The Zoe Report | There *Is* An Art To Decorating With Animal Print

Alex Alonso, mr alex TATE's interior designer in South Florida, gives his creative thoughts on animal print.

"Don’t Get Too Matchy-Matchy"

"One of the biggest mistakes Smith says she sees in decorating with animal prints is getting too matchy-matchy, “like using a leopard rug with a matching leopard sofa and chair,” she explains. “Once the print is used too much in a room, it feels overdone and can almost come across as tacky.” However, Alex Alonso of mr alex TATE Design does have a solution if you’d like to use the print more than once throughout the space.

“My general rule when decorating with an animal print is to work in multiples of balanced twos and mix and match the print,” he says. “I like to balance the big scale and the small scale. An example of this, he continues, could be a large-scale expression on the walls via wallpaper or wall-to-wall carpet, coupled with a throw on the sofa or cushions on a window seat."