How to Mix Bold Patterned Fabrics and Wallpapers
Editor’s Note: The previous iteration of this URL contained an eight-step guide to mixing patterns, generated by a well-meaning intern and an automated software script. It advised you to "Vary the scale" and "Use a common motif." It was the digital equivalent of being trapped in an elevator with a color wheel. We have deleted it.
If you ask an algorithm how to mix bold patterns, it will give you a mathematical formula based on RGB color harmony and geometric scale. It does this because an algorithm has never actually lived in a room. It has never spilled a drink, read a difficult book, or felt the weight of a heavy Belgian Linen drape.
The truth about mixing bold fabrics - the kind of category defiance you see in the library pictured here, where a rigid geometric wallpaper shares its space with a wild, tactile Ikat and a scarred, centuries-old wooden staircase - cannot be found in a "How-To" listicle.