31 brilliant ideas for decorating with stripes
There’s no doubt about it, decorating with stripes is all the rage, and the bolder the stripe, the better. Recent years have seen an abundant crop of nostalgic candy striped fabrics in bright colours, produced by makers both traditional – like Flora Soames with her Pavilion collection – and modern, like Buchanan Studio’s Instagram-famous ‘Studio Chair’. Most of the stripes we're sporting now come in a simple configuration – broad stripes of colour on a white background. There’s a cheerful, seaside holiday vibe to this kind of stripe – and some of our favourite iterations are in European houses like Lucinda Chambers’ house in France, or Camilla Guinness’ painting school in Tuscany. On the same theme, we also love deckchair-style stripes such as Ottoline’s ‘Sporty Stripe’ fabric, and Zak & Fox's ‘Kendo’ pattern.
Upholstery is a brilliant place for a bold stripe, but if you really want to take the trend to a new level, a wallpaper – like Adam Bray’s ‘Brown Paper Stripe’ or Cole & Son’s ‘Regatta Stripe’ – can be seriously spectacular. If you’re not willing to make the investment, painting your walls in stripes of alternating colours could be the way to go.
Stripes may be having a moment, but the wonderful thing about them is that they never really go out of style; their simplicity and versatility are always welcome in an interior. The bold stripes that we’re seeing everywhere aren’t the only ones we love. Ticking stripes are a perennial favourite, and there are plenty of affordable options out there, as well as high-end beauties from Robert Kime and Colefax and Fowler. The earthy tones of kilims and jajims, which are often woven in striped motifs, never go out of favour either, lending warmth and texture to any space.
Inspiration for decorating with stripes from the House & Garden archive
Simon Upton1/30Designer Rachel Chudley has transformed this London house into a vibrant vision of eccentricity. In the main bedroom, walls in Soane’s ‘Qajar Stripe’ give way to Cole & Son’s ‘Cambridge Stripe’ in the en-suite bathroom, creating a clever visual link between the two rooms.
Christopher Horwood2/30In the light and airy sitting room of this 18th-century Cotswold house revived by Turner Pocock, the designers have kept the walls neutral to allow the different striped fabrics and a striped rug to really sing. Schumacher’s ‘Zarzuela Stripe Embroidery’ in saffron is a bright and beautiful choice for the sofa.
Lucas Allen3/30For a one-stop-shop lesson in how to use stripes in myriad ways around your house, do take a look around interior designer Joanne Burgess' house in Henley-on-Thames. There is plenty of striped upholstery, blinds, and tiles, plus this rather fabulous painted floor in one of the bathrooms. Joanne created the stripe using Farrow & Ball's ‘Mizzle’ and ‘India Yellow’, which make a cheerful foil for ‘Cromarty’ on the walls.
Mark Anthony Fox4/30A ticking stripe is an absolute classic for upholstery, as you can see here in interior designer Lucy Cunningham's cottage in Hampshire. The fabric here is Guy Goodfellow's ‘Olive Sacking', a time-honoured go-to for decorators everywhere.
Christopher Horwood5/30Interior designer Rachel Allen has put her stamp on one of Spitalfields' coveted Huguenot houses, lightening up dark spaces and adding soft colour through paint and textiles.
In the first floor drawing room, the pièce de résistance is a bespoke Howard-style sofa, which she had upholstered in antique Anatolian textiles. ‘I hold my hands up that it’s a total rip off of something that Robert Kime did, but it just worked so well,’ Rachel says of the lively red, white and black striped sofa.
Milo Brown6/30Why limit yourself to one stripe in a scheme? In the kitchen of this Chelsea townhouse, Lonika Chande, whose clever way with colour and pattern we love, has used a simple stripe on the blind (Flora Soames' ‘Emerald Stripe’), and a more complex, colourful stripe on the banquette ( Penny Morrison's ‘Multicolour Rustic Stripe’).
Joachim Wichmann7/30Stripes take centre stage on the sofa in this light-filled and balanced house in Stoke Newington, home to designer Pernille Lind. The custom George Smith sofa is upholstered in a bold blue and brown bespoke Pierre Frey fabric, which anchors the neutral colour scheme of the room.The jute rug is from Zara Home, and the bronze and brass glass coffee table is vintage.
