Artist Charis Jackson Barrios releases her collection for wallpaper company Otto Studio
Artist Charis Jackson Barrios has long loved interior design.
As a child, she wanted to paint her room in her then-favorite color, lavender. After graduating from the distinguished New York City art university, The Cooper Union, she returned to her native Greenville and created a beautiful apartment, filling her studio wall with collected art to inspire her.
“I just love spaces and being in a comfortable, beautiful space. As an artist, I’m very particular about where and how I do my work,” says the illustrator, who’s worked with Google, The New Yorker, and Disney, illustrated children’s books, and released original artworks as limited-edition prints.
While she creates greeting cards and designs for gift presentations as a Hallmark illustrator, the 30-year-old also loves making patterns—influenced by Pinterest boards filled with “architecture and pattern and where it comes up in spaces,” she says—and imagining them as wall coverings, wrapping paper, and soft goods.
So, getting to work “with a wallpaper company is right up my alley,” she says of her recently released collaboration with Otto Studio. It came about after she posted a pattern on Instagram and tagged the Vancouver-based, women-owned company known for high-end, yet renter-friendly, peel-and-stick wallpaper, decals, and tiles.
From Mood Board to Otto Studio
Its founders, Jen Cook and Hannah Lee, liked what they saw and messaged her. “Our mission is to help people love their spaces. Part of creating a home you love is expressing who you are: your references, histories, memories, and stories. Charis’s work tells a story we knew would resonate with our audience,” Cook says.
Jackson Barrios created a Mediterranean- and tropical-inspired mood board with a warm color palette and got advice on “what would be the most user-friendly to install and colorway trends we thought people would love,” Cook says. Otherwise, the artist had free creative rein on the collection’s 14 vinyl wallpapers, decals, and floor tiles, featuring bright tropical palms and vines, intricate floral mosaics, and more.
Inspiration came from her Paraguayan and African American heritage, Southern culture, and love of art history. “I think it’s fun to be able to pull from a lot of different things in my background and see what comes of it,” she says, mentioning ñandutí, a Paraguayan lace-making technique in the Collected Delft wallpaper. It mimics the traditional blue-and-white ceramic tiles, but she added different iconography.
She envisions it paired with her Handpainted Floral or Jeweled Mosaic Tiles. “The dream is that if someone was redoing a room, they could shop the collection and put pieces together,” she says, adding, “I can’t wait to put it in my space somewhere.”
Charis Jackson Barrios Achieves Goal
At the start of each year, Jackson Barrios creates a digital vision board on her iPad Pro of what she wants the next twelve months to hold. The board might contain images of places to travel, goals to achieve, or creative projects to pursue. Creating a collection for Otto Studio fulfilled one of her 2024 goals: collaborating with a brand. On the vision board for 2025? Adding one of her wallpapers to her mid-century style apartment. “I’m a renter, so it’s nice that I can do something like this and add my own work to live with,” she says.
To see Jackson Barrios’ complete collection with Otto Studio, visit shop.thisisottostudio.com/en-us/collections/charisjbstudiocollection. For more of her other artwork, visit charisjb.studio or follow @charisjb.studio on Instagram.
