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Decorating Secrets: How to Layer Patterns Right
Here's How to Get That Perfect Mix of Color, Shape, Texture and Scale
I'm a home makeover TV show producer, interior designer and the creator of Decor Demon, lifestyle editorial with an edge. http://www.decordemon.com
I'm a home makeover TV show producer, interior designer and the creator... More »
If you've ever encountered a shallow, one-dimensional person — maybe a famous-for-being-famous reality TV star or perhaps an arch nemesis — it's likely you found him or her both cold and uninteresting. The same goes for interiors: A lack of layers can lead to an impersonal, unwelcoming space. While mixing colors and textures is often second nature for design enthusiasts, adding layers of patterns can be a bit more complex. After years of hits and misses in my own design career, I just recently got the pattern-mixing thing down. For anyone baffled by how to pull this off, here's my attempt to explain it the best I can — hoping my attempt to teach y'all ends up on my list of hits, not misses.
by decordemon
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While layering patterns works with walls, floors, upholstery, ceilings, window coverings and accessories, it's best to take baby steps when first trying it out. That being said, I recommend starting with pillows, then working your way up. In this particular space, my client will eventually have upholstered walls; however, starting with throw and floor pillows will get her comfortable with layering before we spend the big bucks.
by decordemon
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1. Edit your colors. Layering patterns involves four main elements: color, scale, shape and texture. If you're like me and you fall in love with four times the amount of fabric you need at a showroom, you'll need to go through some major editing. First up is color. Lay all your possible choices out on the floor and if certain ones look a hot mess and just don't play well with others, remove them from the mix right away. It's kinda like kicking an obnoxious reality cast member off the island after an elimination challenge but with fibers and weaves versus emotions and bad behavior.
by decordemon
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Here's an example of a great color edit. Notice how each of the four fabrics sports different shades of a common color, blue? This is what you ultimately want; the varying intensities lead to an evolved, effortless look. Something else that's happening here is a great mix of shapes going in different directions.
by decordemon
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2. Add contrast. Once you have your main color selection down, add a bit of contrast. In this case, an orange geometric.
by decordemon
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3. Vary the scale. While color and shape are easier to get a grasp on, scale is a bit more complicated. There are three different sizes of scale: small, medium and large. When mixing prints, try not to choose more than one of the same scale size; multiple patterns of the same scale often result in a one-way-ticket to Cluttersville...well, unless you're a total master like Betsy Burnham, that is. The five fabrics in this photo all fall under the small-scale category. Notice how your eye can't really decide which one to look at? My point exactly.
by decordemon
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4. Note an exception when it comes to medium-size patterns. Medium-scale patterns are even more complicated since there's an exception to the rule. You can sometimes mix more than one fabric from the medium-scale category if one of them is solid and sports a shape that is more about texture than a true contrasting pattern. In this case, the blue knit fabric with the knotted braid shape works well with both the yellow/white and brown/white geometric patterns; however, those two patterns — both with similar direction and movement — do not work well together since they are pretty much the same exact size.
by decordemon
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5. Limit yourself to one large-scale fabric design. And then there's large scale patterns. Close up, many large-scale patterns don't appear to fight; however, step back about six to eight feet and you'll notice that each is battling to take center stage. It's best to strictly stick with the "only one fabric from each scale category" when it comes to large-scale prints, unless you want each large print to look like it is eating the other...like a Tyrannosaurus Rex snacking on a Triceratops.
by decordemon
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6. The perfect mix. We've got a small-scale pattern sporting an orange geometric, a medium-scale blue pattern which is fluid and somewhat ethnic/global and a large-scale, graphic leaf pattern. The trio is also different directionally; the geometric runs vertically, the ethnic/global runs in a zigzag like pattern and the leaf fabric runs horizontally. Now, before you spend thousands on that fancy patterned rug and super special wallpaper, whaddya say you start with throw pillows, heh? Trust me, I may or may not have had experience doing it the other way around.
Sources:
Zahra Leaf from Iman Home
Euclid from Thom Filicia
Schiller from Thom Filicia
Sources:
Zahra Leaf from Iman Home
Euclid from Thom Filicia
Schiller from Thom Filicia
by betsy burnham
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Here's a space by the master of pattern mixing and layers, Betsy Burnham. Notice how all three sizes of scale are present on the day bed ensemble.
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by Judith Balis
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| This living room shows a successful mix of two black and white patterns which work harmoniously in a bold, sophisticated setting. Anyone else have any pattern mixing success stories or I-learned-this-from-experience tips? Speak up and tell us about it in the comments section, photos and all.
This living room shows a successful mix of two black and white patterns which work harmoniously in a bold, sophisticated setting. Share your tips! Anyone else have pattern mixing success stories or I-learned-this-from-experience tips? Please tell us about it in the comments section, photos and all! Next: Browse more home design photos |
Ideabook updated on May 19, 2011.
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They're gorgeous!
is great stuff. Thanks so much.
Putting the #3 yellow one into the small category is interesting... it looked immediately large to me, though I see you put it there because of the small boxes in the lines. However, the big white shapes were what jumped out at me before I saw that.
More of a question though for me, is the #5 yellow one.To me the #5 yellow one looks smaller than #4 when I put the photos side by side. To me it looks good with them because it looks smaller by contrast, rather than larger. I think I get why you put some of those patterns in #5 that you did (contrasting isolated shapes against the background?).. but I have to say that with the photos side by side, the #4 patterns look larger and bolder to me than the number #5 patterns overall. That #4 black one really dominates for me over all of #5 other than the plaid. Both the #4 black and the 4 yellow look bigger to me than the #5 red leaves in the upper left corner, though I am thinking you put that red one there because it has the isolated shapes on a different color background. Perhaps the #5 ones are busier due to isolated contrasting isolated shapes? But then the yellow one in #5 doesn’t have the isolated shapes and the sizes of the shapes are smaller than the #4 shapes...
I would love to understand this better so I can more effortlessly see and choose patterns.
I would add that putting a warm and cool version of the same hue together is something I love.In your color edit photo of blues, the middle one is going warmer than the other ones. I have a print of a Matisse painting where he puts together a cool blue with a warmer turquoise blue. I find when I paint that doing that can really make a painting’s colors zing.
Also on color, I’m resistant to systems, but I have to say that Betty Edwards book “Color” is spot on. I find that when painting, that when I get a painting to color that I love, it is basically fulfilling her system. It might not be the only way to make color successful, but her system (which is heavily illustrated from art history) works really well. Now that I think of it, I would think it would work for fabric as well. One of her basic ideas is that for a main color, or for each main color, there be at least a spot of color somewhere that is the exact opposite on the color wheel, but of the same value and intensity as that main color.