I was enjoying a smooth, relaxing ride on the Merritt Parkway Wednesday afternoon. I had just completed a successful meeting, was celebrating with a vanilla chi and drummin’ my steering wheel to a little Nickelback. I had no worries about dinner it was my princes turn to be chef – life was good……….sounds nice huh? My enjoyable ride came to a screeching halt when I came upon the Sikorsky Bridge! As far as the eye could see there were brake lights…………ironically just as ‘Savin’ Me’ from Nickelback filled my stereo speakers …………….. I needed some ‘savin’ I hate traffic! It is the perfect way to destroy any day!

My eyes glazed over as I stared ahead. The red break lights became slightly blurred creating a soft configuration that started to become pleasing to my eye. This delicate arrangement became severely contrasted against the south bound headlights cookin’ along at 60 miles per hour. When I began to study the disproportion of the two patterns I began to think about how patterns in design relate. How mixing and matching patterns comes an easily to me as tying my shoes…….to others it is brain surgery!

Taking the mystery, fear and anxiety out pattern mixing and matching is today’s mission. Follow some of these simple rules and you’ll be on your way to mixin’ & matchin’ with confidence!

· Change the scale of patterns. It is perfectly acceptable to use more than one floral pattern or plaid if you change the scale!

· Use various textures, a herringbone weave can be used with a square texture right alongside of an ottoman stripe. The subtle patterns create variation within the repetition of the textures! 

· Change the patterns overall! Use a large floral with a check and finish off with a mini print!

· When selecting a bold pattern as your main fabric, use complimenting patterns that are softer, smaller and truly become a backdrop to the main fabric.

· If your palette is monochromatic (all one color) Enjoy using variation of texture and pattern!

Rules in design are made to be broken, if you do decide to venture away from these simple rules consider doing so in small doses. For example, if you have used a large scale plaid on your sofa, I would encourage you NOT to use another large scale plaid on your draperies or as a large ottoman in the room. Instead use the additional plaid as accent banding on the draperies or as pillows on a pair of chairs. This way the pattern will be distorted and difficult to relate.

Start mixin’ & matchin’!

By the way, the reason for the traffic jam was a minor accident………..it really didn’t ruin my perfect day, dinner was ready and waiting when I got home and it appeared no one was injured in the accident. Gotta keep things in perspective right?