The Sunday News
Yoliswa Dube
A LOT of people avoid animal prints like the plague, and it’s not a completely illegitimate fear. Perhaps no other decorating theme has a greater potential for tackiness and the overkill effect. Nevertheless, when used with care, animal prints can add a subtle touch of class to an interior or make a powerful statement that suffices for the entire room’s embellishment.
If you’ve been thinking of introducing a little safari vibe to your home, but are not 100 percent sure how you are going to feel about animal patterns and whether you can make a long-term relationship at all, use the policy of small steps.
If you have absolutely no experience with animal prints, it is obvious that you might be afraid of a dramatic impact and overdoing the whole thing. The best way to make friends with patterns is to use subtle, de-saturated colour schemes first and give yourself some time to see how you feel about the change.
If you find the effect overwhelming already at this point, think twice whether you want to go any further. It is therefore wise to start with modifications that can be reversed with little effort such as adding throw pillows, lampshades, curtains or accessories that only partly employ animal prints.
Once you’ve established that you tolerate animal prints well, it is time for something a little more expressive. Hold your horses, though. The rule of instant reversibility still applies, so accent chairs and throw pillows are your best bet. Don’t yet re-upholster the sofa or go for full-scale zebra print wall art in the bedroom. Keep the additions explicit enough to enjoy, but not large enough to disrupt the eye.
For those fancying big and bold décor, animal prints are an ideal choice. Use them rather centrally so as not to visually distort a room’s proportions and pair them with solids to balance out the boldness. Large animal prints used in area rugs do a fabulous job of tying up the elements of the room and framing conversation or dining sections. They instantly define open floor plans and fuse energy into simple white and black colour schemes.
Stripes, polka dots, flowers and leopard spots together? There’s no reason why the eclectic approach should exclude animal prints. The easiest thing to do to avoid chaos is to unite patterns with colour and keep the prints moderate in size, but it is by no means the only way.
Mixing various patterns and colours can produce a stunning effect and it doesn’t necessarily take a professional decorator to accomplish that.
Purchase pieces gradually, one at a time, and expand the room as long as you feel comfortable with the additions. To be on the safe side, make sure there’s enough solid colour and plain accessories around to maintain balance. – decorlove.com
