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Every interior design style can benefit from mixing colors and patterns, assuming it’s done well. It elevates a space with visual interest, personality and energy. But a haphazard collection of prints and colors can impart a dizzying effect on a room, leaving it feeling downright uncomfortable.
So, how do you do it right? Is there a secret formula? What color or pattern combinations work wonders? How do size and scale come into play? We asked two highly regarded local interior designers, Mary Beth Wagner and Morgan Farrow, to help us figure out this design dilemma.
The colors and patterns to mix in your design
Plan on sticking with a color palette throughout the room. A good place to start is with the 60-30-10 approach, with 60% of the room in a main color or base, 30% as a secondary color and 10% as an accent.
The main anchor color can come from a wall covering, large sofa, even cabinets or a rug. For a springboard to your full room design, look for something with a large-scale pattern and/or multicolor design. “When you’re doing a lot of mixing, it’s so great to find a multicolor fabric, because that’s what brings it all together,” Wagner says.
From there, pick and choose complementary colors to pull out for other pieces. A secondary color could be on upholstered pieces such as dining room chairs, then your accent colors can add some fun through throw pillows, art or accessories.
Keep in mind that florals and stripes work well together, as do animal prints, and geometric shapes go with just about everything. You could try three patterns in different scales, maybe a thin stripe, a midsize geometric and a big, beautiful floral. Another option is to choose a theme, perhaps a coastal theme if you’re decorating a beach house or a lodge theme for a mountain home, to give yourself a framework.
If you don’t know where to begin, the color wheel can help. Go with colors next to each other, such as blues and greens or colors opposite each other. Don’t forget to mix in some solids to give the eye a rest. Wonderful patterns really make a splash when paired with a neutral wall, sofa or bedding.
As Farrow and her team plan room layouts, they thoughtfully consider tonal value, the lightness or darkness of the shades. “We want to make sure the space has the tonal value that is not plus or minus itself, too high or low,” Farrow says. “That goes across any color palette — saturated, jewel, neutral.”
When mixing and matching, also keep texture in mind to add interest to the overall design. Your solid-colored pieces might be fun in leather, linen, wool, velvet, denim or even cowhide. Take that into consideration for everything from lampshades to pillows and rugs.
Mixing patterns of different sizes and scales
When you throw in patterns (whether they’re geometrics, florals, plaids or stripes) to layer the look and add visual interest, it’s all about scale and ensuring that your picks don’t compete with each other for attention.
“I think that’s where a lot of novice or DIYers can go wrong: Every scale is big. The push, pull of having a small, medium, large pattern is so critical because that’s what keeps your eyes moving. You don’t get stuck on one pattern,” Farrow says.
But a small-scale mix can work too. In a living space designed by Farrow, small patterns in strategically chosen colors made the room feel cheerfully elegant. “The space is all about texture with minimum color, then we came through and popped bits of pattern in there on the small-scale side, with little touches of pattern in the room,” she explains. “The smallness of patterns we use here kept it elevated and feeling formal.”
To determine scale, count how many times a pattern repeats. How many stripes, floral patterns or geometric shapes are you seeing? The other factor is the weight of the pattern. Wallpaper with 10 bold stripes across a wall is a much larger scale pattern than wallpaper with 1,000 thin stripes.
When choosing patterned materials, think about how and where they’ll be used. A large-scale tile may not work well in a tiny powder bath, but might be just right the right fit for the larger guest bath upstairs. A very small, complicated pattern might get lost in the folds of drapery, but might work perfectly on an oversize envelope pillow.
Before you commit to materials, whether wallpaper, tile or upholstery, order samples and ask for swatches to visualize how all your selections work together. “Don’t be afraid of pattern. Try not to overthink it,” Wagner says. “If you like fabric and you like pattern, try out a few and see what works.”
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