Designer Corey Damen Jenkins’s 5 Tips for Mixing Patterns

Pattern crosses over many mediums. It can be seen in the veining of marble, the movement of different types of wood, in tile through the creation of geometry, in textiles—the list goes on. The power of pattern lies in its ability to add energy to a room. A patterned fabric can change the scale of a piece of furniture (or the scale of an entire room). How someone experiences the impact of pattern and its relation to other materials in the space is up to the designer—aka you. Interior designer Corey Damen Jenkins offers his tips to become a skilled practitioner in the subtle art of pattern mixing.

1. 1. “Be fearless in your creativity but judicious in your execution.” Corey says that you should always pick the various patterns you want to use throughout a room before you buy your furniture. These types of choices are easier to implement if you get custom-upholstered furniture, but even if you’re picking up mass-market pieces, focus on planning—with moodboards, pattern samples, or color boards—to get the right look. Think about where you have opportunities to incorporate patterns into your home and how you'd like each room to feel. If you want just enough pattern to keep a room from feeling totally minimalist, you probably don’t want to commit to a floral sofa. But if you want to add in as much visual interest as possible, make sure you’re mastering balance in that space instead of simply throwing together a hodgepodge of handsome polka dots, chevron, and houndstooth.
2. 2. “Find the tie that binds.” One of the first things Corey suggests is finding your “tie that binds”—the pattern that pulls the room together and can perform, in his words, like the “lead actor or actress in a Hollywood movie.” It’ll pick up colors throughout the room, appearing in other patterns or solids, so there’s cohesion with the larger design. This keeps the space from feeling too kooky and slipshod, no matter how unconventional the peripheral patterns get. And, as Corey’s youthful-yet-harmonious spaces demonstrate, you can get pretty wild so long as this one unifying pattern anchors the overall look. Florals are a great option for this leading role since they often feature multiple colors in one pattern.
3. 3. “Contrast, but don’t compete.” You want your patterns to “play well together,” as Corey says, and he advises playing up the contrast so they don’t feel too busy together. Going with a bold floral? Pick up a stripe that will complement the original pattern rather than a smaller floral pattern that will compete. Look for patterns that vary not just in color but in size and scale, too. All plaids aren’t made equal, for instance, so pay attention to the width and size of the checks when making your selection. And be careful not to pick patterns that cancel each other out. Think of it like seating guests at a dinner party: You want them to be different enough that they have interesting things to say to each other but not so different that they grate on each other over time.
4. 4. “You want the eye to rove.” When someone walks into your space, you want them to “be captivated by what you’ve done,” Corey says. You can achieve this by creating visual diversity throughout the environment. In other words, “don’t put all of your large patterns together in one clump,” Corey advises. “Mix in stripes and smaller-scale prints” to offset the bolder designs.
5. 5. “Build in some breaks.” Solids are the secret hero of pattern mixing; they set the stage for the patterns to really sing. As Corey explains, “if everything has a pattern on it, you can get visual vertigo.” Usually, you’ll want a larger item in the room, like a sofa, to be neutral so the patterns can pop up throughout the space without overwhelming the design. Corey also adds that you should consider the interplay between these visual breaks and motifs: “When you’re looking for your tie that binds, consider how it plays with the neutrals in your space. You can have that neutral color reflected in an accent in that pattern so that every element of the room is pulled into the same story.”

Above all, don’t be afraid. If you’re planning ahead and being thoughtful about your choices, you’ll end up with a room that’s bold and eye-catching but entirely put together.

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