The stripe is the ultimate fix. Need to make a room to look taller? Paint or paper vertical stripes on the walls. Need to make a room look wider? Try horizontal stripes. Need to pull together a disparate color scheme? Find a striped rug that incorporates each color.
“Stripes are a problem-solver,” says Annie Selke, a Massachusetts-based designer and owner of textiles companies Pine Cone Hill, Fresh American and Dash & Albert Rug Co. (the last of which is popular for its approximately 150 striped rug patterns). They can make a bold statement when wide or act as a textured neutral when thin. They can read as nautical when blue-and-white or classy when used tone on tone. It’s no wonder that while other patterns come and go in popularity, stripes are here to stay.
“You might change other things in a room, but you can use the striped item again,” Selke says. “Stripes never go out of style.”
We talked to Selke and two other designers for tips and tricks when using the versatile pattern.
oSelke loves the way that British designer and boutique hotelier Kit Kemp uses stripes, remembering the ones used on a headboard in one of her hotels: “She used them in the headboard to create a focal point.” Try it at home with the black-and-white Canopy Stripe Loran Headboard ($300-$460, www.worldmarket.com).
o Although Selke generally likes her stripes to be bold, Maryland-based interior designer Dana Tydings likes her stripes subtle. “Use them carefully, use them sparingly. I’d much rather have them look low-key and elegant,” she says. Instead of a striped pillow, for example, she recommends a pillow with a striped flange as with Designers Guild’s Varese Throw Pillow in 13 velvet colors ($145, www.designersguild.com).
o For another twist on the classic striped pillow, Bethesda, Md.-based Samantha Friedman recommends pillows that miter together stripes to be borders or squares, as with the Elaine Smith Venice Mitered Square ($106, www.authenteak.com).
o If a room needs a focal point, Selke recommends wide, bold-colored stripes. “I love stripes on most any piece of upholstered or slipcovered furniture,” she says. The Safavieh Mercer Green Club Chair ($508, www.lowes.com) would easily take center stage in a living room.
o Stripes can even help with a blank, empty room. Find a striped pattern that you like, Selke suggests, and pull out colors for paint and accent colors in the room. The Amalfi Striped Door Mat can be used in that way to inspire a front-porch color scheme ($54, www.oliveandcocoa.com).
o In a room full of the expected metal, glass, fabric and wood finishes, Friedman likes how the black-and-white wood-and-bone Rounded Inlay Coffee Table would add both “interest and texture” ($1,298, www.anthropologie.com).
o Stripes of different thickness can have different effects. A wide stripe, as on the Safavieh Carter Ottoman ($109, www.wayfair.com), draws the eye, while a thin stripe can act like a neutral, Selke says.
o Run Graham & Brown’s Harvest Blue wallpaper vertically for a traditional look, or horizontally for something different ($30 per 33-foot roll, www.grahambrown.com). (Selke and Tydings both favor paint or papered stripes that run horizontally on a wall.)
o “I love stripes on dishes, coffee cups, glasses,” Tydings says. Kate Spade’s Tall Glasses feature a windowpane pattern ($30 for set of four, www.saturday.com). As Tydings reminds us, “Don’t think of stripes only as unidirectional.”
o The variegated stripes of the Origo Serving Bowl are thin so that no one color dominates. What happens instead is that your eye bounces from color to color, a striking effect on “a white tablescape, a clear glass console table, or next to a tall crystal lamp,” Tydings says ($75, www.hivemodern.com).
o For a small kitchen that needs a dose of personality, Tydings likes Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co.’s Multi HP-4408-08-4 shade ($69, www.schoolhouseelectric.com). Thick stripes on shades run the risk of obscuring the light inside, but on this shade, the stripes are fine enough to allow the light to shine through.
o “What a fun way to use stripes,” says Friedman about the Lafayette Lamp in a navy stripe ($389 including choice of shade, www.schoolhouseelectric.com). As with most stripes, how it reads depends on its environment; this lamp could be classic, traditional, nautical or preppy. Just make sure to limit stripes to an accessory or chair or two, Friedman says.
