted artwork for a chintz textile that reflects the tremendous artistry of the British textile industry in the 18th century. The term "chintz” is related to a Sanskrit word meaning “coloured” or “spotted," and now refers to any cotton or linen furnishing fabric with a pattern.
Macaw
This vibrant design features parrots perched in a lush rainforest and has been traditionally surface printed to recreate a wood block printed wallpaper from the V&A archive. Macaw in Teal reflects the colour of the archive piece from over 100 years ago and is still relevant for homes today.
Macaw archive inspiration: Macaw wallpaper, Walter Crane (1845–1915) for Jeffrey & Co., London, 1908
Macaw was originally created as a display piece for the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition in London, where it was awarded a Grand Prix. Generally considered the most influential children's book illustrator of his generation, Crane also created many memorable designs for wallpaper. Heavily influenced by William Morris, Crane was a committed Socialist and believed passionately in the transformative power of bringing people from every social class into everyday contact with art.
Pineapple Garden
Pineapple Garden is as vibrant and eye-catching as the 18th century silk design that inspired it. Combining graphic florals with exotic pineapples for a fabulously uplifting, joyful effect! The pineapple fruit was highly valued by the Georgians as a sign of prestige, that later came to symbolise hospitality and welcome and so is ideal for use in home decoration. Despite dating back to 1707, the original yellow colourway is surprisingly modern and refreshing.
Pineapple Garden Archive inspiration: Design for woven silk, James Leman (1688–1745), Spitalfields, London, 1707
The Leman Album, one of the V&A's greatest textile treasures, served as the inspiration for this pineapple pattern. The album has 97 patterns for woven silk fabric that were painted in watercolour. They are Europe’s earliest dated silk designs, created by Huguenot master weaver and designer James Leman. It has been reproduced using the Sur-Flex process, developed in-house at 1838 by combining two traditional techniques: Surface and Flexo printing. Surface printing provides a wonderfully thick ink coverage and hand-painted appearance, and Flexo finely detailed effects.
We hope this quick tour of holiday inspired wallpaper has inspired your next room refresh. For more refreshing colours, take a look at our Yellow wallpapers, or to explore further fascinating design stories, browse our V&A collections.