Tips on decorating with patterns
Here are my top three tips for combining patterns in your home
1. Limit yourself to one large scale fabric design.
2. When mixing prints, try not to choose more than once of the same scale size.
3. Layering patterns involves four main elements: colour, scale, shape and texture.
Here are three of my favourite examples using combined patterns:
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The Artisan Sitting Room
This fresh, Summery room was created using different shades of greys and saffrons. Large scale Origami cushions work well against a simple stripe on the sofa, and I have kept the accessories neutral and to a minimum to show off the fabrics. A statement wall painted in Scree by Little Greene Paint Company, creates a dramatic finish against the light wood floors.
Try our decorating with stripes tips for more
Swatches for sample board: Origami / Shibori / Simple Ticking Detail/ Plain Linen Union
Find even more popular fabrics from my Artisan Collection.
The Meadow Sitting Room
In this room, I have used colours that co-ordinate but in varying patterns. The large scale of the Song Birds design works especially well for curtains with its vertical design, and I have picked out a stripe and floral in the same colourway for cushions against the backdrop of a plain cream sofa.
Select your favourite meadow collection fabrics from my range
Swatches for sample board: Song Birds / French Ticking / Plain Linen
The Orchard sitting room
The reason we chose this lounge for this particular scheme was because it was located in a beautiful, contemporary London home filled with light and high ceilings. The fresh, clear space with white walls, flooring, and windows, lent itself perfectly to our Orchard Collection fabrics injecting the ideal amount of colour in this space! Working with three colours they help to instantly lift this lounge, but still retrain its contemporary aesthetics by carefully using geometric fabric designs and accessories.
Swatches for sample board: Simple Ticking Detail / May Blossom / Plain Linen / Fruit Garden
The Wildflower and Hand Printed bedroom
Grey is one of those colours that some may avoid using in their homes as it may be perceived as flat, cold, unpopular, or too formal. However, it’s definitely worth considering in your design schemes because as you can see from the example here, it creates the basis for all of the other colours in the room to work perfectly from. See how the creams, Hay yellows, dark Charcoal greys, wooden and jute accessories, and wall art, combine to make this one of the most beautiful bedrooms we’ve photographed! The white walls, flagstone flooring, and high ceilings bring an overall breath of fresh air in this space, just what you want need when relaxing into your evening.
Swatches for sample board: Fern and Dragonfly / Plain Linen / Cow Parsley / Simple Ticking Detail
The colourful Forest bedrooms!
The Forest Collection has been incredibly popular with our customers! The mixture of coordinating large and small pattern repeats, colourways, and geometric designs has not just been a stand out collection in its own right, but has merged in as coordinates for existing designs as well; highly versatile. The ease of mixing designs is easy, just make sure to limit the colour palette; we would recommend up three as a good starting point. The larger the space, then you could consider up to five.
The Wild Garden dining rooms
Colour galore! The incredibly rich and bold yellow paint colour, high ceilings and wooden flooring all made a great setting for our fabrics in these wonderful dining room shots. Most of the designs in this collection are horizontal in pattern making it ideal for curtains, tablecloths, and footstools.
Decorating Tips, Advice, Styles and Inspiration
If you’re redecorating multiple rooms, check our style guides to help understand which colours, styles and designs work best:
Founder and owner of Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics. Vanessa creates content around fabric types, blind styles and curtain designs to best suit the needs of Vanessa Arbuthnott customers.
