I love a good gingham check!
Give me a curtain, a shirt, dress a table or don a dress in a lively check! And, who doesn’t get a smile out of wearing checkered socks? I’ve never experienced checkered underwear but what a fun notion!
Checks are popping up, they have arrived once again, deserved, the check deserves its due. The old stand-by has reinvented rooms in their stylish image.These happy, welcoming patterns, in any room, or on the body, are just the thing. Warm and cozy not to mention ultra-sophisticated in just the right situation.
Photos below courtesy of Ian Mankin
I used a gray-beige gingham cotton check to dress the massive windows in the dining room of my 17th century home in Normandy where the ceiling height measured almost 14’ high and the windows in the room slightly less. There was something all enveloping in these dramatic, checkered lengths, tumbling nonchalantly to the floor and, there, puddled nicely – almost obscenely in their fullness. Substantial yet lighthearted, the scale and color of the check finished the room, billowing, beautifully made as curtains ought to be – window couture.
Understated, checks work almost anywhere, it takes a nod or a bow from its own simplicity, yet is it so simple to call it that? Hmm, perhaps not, perhaps more complicated than thought, and, in myriad colors to choose from. My preference would be a room simply done top to toe in a French grass green and white compares nicely or tops, in my opinion, any room in Versailles.
Photo below of Le Manoir de Berthouville
I love that the amazing fabric lines we represent in my showroom, if not all, most have a range of the snazziest checks with color ways to knock your checkered socks off. My intention when we move into our new showroom this January is to create a large vignette of upholstered pieces, yes, you guessed, dedicated to and made up in the check, specifically, overwhelmingly, Ian Mankin’s charming and fresh Suffolk Check, Color: Sage # FA 043-059. YUM! Edible.
Keep safe,
Charles
Photo below showing Ian Mankin’s Suffolk Check in Sage. Mahogany Chair, available as a set of four, available from Charles Spada Home.
