Ekphrasis, which is an art form I quite like, is the verbal representation of visual art, the most famous example being Homer’s lengthy description of the Shield of Achilles in the Iliad. In an interesting reverse on this form, illustrator and designer Katie Deedy “specializes in narrative-inspired wallpaper.” Her Brooklyn-based company Grow House Grow uses stories as a starting point for visual inspiration, so that all its collections interpret romance, lyric, or epic.

Aleister Crowley in Veil. Designed by Kaite Deedy of Grow House Grow.

This year’s Parlour Room Collection imagines a time when most people had the title space, a luxurious place that served as “the hub for social meetings, teas and general entertainment” (Deedy admits that she might have been affected by the decidedly New York lack of interior territory). Parlour Room papers envision a past “when entertaining was a well-oiled ritual, rife with etiquette and attention to detail.” Each of the designs in this collection imagines what the parlour rooms of history’s more mysterious, if forgotten, players might have looked like. From sea captains to cattle wranglers, the characters are curious and sometimes uncanny—producing distinctive wallpapers with old-world charm in modern-day interpretations. Aleister Crowley, for example, is a pattern of ornamental flowers in a subdued color palette that takes as much inspiration from art nouveau typography as it does from Crowley’s cabalistic practices. Its three incarnations—Felt Leaf, Primrose, and Veil—harness the magical, reputedly wicked nature of Crowley: “avid occultist, insatiable drug user and devoted hedonist.” The muted green, Victorian rose, and smoky grey colors do much to stress the corrupt aura of Aleister Crowley. And the design reminds me of a magician’s theatrical poofs of smoke (if not the plumes of an opium pipe).

Aleister Crowley in Felt Leaf and Cattle Kate in Hay. Designed by Kaite Deedy of Grow House Grow.

Aleister Crowley in Primrose. Designed by Kaite Deedy of Grow House Grow.

Cattle Kate is another wallcovering from the Parlour Room Collection that uses a historical personage as its muse, in this case the Wyoming frontierswoman who was “tangled in a web of rumors, mystery and all-out lies.” Appropriately available in Hay, Sterling, and Teton, this wallpaper incorporates Western motifs. Papers are hand silkscreened with care on clay-coated, wipable, strippable paper. All of the offerings in Grow House Grow’s Parlour Room Collection capitalize on the elegance of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, featuring sinuous lines, dramatic damasks, and opulent colors. Choose whatever individual/design strikes your historical fancy, but I have a distinct preference for the more scandalous persons of ill repute.