Words by Vaani Bhala
Field Notes from India
Wallpaper is often understood as a European invention. It is associated with eighteenth century salons, grand houses, and the rise of interior decoration as a discipline. What is rarely acknowledged is that the logic behind wallpaper did not begin on walls at all. It began on cloth. Long before paper was printed for interiors, Indian artisans were perfecting surface design through hand block printing on cotton. These textiles travelled widely, admired for their repeat patterns, durability, and visual rhythm. When they entered European homes, they did more than decorate furniture and clothing. They changed how surfaces were imagined.
"Before walls were printed, cloth taught Europe how to repeat."
Indian block printing has been practised for over a thousand years across regions such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. The technique relies on hand carved wooden blocks, natural dyes, and a deep understanding of pattern repeat. Each colour requires a separate block, and each layer must align precisely. When these textiles reached Europe through trade routes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they introduced something new. Not just motifs, but systems. The idea that a surface could be organised through repeat, rhythm, and variation rather than singular imagery. European artisans took notice.
Before wallpaper became a commodity, walls were treated as static surfaces. They were painted, panelled, or covered with tapestries. Indian printed textiles changed this perception. They demonstrated that pattern could be continuous, scalable, and adaptable to space.
In many European homes, Indian cottons were initially used as wall hangings. They were stretched, pinned, or framed, valued for their colourfastness and ability to transform interiors quickly. Over time, the desire to replicate this effect on paper emerged.
Early European wallpapers borrowed directly from textile logic. Repeating floral motifs, borders, and panel layouts mirrored those found in Indian block printed fabrics. The difference lay in medium, not design intelligence.
Block printing offered more than visual inspiration. It provided a method. The concept of carving a unit, repeating it across a surface, and allowing slight variation became foundational to surface design. European wallpaper makers adapted this logic to woodcut printing on paper, later refining it through mechanical means.
As wallpaper production expanded in the eighteenth century, its textile origins were gradually obscured. What had begun as an adaptation of cloth became framed as a decorative art form in its own right. The lineage from Indian print workshops to European wallpaper studios faded from view.
This erasure mirrors a familiar pattern. When techniques migrate, credit often shifts. The medium changes, the narrative resets, and the original knowledge is absorbed without acknowledgment.
Today, wallpaper is experiencing a revival. Hand drawn patterns, block inspired motifs, and irregular repeats are celebrated as artisanal and bespoke. Yet the origins of these qualities lie in centuries old textile practices developed in India.
At Material Archives, we view wallpaper not as a European invention, but as a continuation. A translation of textile intelligence onto architectural surfaces. Recognising this connection restores depth to both crafts.
Understanding the birth of wallpaper through block printing reframes design history. It reminds us that innovation often begins with adaptation, and that some of the most familiar surfaces around us are shaped by hands far removed from the walls they now inhabit.
Block printing did not remain confined to fabric. It taught the world how to think about pattern, repetition, and surface itself. And its influence still surrounds us, quietly and persistently, every time a wall tells a story through print.