Wallcoverings 

Whilst wallcoverings have transformed the walls of our homes for centuries, the continual development of processes & materials as well as the recent digital revolution has provided a unique platform for today’s consumers to create a home tailored to their more specific design and colour requirements using the various tools and imagery available. As a result, wallpaper has never been more diverse or more popular!

For FAQs on wallcoverings, see our dedicated page here.

Leaders in Innovation – inventing sustainable beauty 

The wallcoverings sector has expanded its offering time & time again never happy with simply standing still & wanting to drive design & create beauty in our indoor spaces. 

The sector has achieved this by focusing on a number of areas, 
Firstly, product development building on established partnerships with its supply chain to drive new product technology such as paste the wall & peel & stick products. 

Secondly, process development looking at expanding existing machinery capability as well as working with equipment manufacturers to develop processes to give different design or production benefits such as gravure screen hybrid machinery or retrofitting UV curing units on gravure presses. 

Finally, design development via collaborative working with engravers & printing ink suppliers in hand with the above research & development this proactive approach gives the designers an ever-changing toolkit which allows them to create more diversity in their art & push the status quo. 

I-Dott - Inspiring designers of tomorrow today

All this innovation needs to be supporting by technical & compliance leadership. The BCF support this by holding the Chair position of the BSi CW35 Wallcoverings Technical Committee the mirror committee to the CEN TC 99 Wallcoverings Technical Committee to ensure regulation & product safety testing keep up with the sector & the products being developed. 

BSi Standards Development  - Wallcoverings

Made in UK – making houses into homes 

The UK has always been a significant force in the global wallcovering market & this is still true today with a wide range of historic, traditional & modern printing techniques being used in the UK today to manufacture art for your walls, whether it be in the home or in commercial settings. 

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)

EPDs (Environmental Product Declaration) are developed following strict international standards, ensuring reliability and consistency across different products and industries. They undergo a rigorous life cycle assessment, considering the environmental impact of a product from material extraction to end of life. This approach provides a comprehensive overview of a product's environmental footprint.

IGI – the Global Wallcoverings Association has developed EPDs for 5 categories of wallcovering created according to the specifications of EN 15804+A2. undergoing external independent verification of the declaration and data according to ISO 14025:2011.

This provides a verified transparent information tool that can be accessed by companies and consumers alike.

The IGI EPDs are also published on the following platforms: IBU (Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. – DE) , UL (USA) , IES (International EPD System) & Eco Platform.

Vinyl wallcoverings on cellulose fibre base

Vinyl wallcoverings on non-woven backing

Vinyl wallcoverings on woven textile backing

Wallcoverings on cellulose fibre base

Wallcoverings on non-woven base

21st century revolution 

Whilst wallcoverings have transformed the wall of our homes for centuries, the recent digital revolution has provided a unique platform for today’s consumers to create a home tailored to their more specific design and colour requirements using the various tools and imagery available, as a result wallpaper has never been more popular!

In today’s climate the wallcoverings sector continues to innovate but with sustainable development being at the forefront. 
• Digitally Printed Wallcoverings 
• Sustainable Development: Raw Materials
• Sustainable Development: Energy Consumption/Efficiencies

History of Wallcoverings – our forebearers 

For most people wallpapering is seen as a chore and unappreciated, and just something colourful to cover the walls, which is a far cry from the early days when many of the middle class often bought it as a mimic to Tapestry, Painted Cloth and Wall Hangings. It was an indication of one's wealth and status and was originally intended as a decorative art in its own right. We are fortunate, that as an Industry, there is a well-documented and sizeable library of information to draw on, and this is an attempt to give a feel of the main developments and influences in the industry over the period of its life.

Wallpaper has been around for hundreds of years with the earliest mention in Europe dating to 1481 and at that time consisted of individual sheets pasted together before painting.  In 1712 a tax was introduced on the manufacture of printed, painted or stained paper, based according to the square yard, so clearly Wallpaper had become established as a form of decoration for the middle class and the Treasury considered it a commodity worth taxing. At this time the earliest printed wallpapers were produced by Block Printing, where the image is cut, in relief, onto the surface of a Hardwood Block.

In the second half of the 18th Century copper and brass pins were added to give more detail. This printing method is still used today by a few small specialist companies using, in some cases, printing blocks dating back to the turn of the century.

In the early 1800's Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier developed a machine for making a continuous web of paper and the "Fourdrinier Machine" had arrived. This transformed the printing industry, and particularly Wallpaper Printing, and in 1839 Harold Potter from Potter and Ross in Darwen, Lancashire patented a continuous length printing machine. This used a principal developed from printing Calico, to produce a roller printing machine which we today know as Surface Printing. The initial machines were quite crude, but by 1850 could print 8 colours, and by 1854 up to 20 colours, in perfect register. In 1871 so called Sanitary Papers were introduced which were the first fully washable wallpapers, using spirit and oil-based inks as opposed to water, and varnished to give them more resistance and durability. They were a response to the growing concerns for cleanliness at the end of the 19th Century, and so successful were they that Health Organisations across the country ensured, that despite the designs being flat and boring, no other wallcovering could be used in areas where hygiene was the top priority such as hospitals etc.

1877 saw the development of Lincrusta by Fredrick Walton, the inventor of Linoleum. This used Linseed Oil, Gum Resin and Wood Pulp, to produce a deeply embossed, relief pattern. Although not strictly a Sanitary Paper it was completely waterproof and extremely durable and was used in cars, railway carriages and even ships. Lincrusta is still produced today using similar ingredients and offering many of the same properties.

The name Anaglypta is probably the most famous and well know of all Wallpapers and was launched and patented in 1887 by T J Palmer, a former manager at Lincrusta. It was originally made on a small paper machine using cotton fibres, and was a plain, non-printed, hollow backed, white paper. The manufacturing process allowed heavily embossed relief designs to be achieved, which did not flatten when pasted and hung. The name Anaglypta was taken from the Latin meaning carved in relief or embossed. It was developed and sold by C & J G Potter and Company of Darwen, Lancashire. Anaglypta is still produced today, at a new site close to Morecambe in Lancashire using a slightly different method, but retaining many of the existing patterns and designs.

With all these developments in the Industry production rose steadily from 5 million rolls in 1851 to over 32 million in 1874.

In 1890 the process of Photogravure was devised, where designs were transferred onto the surface of a copper cylinder, photographically, and etched into the copper using acid. This enabled excellent depth and colour tones to be achieved, and in 1934 the first Wallpaper Collection printed by Rotogravure was produced by the French Company Leroy. Today Rotogravure is widely used to print both Paper and Vinyl Wallcoverings.

Flexographic Printing, using rubber covered rollers, cut in relief, was only introduced into Wallpaper Printing in 1969 by the Oldham Company Cobden and Chadwick. It was used extensively in paper and packaging printing prior to this, and proved a very effective method, at a time when cost and production performance were important and continues to be used today.

Screen Printing or Silk Screen, as it is also referred to, is a form of stencil printing through an open mesh. Originally using a long flat table, (and still used today) it was only developed in Rotary form in the early 1960's by the Stork Company in Holland. It uses seamless nickel cylindrical screens and is widely used today for printing both ink and liquid PVC Plastisols.

For further information, see below:

History of Wallpaper - Wallpaper History Society

V&A - Wallpaper

The Whitworth Art Gallery - Wallpaper