How Riverpine Started: My Journey into Wallpaper Design

I was born in Alamar, a Soviet-style neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba. Rows of gray concrete buildings, all the same. Not a place that screams creativity, but I had the sea, impossibly blue and warm. Green everywhere, plants that grew over balconies and walls until everything looked forgotten.

That mix of sad roughness and beauty shaped me more than I realized. That’s probably where my imagination started working overtime. I spent hours reading. The stories I loved pulled me somewhere else. Many were set in the 1800s, filled with rich details of interiors, fabrics, and design. They opened a world that couldn’t have been more different from mine — rooms full of pattern, texture, and history. Those stories planted something in me that never left: a love for art, craftsmanship, and the beauty of design that tells a story.

Years in the Making

I studied architectural restoration and visual arts, and later taught myself design. I moved to the States and spent over ten incredible years working in the film industry as an executive. During lunch breaks, I’d walk down 38th Street, a few blocks from my office, into the Fashion District. I started buying fabric just to collect it, to study how it was made, to understand texture, color, and pattern. It became a beautiful obsession that taught me the language of design.

Interior of the Morgan Library in New York, showing ornate wood paneling, iron balconies, decorative ceilings, and a woman admiring the historic book collection.

The Morgan Library, New York. One of my favorite places when I lived in the city — I loved spending time here, surrounded by books, art, and history. © Danelys Sidron.

I often imagined what the city must have looked like in the 1800s — the architecture, the hidden corners that still survive between the new buildings. On the side, I kept designing, building collections, and licensing my artwork to companies around the world. Every project helped me refine my style and build the foundation for what would become Riverpine, a heritage wallpaper and surface design studio inspired by art, pattern, and history.

Through all those years, one thought kept coming back. One day, I wanted to create something of my own. A place where all the things I love — art, pattern, and history — could live together.

Studying William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement

Last winter, I went to London to take a wallpaper printing course at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I’ve visited the museum many times before, but this time felt different. The course focused on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, exploring the history of traditional wallpaper and textile design. It was taught by Jo Banham, Art Historian and Wallpaper Specialist, who guided us through the origins, philosophy, and evolution of Arts and Crafts design. We learned how 19th-century designers approached pattern-making, the techniques they used for handmade wallpaper production. William Morris believed that wallpaper should bring the natural world indoors. His patterns of British flora, such as acanthus, honeysuckle, and willow, printed with vegetable dyes and hand-block methods, became models of the Arts and Crafts ideal—beauty, skill, and usefulness in equal measure.

Sunflower wallpaper, designed by William Morris and printed by Jeffrey & Co. in 1879, England. Museum no. E.513-1919. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The hands-on workshop was led by Daniel Heath, an award-winning British designer known for his sustainable approach and heritage-inspired techniques. Under his direction, we practiced a traditional wallpaper printing method, layering colors and experimenting with alignment and registration. Mixing pigments, rolling ink, and watching the design appear on paper was messy, fascinating, and deeply rewarding.

When I saw Morris’s original wallpaper watercolors and works by other Arts and Crafts designers in the V&A archives, it felt surreal. Standing in front of the work that had shaped my imagination for so long was emotional and grounding. That trip gave me the clarity and confidence to start Riverpine Studio, a heritage wallpaper brand inspired by traditional craftsmanship, history, and the artistry of design.

V&A Museum – William Morris Collection ->

Building Riverpine

Back home in Spain, I started working on what would become my first Riverpine wallpaper collection. Each design begins as a painting and then moves into digital refinement for color and scale. It is steady work, full of trial, error, and small discoveries that make the process worth it.

I continue to license my designs to wallpaper and textile companies, and I value that side of my business deeply. But Riverpine became the place where I could bring everything together — the influences, the craftsmanship, and my own creative voice.

Vintage-inspired dark floral wallpaper with cream flowers and gold foliage on a deep background, part of Riverpine’s heritage wallpaper collection.

Annabelle wallpaper, designed by Danelys Sidron for Riverpine Studio. A heritage floral pattern featuring soft cream and gold tones on a dark ground, inspired by 19th-century British design traditions. © Danelys Sidron.

Every detail in Riverpine connects back to my story: the gray buildings covered in green, the books that opened new worlds, the years spent designing for others, and the course that reminded me why I fell in love with this kind of work in the first place. It took time to get here, and that’s what gives it meaning.