Designer's Decorating Hints...

Mixing Prints As an interior designer for many years, I have been asked numerous times, “How do you decide what prints can be put together?” There are many theories on the subject but I thought I would share some of my personal favorites.  In choosing colors and patterns for your room you need to consider the room size, the look you want to achieve, the lighting and the size of furniture. Patterns are like furniture sizes, you don’t want all big or all little. The variety of size is what gives the patterns balance making them pleasing to the eye. You may want to choose an inspiration piece to start with. This piece will be the basis for all your choices in the room. If you have chosen a large bold print then you will want to contrast it with medium and smaller prints. It is always safe to start with a large pattern, add a stripe and finish off the combination with one or several small prints. Now, this works for most jobs, but what about the new style of putting many small prints together? That works if you have some kind of color arrangement going. If you are working with blue, green and violet, (which are called analogous colors because they are found next to one another on the color wheel) you might want to add a splash of red/orange to make your colors pop. Actually the color found on the opposite side of the color wheel is called a complimentary color. This means when using a color or colors, the compliment can be effective as an accent to enhance the entire effect. The large print will carry the tone of the room with all the other prints pitching in as backup. Below