Pushing Forty
Ronald Redding, vice president of design and archivist at York Wallcoverings, has been designing wallcoverings for most of his professional life and has become one of the most revered and celebrated designers in the industry. To celebrate his remarkable 40-year career, York has asked him to select some of his favorite designs to create an artistic collection of modern classics.
Passionate for history, Redding – who helped build York Wallcoverings’ Archives into a world-class collection – went straight to the source to create the Masters Anniversary Edition. While York’s Archives is a treasure trove of original designs dating to the late 1700s, sometimes the gems are diamonds in the rough. An old document may be poorly proportioned or off-color, but Redding is masterful in coaxing a stunning new design.
A flip through the Masters Anniversary Collection reads like a history of interior design. There are Jacobean-style florals, like “Talisman,” that harken to the Baroque era when 17th Century Europeans became besotted with the bold motifs of the romantic East.
“Sumatra” is inspired by a collection of hand-block printed books from China and features a blossom branch trail with contrasting silhouette shadow images to lend balance to the overall design.
The aptly named “York Archives” design is a fun twist on the classic trompe l’oeil bookshelf wallpaper, in which Redding rendered many of the archive’s actual rare reference books on history, art and interior design into an authentically literary design.
Redding was recently interviewed in the Las Vegas Review Journal and had this to say:
“I think people are tired of plain walls and plain paint. What they have observed on television and seen in magazines has promoted design — design on the walls. For the price of the product, a wallpaper will change the personality and value of a room more than any other product.”
To see (and touch) these and other patterns from the Masters Anniversary Edition by Ronald Redding Designs, stop by our showroom. This collection was 40 years in the making, but we’ll compress the best into an inspiring 40 minutes. Or as much time as you can spare.
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