The recently launched Stucco wallpaper and fabric collection by Glasgow-based design studio Timorous Beasties playfully nods to Le Corbusier’s “Law of Ripolin,” in which he attributed whitewashed walls with spiritual and moral cleansing powers. 

With the Stucco collection, Timorous Beasties reimagined this belief with subtle ornateness, referencing decorative plasterwork and damasks rather than flat-white walls; hints of thick opaque-inked patterns are revealed as though seen through cracked and split paint. 

Comprised of 11 wallcoverings and five fabric designs, with each hand-printed offering being a modern-take on classic motifs. On the woven-fabric side of the collection, designs like Stucco Allover and Paint Crackle (two new jacquards) introduce texture and depth through their density and detailed line drawings, while Tudor Rose Lace brings lightness with its delicate lace pattern in a bold repeat; Stucco Stripe, a hand-printed linen, incorporates an intricately drawn baroque floral; and Le Grande Baroque subdues the graphic impact through the use of a monotoned opaque white. 

The hand-printed wallcoverings in the Stucco collection by Timorous Beasties includes: neutral players like Corince Crown and Acanthus Leaf, which riff on ornamental and decorative plasterwork often found on Victorian-era apartment ceilings; Coving Row, a vertical repeat that references Scottish interior designs; and Cracked Up, an interpretation of distressed and peeling plaster. 

Four of the wallpapers in the collection that directly reference Corbu’s Law of Ripolin – Emulsion Imagination, Rip Swathe, Painted Pugin and Whitewash Rose – a timeworn expression shines through, giving each the sense that layers of plasterwork have peeled away over decades, allowing glimpses of an underlying pattern that create depth and dimension. 

Rounding out the Stucco wallpaper are Studio Crackle, a barely-there damask-like floral; Stucco Stripe, an undulating vertical repat of large-scale florals and Ripolin Panel, an extravagant and uniquely layered design that is fully compostable and showcases Timorous Beasties’s signature digital-printing technologies complemented by hand-printing methods. 

All the wallpapers in the Stucco collection are handmade at the Glasgow studio, and are printed on non-woven, sustainably forested paper.