The Josef Frank Effect: The Colorful and Exuberant Side of Swedish Modern Design Is Having a Moment
“When going bold with the wallpaper, it’s good to lean into another bold element,” explains Robert Highsmith, from AD100 firm Workstead. Highsmith paired the Klöverblad wallpaper by Josef Frank with a 19th-century New England drunkards path quilt in the guest room of a Hudson Valley Victorian home. “In this case, the quilt provides a sense of counterpoint and balance.”
Such thinking is a cordial approach to bold papers, particularly for clients who are shy to color or pattern, or worried about a print’s tendency to overwhelm. As Beckstedt explains, “I prefer to offset color and pattern with the warmth and texture of woods, which seem to make the pattern more timeless.” He advises doing a mockup for the client if you’re nervous about committing: “Buy a yard or two and have it installed in the actual space. Sometimes it can lead to a different selection than you originally thought would work.”
Fabric selections are often an early tell to an interior’s age, so why, many decades later, do Josef Frank patterns endure? Perhaps its their ability to feel simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. (The same of which could be said of William Morris’s Arts and Crafts–era patterns, which have stood the test of time.) Or their brilliant color palettes, wonderfully bold and offbeat. Highsmith has his own theory: “His prints exude whimsy while still having a formality to them. Much like Frank’s softening of modernism itself.”
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