While working on a recent project in Washington State, Heidi Caillier decided to go bold with the bathroom. Instead of installing uniform tiles, she covered the space in black and white bars that stretched from the walls to the floor. “Stripes typically add that masculine detail I’m looking for,” she says. “It perfectly balances out a more feminine print I’ve used in a space, like a favourite chintz or floral.”
Over in Beverly Hills, Nicole Fuller recently put black and white striped drapes over the living room windows of an estate. She liked the pattern so much that she used it again in a Miami penthouse project, where she lavished Loro Piana stripe fabrics across both walls and furniture. In a neighbourhood back in Brentwood, California, Tatum Kendrick turned a black-and-white striped fabric from Storheim into a wallpaper and installed it in a closet. And across the Atlantic in Madrid, Nacho Polo, gallerist and founder of STUDIOTWENTYSEVEN, put thick black and white stripes in his Madrid bathroom to lend it a “British touch”.
Back in Brooklyn, Crina Arghirescu Rogard also added a subtle striped floor runner to a Bed-Stuy townhouse to act as a visual foil to a pair of distinct fibreglass and resin wall sconces. “We often integrate stripes as a sophisticated accent pattern to our interiors to create rhythm and strike interest,” she says.
So, yes. If you want to keep up with the latest interior design trends, you may need to lean into stripes. According to multiple interior designers, the classic geometric pattern has seen a newfound surge in popularity. Why? Many point to the pandemic, where the pendulum of interior design swung towards muted earth tones, minimal decoration, and spa-like interiors. When the world outside was so uncertain, inside, we craved temples of calm.
That aforementioned style is still very much in. But fast forward to 2024, and people want their homes to make a visual statement again: “After several years of quiet plaster and monochromatic themes in design, I think people are craving a bit more visual impact and stripes are a natural first choice. Stripes give that punch but are still relatively easy to work with stylistically,” says Tatum Kendrick of Tatum Kendrick Design. Callier agrees: “We’re all craving a bit more fun with design this year, and stripes are an easy way to punch up an upholstered piece, soft accessories, and wall coverings.”
Then, there’s the rise of puffy, blob-like furniture. The bulbous Mario Bellini Camaleonda Sofa, Sabine Marcelis’s boa pouf, and Paulin Paulin’s Yabu Pushelburg’s Pusha chair have all become extremely popular in the past few years. Stripes are the perfect way to compliment all that plush: “We’ve seen a lot of softer, organic shapes in furniture and design over the past couple of years. Stripes offer a strong graphic contrast to those pieces, providing a return to a more essential geometric order,” says Will Meyer of Meyer Davis.
Plus, there are many aesthetic advantages to using the pattern. Vertical stripes make a room appear taller, whereas horizontal stripes make a room wider. “The linearity also helps to trick the eye. For example, when applied to a large, flat surface the stripe can help to make a room feel taller or wider depending on the directionality,” says Alexia Sheinman of Pembrooke & Ives.
Zoe Feldman also points out stripes’ versatility and functionality. “Stripes are gender and age-neutral,” she says. “It’s a style that is fitting for a nursery but doesn’t feel juvenile as the child ages, and it easily transitions if you completely switch the function of a room.” And if you think about it, stripes somehow work with every variety of interior style: “The versatile design of stripes suits various aesthetics, from classic to maximalist, or even minimalist,” says Rogard.
Inspired to try the pattern in your own home? There are plenty of great striped rooms in history to look at for inspiration. Sheinman, for example, says she regularly looks at Otto Wagner’s Austrian Postal Savings Bank Building and Gio Ponti’s Villa Planchart. Fuller, meanwhile, points to the surrealist work of Vincent Darré.
Jarvis Wong of Jarvis Studio also encourages people to consider putting stripes in unexpected places. “Stripes do not necessarily have to be on walls, they can be on ceilings or floors as well as columns,” he says. (For those looking for specific striped fabrics, Gabriela Grisoro of Grisoro Studio recommends Loro Piana’s Bukhara Stripe as well as Rose Tarlow’s Gigi Stripe. For wallpaper, Fedman suggests styles by Farrow & Ball.) And the best thing? Even though stripes are exceptionally popular at the moment, they won’t go out of style. “Stripes are a forever classic,” says Kendrick.
This article was first published on British Vogue.
