Bringing Korea’s forgotten wallpaper culture
back into everyday life.
Korea’s Wallpaper CultureAn Inheritance of Pattern
Korea holds a distinctive wallpaper culture rarely found elsewhere in the world. Patterned wallpapers, especially those rich in color and ornament, have a long history that reaches back to the Joseon period. Yet in modern Korea, this once-vivid culture of decorative wallcovering has largely disappeared from daily life, and remains almost entirely unstudied.
GOSATÉ is a wallpaper brand born from BAEMUI, a company dedicated to documenting, researching, and restoring Korea’s disappearing architectural heritage. We archive and study Korea’s forgotten interior tradition of dobaeji, then reproduce those findings as wallpapers, fabrics, and other objects that can be used in contemporary spaces. In doing so, GOSATÉ becomes a bridge between a vanishing culture of interior decoration and the lives we inhabit today.
The Time Layers of Old HousesFrom an Alley Called Gosat
GOSATÉ takes its name from gosat, a pure Korean word meaning a narrow village lane or alley. Through BAEMUI’s work documenting and restoring Korea’s disappearing architectural heritage, we encountered layers of aged wallpaper hidden inside old houses at the ends of these alleys. Within those strata, we discovered the everyday aesthetics of Korean life.
Old wallpaper is not merely a disposable surface. It is one of the most intimate records of a generation’s taste and way of life, preserving the traces of ordinary people with remarkable clarity. GOSATÉ seeks to carry the warm memories held by these old homes into the spaces of the present.
Deotbang: Three Centuries in LayersWallpaper Archive
Korea’s ondol floor-heating culture gave rise to a distinctive practice called deotbang: applying new wallpaper directly over the old to help insulate the room against cold. Because of this practice, GOSATÉ has encountered rare historical records in which hundreds of years, from the late Joseon period to the modern era, are preserved layer upon layer like fossils.
If the newspapers and documents found behind the wallpaper testify to the decisive events of their time, the patterns on the front preserve the original artistry enjoyed by ordinary households. Through our own wallpaper archive, GOSATÉ systematically preserves and manages more than 300 patterns dating from the late Joseon period through the 1970s, documenting a forgotten chapter of Korean interior culture.
Names for the NamelessNames for the Anonymous
Every wallpaper discovered and restored by GOSATÉ is given a person’s name. In the eras when these wallpapers were made, the ideas of “designer” or “artist” did not yet exist in this field, so every pattern we encounter is anonymous.
To honor those unnamed makers, and to remember the unknown people who once bought wallpaper from a neighborhood paper shop with the simple excitement of decorating their homes, we study the historical period of each discovery and choose a name from that era that feels most fitting for the pattern.
Not a Specimen, but a Living HeritageA Living Heritage
To reproduce the beauty of the past, GOSATÉ pursues an uncompromising standard of quality. Through a global partnership with Rebel Walls, a brand by Sweden’s historic wallpaper manufacturer Gimmersta, our refined production system translates the delicate textures and deep colors of historical patterns for contemporary living environments.
We focus on every nuance of the paper’s texture, creating wallpaper not as a museum specimen, but as a living heritage that can be touched and experienced in everyday life. GOSATÉ products stand where historical value and contemporary function meet.
When Commerce Sustains CultureA Self-Sustaining Circle
GOSATÉ began with a simple urgency: the desire to protect a precious chapter of Korea’s interior architectural heritage before it disappears into forgetting. Preserving that heritage, however, requires resources, labor, and continuity. The growth of GOSATÉ is directly tied to the recovery of this cultural legacy.
A portion of the revenue generated by GOSATÉ is reinvested into research and restoration: discovering Korean wallpapers and documenting them with care. This sustainable circle, where economic activity supports cultural preservation, is both our social responsibility and our reason for being. We invite you to join GOSATÉ in recording memory and restoring everyday life.
A Design House Beyond WallpaperBeyond Wallpaper
GOSATÉ is more than a wallpaper manufacturer. We aspire to be a design house that creates new value from an extensive archive of historical patterns. We seek to expand Korea’s forgotten interior culture into architecture, fashion, technology, living design, and other contemporary fields.
GOSATÉ currently holds more than 300 original wallpaper patterns and bespoke design solutions that are not publicly available online. If you are interested in a new project or content collaboration using the GOSATÉ archive, we welcome you to reach out.
