Floral Mixing 101

LINKS/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED/

Floral mixing: easy or hard?

I had no idea that I have this many floral shirts!
Half of them I got from Larry last year...

Some people can pull it off seemingly effortlessly (Sacramento of Mis Papelicos comes to mind),
others not so much (I will refrain from pointing fingers).
Is it possible to have a method to mixing? Perhaps!

I thought to look to interior designers -- they constantly have to juggle colors, textures, and patterns. And, since the body is the home for the soul... why not decorate it with the same deliberation?

I found a nifty book on Amazon, Fabrique Technique, where Jennifer Birdsong Raffo lays out a system for mixing what she defines as the six room design characteristics: Color, Pattern shape, Pattern size, Contrast, Texture, Sheen.
I'm thinking we can leave out Pattern Shape, Texture, and Sheen and concentrate on the three others.
Oh, wait, there's the small issue of the garments -- three skirts that coordinate nicely won't do you much good!

See? Complicated!

For this post, I'm concentrating on florals, but you could use these guidelines for any sort of pattern mixing.

Step 1: Color
Choose your primary floral garment-- for Jennifer's system, it will have at least 3 colors.
Make note of the colors. Your next patterned choice should have at least two of them and your third will have a color [or more] common with the first two.
Now is the time to abandon the concept of mixing three florals if you can't get the colors to sync!

Step 2: Pattern Size
Variety in scale is easier on the eye. Ideally [for a room], you would have small, medium, large.

Step 3: Contrast
Dark, medium, light

Wow! It works!

Definitely worth a try -- If nothing else, it's a new way to mix things from your closet!
Have you shared your experiments with the 52 Pick-me-up link-up? Please do!

Meanwhile, I'm linking up with Patti's Visible Monday.