How to Decorate with Geometrics
When asked to write a story for our blog about the strong, dynamic neo-geometric trend we see all around us I thought, “Great this will be fun.” -And since one of the nice things about working at Shades of Light is our sense of teamwork, I thought I would reach out to a few of my co-workers and get their perspectives. This would make the task both fun and easy, what could be wrong with that?
Well, after about fifteen minutes of being educated about an “amorphous art movement of the late 20th and early 21st century” that borrowed from Pop Art, Minimal and Conceptual Art and how it was closely tied to certain social theories”, my mind sort of went blank. The overwhelming thought that kept surfacing to the top of my consciousness was, “You mean it is not just about the dramatic shapes, the bold clean lines and the way that these new Geometric patterns blend in so nicely with lifestyles that range from minimalism to updated traditional? It’s not just about the really great, fresh looking geometric inspired home décor products I see coming in here every day?” Well, I’m sorry art aficionados but the neo-geometric I’m going to talk about here is that of the home décor variety. Our neo-geometric story is about the explosion of dynamic geometric products that are available to us in interior design right now. Innovative designers are taking familiar geometric patterns adding clever twists and incorporating these geometric designs in fresh and exciting new ways. This trend is all about the dramatic shapes and bold patterns!
If you would like to take a peek at one of the strongest fashion trends for the home and if you are looking for some tips on incorporating these fabulous geometric home décor pieces into your home read on because my intention is to keep this easy, fun and practical.
First and foremost, fear not! It’s simple geometry! I’m going to state the obvious here: this trend revolves around familiar geometric shapes: lines, prisms, concentric circles, cubes, bold chain and lattice patterns, triangles, honeycomb, and fretwork designs. Sometimes the scale of neo-geometric patterns can be bold and dramatic but they are still shapes that we are all quite familiar with. This familiarity provides us with a certain comfort level when using geometric shapes. Here are some tips on working with these versatile geometric patterns. (If in the past you have mixed various floral patterns together in a project, you probably already know all you need to know and this will largely be a refresher.)
1) Do you want to start slowly, just sort of tip-toe into this trend and see if it suits you? Well if so, then start with a Geometric rug. Geometric patterns tend to appear less prominent when used as flooring. Perhaps, it is because we are so accustomed to seeing geometric patterns in tile, brick walk ways as well as wood and marble flooring, that they seem so very natural. Area rugs are a great way to start out! There are so many great looking rugs that exemplify the neo-geometric trend.
2) Okay, ready to kick it up a notch? Let’s layer in other geometric patterns. These additions will add more depth, interest and sophistication to your room. You could layer in furniture, mirrors, lighting, or decorative pillows. The neo-geometric look is well represented in all these products. So, let’s add some more geometric patterns to the mix! The trick is making sure the scale or size of the patterns complements each other. How do you do this? Very roughly group your patterns into small, medium, and large categories. Then, ask yourself how much contrast is there between the sizes of your patterns? When you are layering patterns, you want some of each grouping. Oddly enough, extreme contrasts tend to blend well together. Therefore, use your small patterns to add separation from your large and medium scale patterns if things start getting too busy for your taste. In much the same way, you can use soft curvy geometric patterns like circles, arches and waves to soften up a room that is starting to get too rigid and hard due to the abundance of sharp geometric patterns.
3) Do you want to go extreme without crashing? Control your super powers! Color and pattern are powerful tools. If you want to layer lots of geometric patterns into your room, you may want to consider taking it easy on the use of color. When using a high number of patterns together in one room, think about keeping colors close to each other on the color wheel and limiting the color hues to a narrow range to keep spaces with complicated patterns in check. On the other hand, if you like color and you want a strong pop of color in your space consider keeping the number of patterns you use down a little.
4) Just do it! Take a look at these neo-geometric lighting products, copy and paste a few into your program of choice, add wall decor, pillows, and accent furniture and see how you can manipulate your virtual room by adding or subtracting different elements as described above.
