Baemui, a company dedicated to restoring and recording traditional houses in Korea, has come across a great variety of wallpapers through its work.
A hanok (traditional Korean house) built in 1936
After peeling off layer after layer, sometimes over a dozen wallpapers have been discovered, revealing a certain chronology. As the restoration work has mostly taken place in residential houses, the first layer usually includes recycled materials such as letters, documents, newspapers or even sketches. These discoveries provide valuable insight into local and everyday life at the time and serve as important resources for regional scholars studying Korean history.
First layer of wallpaper, applied on a layer of newspaper dating from 1945
Those discoveries indicate that Korea has maintained a tradition of patterned wallpaper since the 18th century, during the Joseon Dynasty. Before the late 19th century, Korean wallpaper was largely influenced by Chinese designs, either produced domestically or imported. However, from the late 19th century onwards, as Korea opened its borders, international styles - particularly from the West and Japan - began to influence local design.
Wallpaper estimated to be from the late 19th century
Most of the wallpaper materials discovered date from the late 19th century to the 1970s, covering Korea’s modern and contemporary periods. Prior to Korea’s colonisation by Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Korean royal court imported wallpapers from various Western countries, including Britain, the United States, and Russia. These imported designs were eventually copied or reinterpreted in a Korean style. Initially, patterned wallpaper was limited to the upper classes (up to the 1920s), but over time, it spread to the emerging bourgeoisie by the 1940s, the middle class by the 1960s, and eventually the general population by the 1970s.
Korean patterned wallpaper also reflects the country’s turbulent modern history, with designs illustrating Korea’s rapid modernisation, colonisation, the Korean War (1950-1953) - a marker of the Cold War - and the intense periods of industrialisation and democratisation.
An example of wallpaper made during the Korean War
While it may be challenging to date wallpaper patterns by design alone in the West, it is almost impossible in Korea. Over the past 150 years, Korea has absorbed an extensive mix of cultural influences, and in doing so the country did not simply adopt the latest design trends from each culture. As a result, patterns from different eras are often jumbled together.
Even wallpapers with Western-style patterns were produced in formats that differed from typical Western rolls. Instead, shorter, rectangular sheets were common, similar to papiers dominotés - small printed or hand-painted sheets of decorative paper common in Europe from the 16th to 18th centuries. These resembled papers already used in traditional Korean houses where there are typically two main types of space: maru, an open area with exposed wooden structures and plastered walls, and bang, a box-shaped room where the walls, ceiling, and floors are all covered in paper. Wallpaper for bang was not applied in rolls, but rather in rectangular sheets that were joined together. For ceilings, a lattice structure was created using thin wires, bamboo, or narrow wooden strips, with one sheet of wallpaper applied to each section of the grid. Not only were the walls papered, but the floors were also covered with thick paper, which was then finished with either lacquer or soybean oil for durability and a smooth surface.
Koreans favoured smooth, thin paper over embossed or textured wallpapers, as it allowed light to gently filter through the wooden lattice of traditional internal doors, creating a soft and subtle effect throughout the room.
Inside a traditional house: wallpaper covering walls and ceiling, paper doors and other paper ornaments.
In 2022, after many discoveries, Baemui created a branch called Gosaté, dedicated to the research, restoration and reproduction of Korean wallpapers. As there is no previous record or information about wallpaper in Korea, Gosaté always welcomes new insights from other wallpaper enthusiasts and researchers.
Kang Dongsu, founder of Baemui and Gosaté
Instagram @baemui.naru @gosate.kr
All images by the author