1970s Korean Vintage Wallpaper — Sookhee (original / Old Pink / Oxley)

Reproduced from a late 1960s–early 1970s original found in the 1945 Manisanbang hanok on Ganghwa Island — a sky-blue damask whose classical S-scroll structure carries simplified cartoon flowers instead of acanthus, translating European formality into the bright, cheerful register of Korea’s baby-boom living room. Available in three colorways: Original, Old Pink, and Oxley. Sookhee was discovered in the 1945 hanok in Heungwang-ri, Ganghwa Island, now known as Manisanbang, and dates to the late 1960s–early 1970s. Its ground is sky blue — a high-brightness, high-chroma palette that announces its era immediately. Olive-green stems trace the S-curve of a classical damask, framing small cartouches filled with simplified yellow and orange flowers and dot ornaments. From a distance the structure reads as formal wallpaper; up close, the flowers have the lightness of a children’s illustration. The pattern’s double nature is the key to its cultural position. The skeleton is unambiguously European damask — the same S-scroll-and-cartouche grammar that furnished aristocratic interiors since the 17th century. But where a traditional damask would fill those cartouches with acanthus leaves and heavy grape tendrils, Sookhee places small cheerful blooms in pop colors. This substitution was deliberate and socially legible: Korea in the late 1960s was moving its families from earthen-walled hanoks into concrete-and-plywood yangok housing and apartment blocks, and the new interiors demanded something bright and modern. Scandinavian design and mid-century modernism had arrived via US military-era magazines and Japanese channels, and the Korean wallpaper industry translated that influence into accessible floral warmth. The result is a wallpaper that belongs structurally to the 19th century and emotionally to the Korean baby-boom family living room.   Roll size : 50cm by 10M Material : Non-woven paper Made in Sweden, Designed in Korea