When a Royal crested letter from Buckingham Palace arrived on Cole & Son Creative and Managing Director Marie Karlsson’s desk last December, the vivacious London based Swede knew it represented a pivotal moment in the past, present and future of the revered British wallpaper company, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Granted a Royal Warrant by HM King Charles III in his new reign as monarch (having held a Royal Warrant for nearly 70 years under Queen Elizabeth II), “I was so happy and I could finally sleep,” she laughs. “We were so proud because it was extraordinary recognition for our commitment to the highest standards of craftsmanship, innovation, sustainability and a passion for preserving the arts.”
Cole & Son Celebrates 150 Years of Wallpaper and Artistry
Words by
Fiona McCarthy
27th March 2025
After 150 years, Cole & Son continues to elevate wallpaper to a bona fide work of art, from a coterie of flamboyant birds to more traditional designs, all with the signature quirkiness devoted customers have come to adore.
Presented by Cole & Son
The original design of 'Baobab Tree' took the Cole & Son and Ardmore artist team over 500 hours to paint by hand
The Latest Cole & Son Creations
These values certainly imbue the latest Cole & Son collection, launched during Paris Design Week in January. In ‘Baobab Tree’, a clamouring chorus of crowned cranes, kingfishers, flamingos, wading jacanas, African hoopoes, striking storks, parakeets, parrots and lovebirds can be seen adorning the boughs of one of South Africa’s most ancient and iconic trees, dancing and chattering amongst its dangling fruit, seedpods and powderpuff flowers. The original design took over 500 hours of hand painting by Cole & Son’s artist team, based at the brand’s HQ in Chelsea’s Jubilee Place, and the Ardmore Team in South Africa before being meticulously produced on a shimmering pearlescent background by one of the UK’s oldest printers.
Hung as luminescent wallpaper panels adorning every wall of a chic Parisian apartment overlooking the Jardin du Palais Royal in the heart of the French capital, the bedroom and bathroom spaces instantly enveloped visitors, transporting them to a fantastical jewel-hued moment in the African savannah. Presenting the new collection in this way, rather than the usual showroom in Saint Germain, was a new approach. “It was really important that for the first time we created a space where our clients could actually see what to expect when they use our wallpapers,” Karlsson says.
With the apartment’s 18th-century proportions flooded with abundant natural light, even on the greyest winter day, it was an immersive magical experience to stand in the space surrounded by such ebullient colour and pattern. Alongside ‘Baobab Tree’, the kitchen was given a lift with the painterly swirls of ‘Kawakubo’ from last autumn’s Shinrin YOKU collection, a nod to fashion designer and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo. Meanwhile, the dining space was turned into a haute fashion moment with the brand’s forthcoming ‘Couture Carousel’, emblazoned with couture croquis sketches inspired by vintage Harrods magazine covers and designed in collaboration with the department store to honour its 175th birthday in 2024 (the collection is available directly from Cole & Son from July 2025).
'Couture Carousel' depicts couture croquis sketches inspired by vintage Harrods magazine covers
Inside Cole & Son's Third Collaboration with Ardmore
‘Baobab Tree’ is a tantalising taste of Cole & Son’s third collaboration with Ardmore, the South African studio of Zulu artists founded by Fée Halsted on her farm located at the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains in the wilder, more remote eastern region of KwaZulu-Natal. Both Karlsson and Halsted wanted to create a panoramic ‘tree of life’ with the Baobab tree at its centre (a tree most fundamental to the arid savannah ecosystem and seen as a symbol of positivity in a landscape where little else thrives). “We then knew we could fill it with all the beautiful birds Fée and her artists have been painting on their ceramics for so many years,” Karlsson explains.
Cole & Son’s wallpaper collaborations with Ardmore have long been inspired by the studio’s sought-after ceramics, where multiple artists work together on each handmade piece, from teapots and trinket boxes to bottle stoppers and sculptures. These items are considered highly collectible by the likes of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with some fetching tens of thousands of pounds at auction. Actress Helen Mirren and singer Eric Clapton are among Ardmore’s fans. The studio is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
Popular patterns such as the rhythmic ‘Leopard Walk’ debuted in Ardmore’s first collection with Cole & Son. Originally painted by Punch Shabalala (one of Ardmore’s oldest and most esteemed artists), it led to a riot of designs in the 2021 ‘Jabula’ collection, including the pink-eared ‘Bush Baby’ nestled in a canopy of leaves, the grand procession of animals at watering time in ‘Letaba March’, and the vibrant tableau of ‘Afrika Kingdom’ (where eagle owls, rhinos, crocodiles and zebras frolic amongst lofty palm trees and giant proteas).
The Shinrin YOKU Collection is inspired by the practice of forest bathing and connecting with nature. Shown here, Japanese Chinoiserie - Grasscloth
‘Baobab Tree’, the first in a collection of “seven or eight new designs that will launch in the summer,” says Karlsson, is a manifestation of what she describes as ‘Design Meets Art’. “What we do is living art,” explains the tour de force Creative Director, who has led the brand for nearly a decade. “I work with a team of artists who simply love to paint, so I give them lots of creative freedom, which in turn fires my own passion and collaborating with the likes of Ardmore brings an added dimension to Cole & Son’s dynamic vision.”
“Translating the savannah’s raw excitement and the beauty of the African bushveld depicted in Ardmore’s ceramics is what becomes ‘quirk’ in our designs,” she adds. “Our customers buy into it because it’s fun and unexpected. We all need a little bit of that right now.”
A Turn Back to Heritage
Equally, customers turn to Cole & Son for its heritage, having provided wallpaper for some of the country’s greatest stately homes and historical landmarks, such as the Houses of Parliament. In tribute to its 150th anniversary, Cole & Son will launch Classics Collection Vol. I. in the spring. A series of designs drawn from the brand’s iconic archive. “We went back to seek out patterns that could be considered icons of tomorrow for us,” says Karlsson. With simple, graphic “analogue” patterns such as Acanthus, Strawberry and Willow Branch, it is a beautiful collection that is easy to buy into.
Creative and Managing Director, Marie Karlsson
Traditionally printed, using cylinder technology — “emulating the rollers in our archive, produced in the same way it would have originally been done” — it has been lent a contemporary twist with “a firework of vibrant colours to make it relevant for today,” Karlsson furthers, where shades traverse cobalt and fuchsia to daffodil yellow, cornflower blue and forest green. In the age of AI, Karlsson stresses that the brand’s process of working with colour is never done electronically. “You need to see the colours in front of you, in the daylight, to really know what you are working with because it can turn out so wrong if you only look at them on a screen,” she says. “I can’t highlight enough how important it is that our work remains authentic and unique.”
Whether it is working with an expert printer or a design collaborator like Halsted, “for me, as a creative as well as leading a creative team, I get more and more inspiration through human interactions,” says Karlsson. “As trendsetters in the interior design industry, I know that we can bring that feeling of the hand, heart and soul to a room. That same feeling can then be extended by the interior designers who work with our wallpapers and fabrics — so that we can really inspire the person who will live in that space.”
