How To Use Animal Print In Your Home Decor

Laying down animal print on your floors is an attention-grabbing move. Genuine or imitation hide rugs such as reindeer, whose pattern is more tonal and slightly dappled, is one way to go, or opt for animal print rugs that speak a louder statement.

There are all sorts of variations, from full zebra print rugs – pink or yellow tend to be popular combination with zebra – to block colour rugs detailed with a large-scale animal motif – see an exuberant example in The Rug Company’s emerald green and leopard rug pictured.

Next up are animal print cushions – one of the easiest ways to inject a dose of animal print into your home decor.

If you’re drawn to a particular style of print, such as leopard, try to introduce complementary characters like giraffe and tiger which both share a similar palette. Then, use them in more than one room in your home so you create a subtle theme.

Animal print always comes back to confidence – the more self-assured you are with using it, the greater the effect. Try using two styles of animal print fabric on the cushions in your living room, and then a third on the ones on your bed, or on a hallway bench if you have one. But if you only have eyes for the one style of print, use that and that alone, just as the designer has in the sophisticated zebra-centric Eichholtz living room.

If you’re feeling particularly venturesome, take your textiles up a level and invest in an animal print throw. Unless you’re doing animal print in a maximalist way, tone down the number of cushions you have and let the throw be the main event in this scenario. Try folding it in two and draping it over the back or arm of a sofa with a mixture of oversized and oblong cushions in front of it.

Animal print furniture isn’t for the faint-hearted. But if the prospect of a throw over your sofa didn’t quite do it, then an animal print sofa should do the job.

Move down the gears and you’ll reach the domain of animal print chairs, headboards and footstools – three categories that are still fearless to a degree, just not quite so as the expanse of a sofa. These smaller examples of animal print upholstery fabrics champion its underlying elegance.

The key is ensuring the style of print works perfectly with your colour palette and home accessories. Animal print appreciates cohesion.

If you choose zebra, repeat black and white throughout your room. If you choose tiger, ensure there’s honeyed, warm wooden furniture or flooring, amber accents and pulses of black. And if you decide giraffe’s for you, then make certain there’s a sandy-hued presence in the room combined with tonal browns and golds.

And finally to accessories. Whether you’re using animal print accessories as a way to reinforce your interior’s already really wild side, or if it’s your single jungle reference, they’re on hand to add pockets of print to any and every room. But don’t just stop at objects peppered with dots, spots and stripes, nestle in other related accessories to highlight their zoological nature.

Add shagreen trinket boxes and jungle animal ornaments to a sitting room’s bookcase, display an artful tray of jaguar-handled jars with other animal-esque curios on a home office’s desk, or even specially-selected bottles of spirits that nod to the trend (take a look at Snow Leopard Vodka and Zebra Gin) with an animal print bottle opener for good company.