Not so subtle. These tileable wood patterns are very useful.
Source Elemis
Little x’es, noise and all the stuff you like. Dark like a Monday, with a hint of blue.
Source Tom McArdle
You can never get enough of these tiny pixel patterns with sharp lines.
Source Designova
Based on several public domain drawings on Wikimedia Commons. This was formed from a rectangular tile. The tile can be accessed in Inkscape by selecting the rectangle and using shift-alt-i
Source Firkin
Like the name says, light and gray, with some small dots and circles.
Source Brenda Lay
A free grid paper background pattern for using on web sites.
Source V. Hartikainen
From a drawing in 'Friend or Fortune? The story of a strange year', Robert Overton, 1897.
Source Firkin
Recreated from a pattern found in 'Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia irásban és képben', 1882. To get the tile this is based on select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
A repeating background with a look of paper. I have added some changes to PatCreator. Now you can share your designs by submitting them to a new gallery section. Start by clicking Edit with PatCreator above.
Source V. Hartikainen
From a drawing in 'Codogno e il suo territorio nella cronaca e nella storia'', Gio and Giarella Cairo, 1897.
Source Firkin
Remixed from a drawing in 'Some account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers', John Nicholl, 1866.
Source Firkin
Inspired by a JPG that was uploaded to Pixabay by kokon_art
Source Firkin
Number 5 in a series of 5 beautiful patterns. Can be found in colors on the submitter’s website.
Source Janos Koos
A dark background pattern/texture of a dimpled metal plate.
Source V. Hartikainen
A seamless texture traced from an image on opengameart.org shared by Scouser.
Source Firkin
To get the tile this is based on, select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
Zero CC asphalt, pavement, texture, photographed and made by me. CC0 WARNING I FOUND A SEAM ON THIS TEXTURE
Source Sojan Janso
The original has been presented as black on transparent and stored in the pattern definitions. To retrieve the unit tile select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift+alt+i
Source Firkin
A seamless pattern the unit cell for which can be had by selecting the rectangle in Inkscape and using shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
By popular request, an outline version of the pentagon pattern.
Source Atle Mo
A background pattern with wavy green vertical stripes. This one has green stripes on a white background. Download if you like it.
Source V. Hartikainen