Lucas Allen8/30‘I love stripes – they are classic and timeless,’ says Suzy Hoodless. For this London townhouse, she chose bespoke wallpaper from Adam Ellis Studio for the wall of the stairs leading down to the lower-ground floor. ‘The stripes create a sense of expectation and set the tone for a lively scheme.’
Carskiey9/30Tom Helme, co-founder of Fermoie and former owner of Farrow & Ball, created Fermoie’s ‘Tented Stripe’ fabric for the billiard room in his Scottish country house, Carskiey. This and the Farrow & Ball wallpaper of the same name are based on the Duke of Wellington’s campaign tent in the Peninsular War.
Mark Anthony Fox10/30Stripes do not have to be a bold choice, they can be as subtle and sophisticated as any other pattern. We love the rich patterns of jajims, a variation on the classic Turkish or Central Asian kilim, in which the fabric is woven in narrow strips that are sewn together. In this former vicarage near Bath, Anna Haines has used cushions from Howe on the sofa that are made from an antique jajim. We also love the ottoman, which has another subtle stripe in Robert Kime's ‘Tynemouth Ticking’.
Owen Gale11/30A striped ceiling is a great way to create the illusion of a wider space, as seen here in the baby's bedroom at designer Alice Palmer’s London house. Painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Folly Green’ and ‘Slipper Satin’, the bands of colour are balanced by Colefax and Fowler’s small-scale ‘Sudbury Park’ wallpaper in pink.
Paul Massey12/30Inspired by the striped pool towels at Hotel Il Pellicano in Tuscany, antique dealer Dorian Caffot de Fawes and his interior designer husband Thomas Daviet applied bright yellow Japanese washi tape to the Ikea cabinets in the kitchen of their south London home. It adds what Dorian calls ‘a little splash of sunshine’.
Yuki Sugiura13/30The striped roman blinds in Matilda Goad’s bedroom at her London house bring out the soft pink of the walls. When she could not find exactly what she wanted, she bought lengths of ochre ‘Brera Lino’ from Designers Guild and a simple white fabric, and asked her curtain maker to sew them together.
Christopher Horwood14/30Stripey tiles are definitely having a moment. You can either find tiles with a stripe in their design, or create your own stripes by juxtaposing different colours. European Heritage ‘Metronome’ tiles in green and white create a lovely striped effect in the bathroom of this flat by Natalie Tredgett. The look is pleasingly reminiscent of a beach towel and summer holidays.
Ngoc Minh Ngo15/30In the bathroom of this California house, David Bentheim has created a striking floor using zellige tiles sourced from San Francisco Design Center. Designed to ‘break up the floor and lighten the space’, the stripes lead the eye to the ‘Empire’ bath from The Water Monopoly painted in navy.
Paul Massey16/30Fashion stylist Sarah Corbett-Winder's London house is full of bold stripes, including several rooms with wallpapers in this kind of scale. In the kitchen, Farrow & Ball’s ‘Broad Stripe’ wallpaper creates a strong look in a corner where DeVol’s ‘Tuscan Farmhouse Arabescato Marble Sink’ doubles as a bar.
Anson Smart17/30Interiors studio Arent&Pyke has anchored this Sydney Harbour newbuild firmly in the Australian vernacular with indigenous art, native hardwoods and a palette of outback-inspired tones, to create comfortable and compelling interiors. This sunken area – ‘the cosiest part of the house’ – has an eye-catching ‘Serie Up 2000’ armchair and footstool by Gaetano Pesce for B&B Italia and shelving by Vitsœ displaying books and glassware. Isamu Noguchi’s sculptural Japanese paper ‘Akari E Pendant’ light from Vitra illuminates a large grid of framed pages from Thirties wine catalogues
18/30This delicately stripey sofa in Miranda Alexander's Dorset cottage is covered in ‘Olive Sacking’ by Guy Goodfellow Collection, which picks up on the blue tones in Little Greene’s ‘Pearl Colour’ on the walls. Indulging her ‘very English and traditional’ taste in interior decoration, Miranda has used a selection of pretty printed cottons in various patterns to complement the stripes. The ottoman, for example, is covered in ‘Marden’ (275), £110 a metre, from Fermoie.
