These creative designers pair triangular rugs, trompe l’oeil tiles and diamond-shaped backsplashes with complementary furnishings for a look that is stylishly playful.
Greg Natale
“This rooftop terrace above our Sydney headquarters is a relaxation space for me and my staff,” says Greg Natale. “When it came time to consider how this area would expand on the tones and palette of the offices and studios below, I turned to my CUBO cement-tile collection.” He ended up going with Terrazza, an illusionistic cubic pattern that nicely complements the clean lines of the outdoor urban escape.
To soften the angularity and interrupt the M.C. Escher effect of the tiles, the designer paired them with curvy furniture by Jean Marie Massaud and cozy pillows covered in a similarly soothing Trina Turk textile. “The organic, free-flowing patterns from fabrics really balance the heaviness of the black and gray,” notes Natale.
Tom Stringer
Unlike many designers, Tom Stringer doesn’t shy from using bright white. In this entryway in a house on Florida’s Gold Coast, he tempered the intensity of the white walls and floors with a Moroccan-style screen that spans the spaces two-story height. “The screen helps create texture to soften the monumental wall,” Stringer says. The piece’s circular motif is echoed on the antique Chinese medicine cabinet, while a simple Holly Hunt table provides balance.
Martyn Lawrence Bullard
“Geometric patterns offer a graphic quality to a room and always appear fresh,” says Martyn Lawrence Bullard. For proof, look no further than this dining room in Santa Barbara’s Hotel Californian. “I wanted to give the space a more contemporary feel while honoring the architectural style, and the geometric tiles did the trick,” explains the designer.
For Bullard, a sense of scale is key. Here, he covered the Giò Ponti–inspired dining chairs in a smaller version of the wall tiles’ pattern. “This allows the eye to breath and still holds continuity within the design,” he notes.
Chango & Co.
When it comes to pattern and color, Susana Simonpietri, creative director of Chango & Co., believes that more is more. That’s beautifully in evidence in this Rumson, New Jersey, children’s bedroom, where, says Simonpietri, “we decided to go bold with the Mr. Fox wallpaper, striped bedding and an Aelfie geometric rug.”
The clients wanted the space to be light, bright and colorful, so Simonpietri kept the finishes neutral, outfitting it with rugs, wallpaper and accessories to introduce pattern in a way that is practical and easy to change as the kids grow.
Deborah Walker
“Our goal was to lengthen the narrow space with linear elements,” says Erin Stockmeyer, associate designer and project manager at Deborah Walker, explaining the designers’ approach to this Dallas powder room. “The geometric tile not only elongates the room vertically but also brings a certain order and energy to it.” The emerald-hued backsplash is from Artistic Tile, and the mirror was custom designed.
Charlotte Lucas
“I think geometric prints are great for making a statement and can take up a lot of surface area in a room via the walls or a big area rug,” says designer Charlotte Lucas, whose own Charlotte, North Carolina, kitchen is a case in point.
Lucas clad the walls in a patterned paper that preserves the space’s mid-century feel. But she introduced a twist. “I painted the kitchen island an unexpected slate blue,” she says, “just to mix it up.”
Cortney Bishop
When it comes to bold geometric patterns, Cortney Bishop advises, “start with the largest scale on the rug and work up with smaller patterns from there.” The designer practiced what she preaches in this Atlanta family home, which she designed as an exemplar of “the New South,” with traditional furnishings and pops of glamour.
Rarely is the floor the star of a room, but here, a Vivienne Westwood carpet for The Rug Company garners serious attention. Another big design moment: the patterned coffee table from Hable for Hickory.
Kati Curtis
“The inspiration for the FLOR patterned carpet came from the sharp angles of the dormer ceiling,” says Kati Curtis, explaining her design for this children’s playroom in Fair Haven, New Jersey. “The room needed some fun energy but also had to grow with the kids.” The geometric shapes of the flooring are both sophisticated and fanciful, perfect for a room that will age with its inhabitants.
Curtis carried the carpet’s color scheme through in the beanbag and Panton mini S chairs.
HSH Interiors
Holly Hollenbeck, founder of HSH Interiors, wanted the home of transplanted East Coast clients to have an East-meets-West feel. The living room, though, is full-on Golden State. “The fun mash-up of color and pattern is all California!” she says. “In this room, we love how the Moroccan flat-weave geometric rug plays off of the live-edge coffee table. The rug’s pattern is echoed in the throw pillows of the custom-built sofa.”
Hollenbeck completed the scheme with Hans Wegner’s iconic Wishbone stools and a pendant from Hudson Valley Lighting.
Redd Kaihoi
This Houston dining room is chock-full of strong design elements, not least scene-stealing sisal carpet by Patterson Flynn Martin. “This room was meant to be a bold, exuberant mix of color, texture, volume and pattern,” says David Kaihoi, cofounder with Miles Redd of Redd Kaihoi, “a space that reflects the clients’ energetic personality.”
The custom chinoiserie silk wallpaper allows the silk taffeta curtains to really pop, and the table does the same for the Queen Anne chairs unconventionally upholstered in a zigzag textile.
