Tuesday, August 6, 2013

How To Mix Patterns Into Your Home

Yay for a bonus post today! One of the hardest things for me to learn about designing my apartment was how to layer patterns - and it is still a work in progress!

As a starting place, try to narrow down design to 2-3 colors with a neutral. 1-2 colors should be your primary, 1 color for your 'pop' and then the neutral(s). Doing this will help your space keep from feeling overwhelming.

You should also balance large, medium and small scale patterns together. The smaller the pattern, the fewer colors it should have.

But why type about patterns without pictures!?!?


My favorite here is the pinstripe with zebra and the tweed looking texture. You can really show your personality by picking a 2-3 classic pieces and then throwing in a coordinating kooky print.


Here they show how you can layer in a large green pattern, a large yellow/green pattern and then tone the rest of the room down with a neutral print on the couch and smaller prints on the pillows. The whole room is grounded and kept from being too overwhelming by all the white.


This blogger put a honeycomb inspired wall paper in black/white/gold with the black/white rug and then grounded the room with dark wood floors and the black leather couch.  


The writer of this article suggests starting small and incorporating pillows to dip your toe in the proverbial pool of patterns (that was some nice alliteration, huh?). He gives an example of a client that will eventually get upholstered walls but to make her more used to patterns he started with the pillows. I think that this is a great tip for anyone to use!


This blogger's post is glorious!!! So many pretty pictures of pattern inspirations! I could spend hours going through the links on this page (and may do so right after I finish posting this).

Hopefully these examples and suggestions will help you get inspired to add patterns to your home!

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