Check It Out

Why chequerboard is a gateway pattern

Checks make a splash in the pool area of Casa Pueblo Boca Paila in Tulum, Mexico.

The very first bedsheets I bought were a black-and-white check pattern. The checks of the fitted sheet were large scale, while those of the flat sheet and the pillowcase were smaller. The first guest to nestle beneath those sheets with me asked why I’d chosen to have my bed look like a racing flag. I kept the bedding around much, much longer than I did him.

Like stripes (which I’ve waxed lyrical about before), checks are a gateway pattern. You want to enliven a room, but you’re wary of choosing a print that could look too trendy or too fusty, and you don’t want to introduce another colour. So you buy a pair of inexpensive checquerboard pillows to toss atop your sofa, saving the receipt in case you absolutely hate them. And what do you know? Your sitting room already looks less stodgy.

Maybe you’ll next go with a check bathmat or towels, to zest up the bathroom. Or maybe you’ll choose to add another check accent to the sitting room: a vase, a throw. Or perhaps you’ll think of another pattern that works with checquerboard—and just about every other print and motif does: polka dots, a large-scale floral to balance out small-check checks, something abstract… Before you know it, your safe, staid print-free home is thrumming with pattern.

Here’s some inspiration to get you started.

Easy does it, check-wise, in this mudroom by Bria Hammel Interiors. Picture how uninspiring this space would be with solid white or solid grey floors. Conversely, imagine how a louder colour or pattern would disturb the room’s serenity.

Another chequerboard floor, in the home of Megan Miller. I adore a good painted hardwood floor, and this one is perfection, with the smooth white setting off the warm, rich wood. The gingham coverlet hints at how well large-scale checks play with smaller patterns.

Last chequerboard floor, I promise! But I couldn’t resist showing how black-and-white tiles, as in this room by Canalside Interiors, bring a sense of timeless elegance to a pale neutral palette and organic furnishings. Even after the trend for planked tables, unfinished wood frames, and rattan ebbs, this room will not look passé.

Given my love of tile, I had to include an example of chequerboard tiling. Katie Harbison used zellige tiles for maximum gloss, texture, and Old World artistry. Photo by Enda Cavanagh.

In this room by Patricia Bustos, the chequerboard curtains echo the gridded tabletop and windows, balancing the curvaceous chairs, lamp, and glassware. Photo by JC De Marcos.

A slender wall of checks takes this neutral, generic stairway from meh to marvelous. Photo: @hayes_home_.

Small checks, large checks, plus colour upon colour and straight lines cohabitating with curves galore: Merve Kahraman is an interiors alchemist.

One more: chequerboard steps outside a London home. Photo: Evelyn Paris/Unsplash.