This monochromatic guest bedroom was created by my team. We first had a photo taken of Cupid’s Span, the Claes Oldenburg sculpture on the Embarcadero, with the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the background. We then had the photo made into custom wallpaper scaled to fit the bed wall. From there we chose black-and-white patterned fabrics for the bedding to create a graphic impact, with just a touch of soft blue for contrast. Clear acrylic Z-tables act as nightstands so the mural isn’t blocked.
Here, Meriwether Design Group used dark eggplant walls to set the stage for a bit of dramatic whimsy. A large framed black-and-white painting is the focal point in the room, with a similar graphic pattern echoed in the drapery. In their supporting roles, the backs of the side chairs are upholstered with a single green stripe. And a large gold Sputnik-style chandelier adds shiny glamour and texture to the otherwise smooth surfaces.
Dial Up Drama With Dark Walls Walls and molding painted in the same dark color provide the perfect backdrop for other colors and patterns to stand out. Rock + Poppins painted the walls and molding in this living room a deep marine blue, then introduced a complementary color (the gold sofa) and an analogous color (the green chairs and table) for a bold and moody effect. The selection of a hexagonal-patterned velvet for the sofa reads as a solid while still providing texture. Which is why the floral drapes don’t feel out of place.
create contrast: What makes it work is the scale of the patterns and the intensity of the colors. The large floral wallpaper has multiple colors in a matte finish that helps subdue the overall effect, letting it recede into the background. This allows the small but crisp black-and-white floor tile and the high-gloss hot pink millwork to pop, creating the contrast that makes the whole composition come together.
Texture When working with lots of color, don’t forget to add interesting texture, especially if the colorful pieces are mostly painted and therefore flatter. A bit of rich or rough texture lends depth that bright lacquered pieces can lack on their own, which keeps the look feeling sophisticated. Don’t happen to have a brick wall handy? Try a cement-effect side table, linen drapery, woven baskets or anything with a rugged appeal to balance out pristine pretty colors and bring your dreamy palette back down to Earth.
Pillows If you don’t want to invest in art and upholstery just yet, you can inject lots of color through a pile-on of throw pillows, as seen in this room by Rachel Reider Interiors. You can easily mix in many colors, building the look up or down by moving pieces around until it feels just right. Tip: You can find fabrics to use as a color palette inspiration by borrowing a swatch from a fabric showroom or simply taking a photo of one you like. Even if you don’t end up using that particular fabric in the space, it can beautifully guide your other color choices.
Wallpaper Another way to get a rich palette is to choose a bold wallpaper print that already has a terrific color combo assembled for you. In this room by IDF Studio, the dark blue shades in the paper are picked up for the headboard and drapery, while the yellows are echoed in the pillow. A bed sheet is a great opportunity to try a risky color, like this perfect contrasting pink. Since high-use linens can expect to wear out and need replacing in the future anyway, it’s not an extremely long-term commitment.
Tone on Tone An even more vibrant blue is still an easy color to mix. It works beautifully in tone-on-tone designs, such as this one by Scott Weston Architecture Design, to give the sense of a lot of color even when most of it is essentially the same hue. Try combining pure, chilly blues with green-blues or blue-indigos to get subtle variation while keeping the hues tied together. Include a few hot accents for contrast — flowers are a great way to add a red or violet counterpoint.
Semineutrals In recent years, the trend of embracing semineutrals has returned. These are colors that can’t be considered true neutrals, but are still easy to combine and work with. Blues and greens, being such natural hues, tend to be the most cooperative of colors, and this is especially true when you choose midtone shades with a hint of gray, as seen in this kitchen by Brett Mickan Interior Design.
The pillow approach. Rather than picking a dominant pattern, you can take the opposite route and let all of the patterns be equally small accents. This is most often seen in mixed pillow collections where no two are alike. By using just a small dash of each pattern, you make sure than no single pattern stands out. This approach is fairly easy because you can add and subtract accessories over time, with low commitment. Just be sure to include a few solids, and choose patterns from distinctly different categories.
The 60-30-10 approach. This is a great ratio for mixing two or more major patterns with a small accent. Choose a major pattern to dominate the space and let that be about 60 percent of the visible pattern, such as this large area rug. Then choose a second, coordinating pattern to be 30 percent, like these striped drapes. Lastly, let just about 10 percent be a bold, contrasting choice, such as these marbled fabric chairs, or try a mix of pillows.
Traditional motifs. Like a traditional rug, other delicate, timeless patterns such as toile and fine china prints can be easily tossed into a space and contrasted against other traditional elements or much more contemporary designs. This room feels rich and sumptuous partly because it includes three diverse patterns, but to the casual glance, only the geometric wall treatment feels like a true pattern. The traditional umbrella stand and rug appear much less graphic, blending in perfectly yet holding their own.
Traditional rugs. Rugs in rich, traditional patterns are a bit like stripes in that they can almost be treated like a neutral with no pattern at all. Their fine, intricate designs and rich, sophisticated colors make them easy to mix with other patterns that are either more subtle, more bold or both.
This room uses three patterns at the same scale: one stripe, one chevron and one more organic pattern. They all appear to be the same “size,” with the linear stripes and chevrons at about the same spacing as the objects in the more complex print. The science isn’t exact, but to a casual glance no one pattern sticks out as being much larger or smaller than the others. Naturally, it also helps that these differing fabrics are in roughly the same color scheme as well. Combining differing strategies for mixing patterns definitely helps get a great result.
Scale The size of a pattern can be at least as important as its style. A very small pattern can easily be missed from a distance, while a bold pattern will command attention even from across the room. Mixing scales of patterns can be tricky, though not if you take one of these two approaches: going all different or all the same. This room uses the former approach, with a large-scale stripe on the chairs and a much-smaller-scale pattern on the rug. The chairs are clearly able to dominate, and the contrast of the almost textural rug pattern looks intentional.
Instead of choosing one color pairing to use for every patterned piece, you can also try picking one favorite fabric or item and using that piece to inspire colors for the other accents. Here, you can see that each fabric draws colors from the ottoman upholstery, so the collection has lots of variety but is tied together and cohesive
Florals. Florals are essentially the complete opposite of stripes: They feature complex, curving lines in patterns that feel natural and wild. Botanical prints also include leafy patterns that don’t feature blossoms but have a similar organic nature, and, just as in nature, these differing prints tend to mesh together easily (as long as their lush color palettes coordinate).
Geometrics can be much more complex than a simple repeating shape, however. This room shows a simple striped rug, a chevron pillow and richly patterned side chairs: All are geometric, using simple angular lines, but the degree of complexity varies greatly. Using just angular geometrics, with no curves, is one of the easiest ways to mix multiple patterns without worry.
Foolproof Plan 1: Dots and Stripes Both are seen by some as neutrals.
Pattern blocking
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