From Sweden to Cork: See the inspiration behind the wonder walls

Home Editor Eve Kelliher discovers how A-listers and artists are building on wallpaper’s strengths

Sarah Jessica Parker's 'Mysa' wallpaper range.

And just like that, wallpaper has become kind of cool once more. As Sarah Jessica Parker unveiled her ‘Mysa’ wallpaper range over the summer, interior design aficionados and fashionistas alike wanted a piece of the Scandi-influenced décor action thanks to the actor’s partnership with Wallshoppe.

The collection draws from the concept of “mysa”— a Swedish word evoking cosiness, comfort, and contentment — the designs blend craft with warmth, colour and painterly elegance. As Wallshoppe co-creative director Eric Hughes says: “Mysa is where style meets serenity.”

Liselott from SJP's wallpaper collection.

The wallpaper even featured in the recent season of SATC sequel series And Just Like That....

It’s a far cry from beatific botanicals (or maybe not), but at one stage, wallpaper-making in Ireland was regarded similarly to whiskey distilling?

The result unleashed many an 18th-century cut-and-paste forerunner to Al Capone, thanks to a 1797 Act of Parliament that meant that a wallpaper printer was required to take out a licence.

Sarah Jessica Parker with her new 'Mysa' wallpaper collection.

The product was subject to a duty of one and a half pence per square yard, and the regulations were stringent. Revenue officers would visit the premises of wallpaper makers daily to examine their stock.

'Ulricha' from Sarah Jessica Parker's wallpaper collection.

Unprinted paper was stamped as it arrived from the paper mill, and further stamps were added to the finished product to show the duty had been charged. As with whiskey, the regulations were widely evaded, and much “bootleg” wallpaper was produced secretly in unlicensed premises.

Raids by inspectors sometimes led to altercations — Roger Coleman, an exciseman, described at a trial in 1820 how he had been “violently assaulted” and flung through a trapdoor by wallpaper printer Thomas Tully and his supporters.

Nevertheless, a flourishing contraband wallpaper trade developed with the West of England — one of the main reasons for the abolition of the tax in 1836 was the difficulty of enforcing it in Ireland.

I’m up to speed on all the above thanks to contemporary Cork artist Jaki Coffey, who created a piece entitled Tacks on Wallpaper, using thumb tacks on a roll of wallpaper “as a play on words of how the tax and tacks impact the product”, she says.

Artist Jaki Coffey with her piece 'Tacks on Wallpaper'.

It was shown at Fota House, Arboretum & Gardens as one of a number of thought-provoking canvases that made up Beneath the Layers, a wallpaper-themed display in partnership with Mór Artists Collective in June. Artist Catherine Cullinane was fascinated by a travel tradition of yesteryear — where gentlemen on the move around Europe’s hotspots would use a piece of wallpaper as a luggage-identifying tag.

The exhibition showcased wallpapers from Fota House interpreted by artists from East Cork and West Waterford. And never fear, if you were to check, tax stamps on the back of several of the original wallpapers used in Fota House show that the duty had been paid on them. The green and grey floral pattern with its flock border is stamped with the date 1814, and therefore is known to predate John Smith-Barry’s rebuilding of Fota.

Smith Barry inherited Fota, then a hunting lodge, in 1823, and set about transforming the house into a grand residence.

Wallpaper may have adorned Irish homes for three centuries now, but most of it has vanished without a trace, apart from fragments displaying tastes of previous generations.

Colourful and affordable, it was found in the townhouses of merchants and professionals as well as the “big houses”, where the gentry and aristocracy hung their hats.

While London and Dublin were originally centres of production, from 1773, Cork householders had the opportunity to shop for locally made wallpaper when Caesar Fanning advertised the newest patterns for sale at his Stamped Paper Manufactory on the Mall.

Wallpaper in Fota House. Picture: Colin Shanahan

Cork residents could choose between locally made wallpapers and those imported from England, France or even Japan at the extensive premises of Bible Brothers on Pope’s Quay. The choice included “Japanese embossed, raised flock papers on gold and coloured grounds, lacquered metal and embossed leather papers, crystal damask and frosted gold papers”, according to the archives at Fota House.

Jessica Bonenfant, artistic director, Greywood Arts, and Cllr Dominic Finn deputising for the Mayor of the County of Cork, looking at an artwork by Matt Ind in the kitchen at Fota House.

Meanwhile, the Beneath the Layers wallpaper project offers a rare opportunity to view contemporary responses to an extraordinary collection of 17th to 19th-century wallpaper samples, collected over decades by Irish conservation architect John O’Connell, and donated to Fota House in 2004.

The collection includes over 275 wallpaper samples sourced from stately homes across Ireland, featuring everything from intricate Chinese wallpapers and leather wall coverings to delicate tracings and fragments that offer insights into the interior styles of past centuries.

This archive has never before been interpreted in this way, granting exclusive access to artists for research and inspiration. Over 30 of the 48-member collective of artists across East Cork and West Waterford have responded in diverse media, including painting, written work, collage, and sound installation. 

“The Fota House Wallpaper Collection is a treasure trove of design, craftsmanship, and cultural history,” says Martina Madden, museum standards and property coordinator, Fota House. 

“Through ‘Beneath the Layers’, we are thrilled to open a new chapter in how this unique archive is experienced — not just as a historical resource, but as a living source of artistic inspiration.”

Mór Artists Collective members Paudrig Lee and Annie Shaw looking at Annie's egg tempera painting at the Fota House exhibition.

Jessica Bonenfant, creative director of Greywood Arts, Killeagh, who facilitates the Mór Artists Collective, says the project fuelled “wild imagination”, adding: “It’s a unique and exciting opportunity to engage with Fota House behind the scenes.” 

The archive contains over 250 examples of wallpaper from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and from locations including Dublin Castle and Ballinterry House, Co Cork.

Mór Artists Collective member Jeni Wu with her artwork at Fota House.

The archive also includes a collection of never-used rolls of 19th-century hand-printed wallpaper. Found among builders’ waste outside a shop in Dublin, these were presented to John O’Connell by Desmond Guinness, co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society.

• See Fotahouse.com and Morartistscollective.com