Wallpaper designer Briana DeVoe White starts every design with a watercolor. “There’s something about the digital printing process [that allows] you to see the details of the [original] painting and the artist’s hand in the work,” she tells Business of Home. “You get that beauty of the watercolor in the fabric, and that layering effect of block printing. I think that brings a modern aspect to patterns that can feel a little bit vintage.”
Growing up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, White took a lot of art classes in high school before getting a degree in fine and studio arts at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She took printmaking courses during a summer abroad at The Glasgow School of Art, and ultimately enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design after college to pursue textiles. “That was an amazing experience and led me to discovering wallpaper,” she says. “I worked for Eskayel in Brooklyn for about six years, and that’s where I learned how to produce the wallpaper and manage a collection. I did everything from invoicing to POs, customer service, sample orders, and then eventually [helping design] some collections with them, which are still out in the world today.”
In 2019, she left to start her own design studio, Briana DeVoe. But when the pandemic hit in 2020, White pivoted: She put the business on hold to move back to Santa Fe, where she cared for her father and started a family. She returned to the brand a few years later, officially relaunching at ICFF in 2024 with Hues of the High Desert, a collection based on the flora of her beloved Southwest.
Each of White’s designs begins with a watercolor that is then digitized and manipulated in Photoshop to create repeats. She sends the files to printers in Tennessee and Connecticut, which print the designs as orders roll in. Her creations are available in wallpapers, pillows and fabrics. “There’s no stock or extra waste in that regard,” she says.
Her latest style, Campanula in Bloom, reimagines a former pattern featuring desert bluebells in two new colorways: Canyon and Sienna. One of White’s favorite designs is called Forever Flowers, featuring blossoms falling from the ceiling. “It’s a wallpaper, but I’ve had clients hanging it the other direction too, so the flowers go up the wall,” she says. “I’ve heard that it’s going in a lot of little girls’ bedrooms, which I think is really cute and sophisticated. I think it’ll last through girlhood, through teenagehood—it’s a timeless piece.”
Slow and steady wins the race for White, who has high hopes for more collections down the line as she continues to learn the ropes of running a studio. “It’s a slow growth right now,” she says. “[I’m] getting myself out there, learning about myself and learning about my business as it grows—just trying to keep it authentic and fresh in terms of who I am and what I want to offer. Offering an eco-friendly product that is going to last and bring some calm and joy to a space feels like a big success to me. I like to imagine where the wallpapers and the fabrics will live in someone’s home, and it feels really good.”
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