Multiple Drop Pattern Repeat

Re my recent installation of this pattern … Interestingly, this was a multiple drop pattern repeat, which is pretty uncommon, and mostly found in pricey boutique brands. Multiple drops can be pretty brain twisting to figure out. In a nutshell, moving horizontally, on a typical half-drop repeat, a design motif repeats itself on every other strip. Meaning, the blue tree will be at the top of the wall on the first strip. On the second strip, it will drop down, for instance, 10″. On the third strip, it will be back up at the top of the wall.
On a multiple drop repeat, that blue tree drops down 10″ on the second strip, then down 20″ on the third strip, and then finally appears back at the top of the wall on the fourth strip.
If you study the photo really closely, you will note that all those blue trees are not the same. Some lean to the left and some lean to the right. Across the nine strips it took to cover this wall, that blue tree appeared at the top only twice.
This is an easy thing to miss, especially when all the motifs look pretty much the same. Many a wallpaper installer has assumed he was working with a traditional pattern match, and cut all his strips at the beginning of the job – only to find the strips don’t match!

Tags: boutique brand, every other, half-drop, installer, multiple drop, pattern match, pattern repeat, strip, wallpaper