Little Greene – The Storybook Papers

Little Greene introduce ‘Storybook Papers

Their fifth collection of wallpapers created in partnership with the National Trust.


A light-hearted adventure into childhoods past, the eight whimsical designs in this collection have been inspired by a broad range of historic artefacts and original artworks, found in cherished historic houses from Somerset to Cumbria, conserved and cared for by the National Trust.


Charming objects such as tin cars, children’s wooden games and even a mechanical toy, have been painstakingly reinterpreted by the Little Greene Design Studio, transforming physical artefacts into wallpaper designs that capture all the spirit and character of the originals.


The collection also directly references a fabric print and several original artworks, including some by Beatrix Potter, the beloved children’s author who left 4000 acres of land and 15 farms to the National Trust when she died in 1943.


Lovingly researched, designed and elegantly coloured by Little Greene, each paper is presented alongside a selection of suggested paint shades to bring truly harmonious interior design directly to rooms enjoyed by children and grown-ups alike.


The collection includes the quirky surface-printed ‘Animal Kingdom’ featuring colourful elephants, ostriches and penguins; playful illustrations of chicks and ducks in ‘Riverside Capers’ and ‘Rodney Street’, which depicts a vintage, mechanical apple-picker. Joining these pictorial and scenic designs are new colourways of Little Greene’s much-loved, generously proportioned ‘Broad Stripe’
wallpaper which has been recoloured in a range of joyful, coordinating combinations.


Animal Kingdom


This quirky scene is drawn from a printed 1930s fabric found at Tyntesfield, an exquisite country house in North Somerset, which was home to the Gibbs family for more than 150 years.
The pattern was made into slip covers for furniture in the children’s nursery. Featuring a polar bear and penguins alongside an elephant and an ostrich, the playful design is rich in imagination and has translated effortlessly into a surface-printed wallpaper pattern in a range of confident colourways.


Nip & Lassie


The dogs in this design are Beatrix Potter’s doodled portraits of her beloved working collies, Nip and Lassie. The original sketches are tiny but effortlessly translate into a light-hearted wallpaper design, in which the accompanying sheep have been flocked to bring extra surface texture. Beatrix was known for her dedication to farming, and in particular her award-winning stock of Herdwick sheep which also feature in the design. The breed is synonymous with the Lake District and Potter’s beloved rural cottage, Hill Top, where she famously settled and fervently pursued her creative and business endeavours.


Rodney Street


The naïve line quality in this design accurately references the pair of vintage, mechanical apple-picking toys that inspired it. They are small pieces amongst a huge collection of mostly twentieth century artefacts now cared for by the National Trust at The Hardmans’ House in Rodney Street, Liverpool.
An elegant Georgian property, it is authentically preserved in its 1950s state having served as both home and busy photographic studio for the prestigious portrait photographer Edward Chambré Hardman and his wife, business partner and fellow photographer, Margaret.


Balance

Four framed motifs make up this design, each one originally the subject of a small set of wooden balancing games located at Greys Court in Oxfordshire. In the games, a steady hand is required to locate tiny metal ball-bearings in the holes, and although the balls themselves have been omitted from the design, the locations of the holes have been retained in reference to its origin. Another quirk is the rainbow’s inverted colour spectrum – it would correctly show the red on the outside and blue (or violet) on the inside, but is another original detail retained in the wallpaper pattern.


Road Trip

The former servants’ wing at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire is now home to the National Trust’s ‘Children’s Country House’. Created with, and
for, children of all ages, it is a place where nostalgic childhoods of yesterday are conserved, shared and celebrated.
This jolly pattern comprises sketches of a selection of vintage toy cars and trucks, cared for by the Trust; notably at Sudbury but also Nuffield
Place, Tyntesfield and Wightwick Manor, amongst others. Aficionados will identify a 1951 Morris Minor, a wooden 1960s Mercedes truck
and a glamorous Austin Atlantic from 1956.


Potter’s Woodland

A magical scene which directly references a variety of individual drawings and paintings from the unpublished sketchbooks of Beatrix Potter.
Besides her irrepressible appetite for farming the land, Potter was a prolific and accomplished artist, fascinated and inspired by the nature
that surrounded her rural home, Hill Top in Ambleside, Cumbria.


Riverside Capers

The animals featured in this design were all originally painted by the children’s illustrator Cecil Aldin. A founding member of the London
Sketch Club, Aldin was known for his cartoonish animal depictions, and was published alongside literary works by Charles Dickens and
Rudyard Kipling, amongst others.
A children’s bedroom at Wightwick Manor in the West Midlands features a frieze which includes several of Aldin’s farm animals, including a
mother hen with her chicks and a playful line of running ducks.


Broad Stripe

Striped fabrics and wallpapers have long been used to bring simple, refined pattern and elegant, effortless colour combinations to grand
and humble interiors alike.
In Georgian and Regency times, this generously proportioned stripe would have been used more frequently in large rooms and amongst
bold colours and strong patterns.
In contemporary interior design, wide stripes are still used to balance pattern, but have taken on more usability by virtue of the more relaxed,
coordinating colour palette in which they are now available.


