Stripes have never – and will never – go out of style. Here are some ways to bring them into your home…
• Adding colourful lines (vertical or horizontal) to a space will instantly give it energy and make it feel more playful. That’s why multi-coloured stripes always work well in children’s rooms – be they painted on the wall, running along the floor in the form of a rug or featured in the window on the curtains or blinds.
• As much as stripes can ‘busy up’ a room, they can also be calming and promote a sense of order. The trick is in the colour you use and the width of the stripes themselves. Muted tone-on-tone stripes (like cream with beige or even light green beside dark green) will always slow things down.
• Stripes have the ability to draw the eye up and down, as well as from side to side, which can help add height and/or width to a room. Vertical stripes on walls or curtains will automatically create an illusion of height, which makes them perfect for rooms with low ceilings. Thick, horizontal stripes, divided by thinner contrasting horizontal lines, will also give a wall the illusion of height as the eye travels from one thin stripe up to the next one. Horizontal stripes tend to widen a space too, making smaller rooms appear more spacious and passages feel longer.
• Looking to achieve a nautical look? You can’t go wrong with a combination of navy and white stripes (keep them on the wider side or they’ll look very busy). Add in some bright red accessories – tables, lamps, ornaments, etc – and there you have it. A kitchen done in this theme can look really beautiful.
• Be brave and use stripes with other patterns like circles, paisley, plaids and florals. All you need to tie them all together is a harmonious colour palette.
• Don’t think straight lines only – mix things up a little with curves, broken lines and zigzags. These can all help bring energy into a space. They’re especially great on floors as they seem to draw you in.
• Don’t want to commit to stripes on the walls and floors? Bring them in with accessories – scatter cushions, bathroom towels, bed linen, headboards, lampshades, kitchenware, window treatments, etc. Or cover your dining-room chairs and the lounge suite for an instant room makeover.
• Add stripes to stairs with a runner (in subtle or bold colours, depending on the surrounding décor). Bold stripes on stairs help to draw the eye up.
• Want perfect stripes on a wall? Then wallpaper is the answer for neat and tidy and evenly spaced. For a not-so-perfect, more relaxed look, paint them yourself, leaving behind visible brush strokes. Remember to use tape as your guide and don’t use a fully-loaded paintbrush or roller – rather use lighter strokes to build the paint up slowly.
• If you like the idea of stripes but aren’t sure about covering an entire wall, go for one accent stripe that runs around the whole room. A pure-white stripe will instantly modernise a space, no matter what colour you pair it with.
• Complementary colours are a strong choice for stripes as they lie opposite each other on the colour wheel. Try experimenting with orange and blue, yellow and purple or red and green.
• Nobody said the ceiling was out of bounds. Run a bold stripe up the middle of a wall, across the ceiling and down the other side for a real statement.
“I never met a stripe I didn’t like” – Sheila Bridges, American designer
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