19/30This seating area in Gavin Houghton’s Tangier house captures what we love about stripes right now. Taking his cue from the red stripe of the sofa fabric, he decided to mirror the design on the ceiling. Detail on the ceiling is a smart way to add interest to an often neglected part of the room. Leaving the walls white, as Gavin has done here, puts the simple design at centre stage.
Paul Massey20/30Designer Ben Pentreath has given each room in this reconfigured Arts and Crafts house its own personality, combining colour and texture with interesting pieces from different periods. A case in point is this wood-panelled sitting room, in which a broadly striped rug anchors the deep colours of the furniture.
Robyn Lea21/30Red and white stripes feature prominently in the decoration of Arniano, Camilla Guinness' house and painting school in Tuscany. Camilla designed much of the Arniano garden furniture, including these bespoke day beds.
Paul Massey22/30The red and white colour combination is similarly ubiquitous in Lucinda Chambers' house in France, where she has used a striped upholstery fabric from the Portobello Road as curtains and tablecloths.
Owen Gale23/30Having worked for years in her mother's shop Cabbages & Roses, Violet Dent has inherited a love of florals and stripes that is very much in evidence throughout her London house. In the sitting room, broadly striped cushions and a striped rug enliven the space.
© Ryland Peters & Small. From Ros Byam Shaw's "Perfect English Townhouse" with photographs by Jan Baldwin. Published by Ryland Peters & Small24/30This Regency townhouse in Cheltenham belongs to fashion designer Gavin Waddell, and featured in Ros Byam Shaw's book Perfect English Townhouse. As she notes, ‘Here, as downstairs, there is a confident mixing of styles, and periods - neoclassical & baroque, oriental & Western, old and new.’ The colourful stripes on this sofa add a bold touch of whimsy to a classical design, sitting happily beneath vivid green walls.
Elsa Young25/30The owner of this London house, Henrietta Courtauld of The Land Gardeners, asked architect Maria Speake of Retrouvius to give it a makeover, resulting in a colourful family home full of salvaged materials and fun colour and pattern. The warm reds of this striped stair runner tone in with the wooden floor but also add colour to the grey of the staircase.
Paul Massey26/30Christopher Howe decorated this tiny barn on the edge of a Gloucestershire meadow, setting brightly coloured and patterned fabrics against a plain, rustic backdrop. The sitting area is enlivened by the orange-toned striped tablecloth, as well as the broader green stripes of the cushion, proving that different widths and styles of stripe can play nicely together.
Paul Massey27/30Looking for a retreat from their busy London life, the textiles dealer Susan Deliss and her husband Max fell for this house in rural Burgundy, and have renovated it in keeping with its surroundings, thoughtfully choosing art, colours and interesting patterns that bring it to life. Susan is an expert at mixing patterns - among the many in this living room is a striped ottoman which is linked to the other furniture and fabrics by the colour red.
Lucas Allen28/30Edward Bulmer is an expert in natural paint and historical interiors, and his Queen Anne house in Herefordshire is a masterclass in period-sensitive decoration that retains a sense of fun. The grand entrance hall features a subtle stripe in the carpet, which comes from Roger Oates, and a slightly bolder complementary stripe on the stair-runner.
Paul Massey29/30Walls in this 18th-century house in Bath are painted in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Slate III’ and the floor is painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Slipper Satin’ - these form an elegant backdrop for the delicate metal four-poster bed hung with antique mangle-cloth drapes, and cushions covered in vintage Swedish ticking and antique flags, all from Howe. The two striped rugs are Turkish, circa 1950.
Rachael Smith30/30This bedroom alcove has been used for built-in bookshelves in Louise Jones' Victorian cottage in south west London. The upright books work well beside the walls, which are covered in Nicole Fabre Designs' 'Abbeville' fabric from Tissus d'Hélène. The stripes complement the bedtime reading material perfectly.
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