Black and White Ikat Dining Chairs

What about these then? I don’t know about you but I really don’t have much pattern in my house. It’s the same in my wardrobe; lots of colour blocking – well when I say colour, I mean monochrome – but not much in the way of pattern, apart from the odd stripe.

Last week, as some of you may have heard, I was invited on to Radio 4 You and Yours to talk about the trend for patterned tiles (link here about 15 minutes in if you’re interested) and I started wondering about using more pattern.

I’m all for it in tiles; kitchens and bathrooms are full of hard surfaces and using patterned tiles on the floor or walls brings a bit of softness into the space. In the same way, I think that’s why I don’t use it as much on cushions because somehow it feels like the normal thing to do and you know, by now, that I like to bring in a little bit of the unexpected.

But then I saw these chairs. And it seemed like the perfect marriage of pattern and object. The chairs are Danish, by Kai Kristiansen, and the fabric is the Catarine Ikat from A Rum Fellow and if anyone could persuade me into pattern it’s these people. The mix of dark teak wood with the ivory and soft black pattern is beautiful and not overwhelming.

Dining chairs don’t tend to be patterned, which is all the more reason for doing it. In addition, you don’t get to see the design too often as the seats are either tucked under the table or being sat on so you can afford to be bold with the design. It’s the same principle as using a strong colour in the all as you are only passing through rather than lingering.

And, since most of us don’t actually have dining rooms these days but tend to eat in the kitchen, using a little pattern is a great way to soften all those hard surfaces. Of course, you can choose much brighter colours, I’m merely dipping a gentle toe in the water.