Sinhala Sidewall | Schumacher

We shared this IGTV video of this Royal Tunbridge Wells project a few weeks ago and ‘where’s the wallpaper from?’ was a comment that came up again and again. A timeless classic, the Sinhala Sidewall by Schumacher is a traditional tree of life design that derives from an antique French Indienne print that has been reinterpreted to suit today’s rooms. We really love how it frames the kitchen when you’re in the dining room and felt it deserved its own blog post here on HM.

When viewing this truly magnificent French Indienne wall covering for the very first time, ‘thank goodness for seventeenth century Armenian Merchants’ might not be the first thing that springs to mind. However, if it hadn’t been for them introducing the technique to France from Eastern India, via the port of Marseilles, then some thirty years later to England, it undoubtedly would not have adorned the walls of our magnificent homes for decades, or possibly even centuries to come.

This method of producing painted or printed textiles was a very long and extremely complex process, but it ultimately offered a vibrancy of colours that no other technique could come close to. When one thinks of prohibition, America in the 1920’s and 1930’s will be foremost in most people’s minds, but perhaps not the prohibition of Indienne prints in France as a result of their popularity.

Let’s now jump forward in time to the present day – this wonderful wallcovering was designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard and manufactured by Schumacher Bullard has breathed new life into this traditional ‘tree of life’ design, by dragging it kicking and screaming into the twenty first century with a masterful use of scale, hues, tints and tones.

As a former international Interior Designer of the Year and ranked in the top twenty-five interior designers in the world by Elle Decor, he has created this dramatic piece entitled Sinhala Sidewall which is available both as a wall covering and as a printed linen fabric. The wallcovering here is one of four colourways; this one is Sky, others include Stone, Jewel and Bittersweet.

To find out more about Sinhala Sidewall, visit the Schumacher website here.