Little Greene National Trust IV Wallpaper

National Trust Papers IV features eight historic wallpaper designs that have been adapted and recoloured across 42 colourways for use within the modern home. Each design has been created for original patterns found at several of the National Trust’s historic houses, with the addition of one design that has been recoloured and revived from the Little Greene archive.

This versatile and eclectic collection comprises an array of exotic birds, stylised florals and scrolling trails alongside ditsy print florals and large-scale tropical murals.

National Trust Papers IV features eight historic wallpaper designs that have been adapted and recoloured across 42 colourways for use within the modern home. Each design has been created for original patterns found at several of the National Trust’s historic houses, with the addition of one design that has been recoloured and revived from the Little Greene archive.

This versatile and eclectic collection comprises an array of exotic birds, stylised florals and scrolling trails alongside ditsy print florals and large-scale tropical murals.


Aderyn – Erddig c. 1770

In the late 18th Century, Erddig in Wales was the family home of Philip Yorke and his wife Elizabeth. They would have selected this handpainted Chinese wallpaper, lavishly decorated with exquisite birds and flowers, for guests staying in the property’s State Bedroom. The original painting was delicate and keenly observed, with birds appearing in pairs; a subtle nod to the Chinese concept of the interconnectivity of opposites (yin and yang). The flowers seen here include magnolia (symbolising feminine beauty) and peony (symbolising eminence). Elements have been taken from the original to create a versatile and contemporary bird and floral trail, in five glorious colourways.


Capricorn – Early 19th century

This mural is inspired by sections of historic early 19th century panels by Velay and Zuber, and has been repainted by hand to reflect idealised and stereotypical depictions of landscapes that were considered at the time to be ‘romantic’ or ‘exotic’. This contemporary reproduction features luscious landscapes incorporating monkeys and tropical birds across three panels. Produced in one neutral and three colourful variations, this paper is designed to bring dynamism and interest to any interior. Supplied in a standard 10m roll, there are three drops, each (up to a maximum of) 3.25m in height, which hang in sequence and can be repeated around the room.


Bamboo Floral – Kingston Lacy Estate c. 1790

This design has been based on small painted sections of Chinese wallpaper found at Kingston Lacy Estate in Dorset. Little is known about these fragments, of which around 200 have been identified, and it is unclear whether the print was actually used in the house itself. Imported Chinese wallpapers were hugely popular in 19th century manor houses, and the paper hangers would have cut out individual elements and pasted them on top of the panels, to give the wallpaper its panoramic flow. It’s quite possible these fragments were left over from that process. Reshaped into a repeating pattern for the modern interior, this design has been surface-printed and produced in five fresh colourways, with a contemporary pop of colour on each.


Spring Flowers – Standen House c. 1910

Standen House in West Sussex is one of the country’s finest examples of an Arts & Crafts house, designed by Philip Webb with interiors by William Morris. This small floral design, featuring an array of spring flowers, is typical of the way designers of the period were inspired by flowers and foliage and how they stylised these forms to bring nature inside. The surviving piece of this paper is in a monochromatic colourway of blue and white, but otherwise little is known about the history of this specific design. Now coloured in six differing ways, it is offered in two gentle neutrals and on four stronger grounds.


Great Ormond Street c.1890 (From the Little Greene Archive)

Recoloured and revived from the Little Greene archive, this colourful parrot motif is closely based on one of a multi-layered group of papers removed from the ground floor rear closet of a very early-18th century terrace house opposite Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This design was subsequently machine-made on cellulose paper in the late 19th century. Available in seven, surface-printed colourways.


Burges Butterfly – Knightshayes Court, Devon c. 1878

Adorning the walls of the Boudoir at Knightshayes Court in Devon, ‘Burges Butterfly’ was designed by Gothic Revival architect and designer William Burges (1827-1881) and is an obvious relation to another wallpaper of the same origin, ‘Burges Snail’. Just like the Snail, the design has no deeper historic association with Knightshayes Court, Burges’s only complete country house, but is another Burges pattern, influenced by his passion for the architecture and art of medieval Europe and Asian-influenced design. This fun, charming paper has been faithfully reproduced in five contemporary, surface-printed colourways.


Mosaic Trail – Felbrigg Hall c. 1885

An elegant, floral trail with sophisticated tonal variation – little is known about the history of this paper, but it is likely to originate from the Aesthetic movement in the late 19th Century. The pattern replicates a tiled mosaic, achieving a charming, informal finish with subtle shading effects. The design has been reproduced to reflect the original in four smart, graduated colourways, surface printed to replicate the mosaic effect and to enhance the texture and tonal variation of the colours.


Ditsy Block – Felbrigg Hall c. 1900

Found at Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, this attractive floral lattice is one of the most interesting wallpapers at the property. Its location arouses curiosity, as the wallpaper is from an attic room believed to be a former staff room – an unusual location to hang an ornate wallpaper at the time. The paper is likely to have been woodblock-printed and the original also features painted ‘braiding’ at the top of the design, mimicking of damask furnishings. Produced in six contemporary colourways, this design has been surface-printed to authentically reflect its original manufacturing method.