Five Beautiful Things

 

Check, Please!

Some of my colleagues think I must own stock in a mysterious gingham-manufacturing company abroad. I love the summery/autumnal check pattern and have a dozen or so shirts in this printed fabric: short-sleeve, long-sleeve, red, blue, black, green, teal… You get the picture. The name ‘gingham’ comes from the Malay word genggang, which means striped – its original incarnation. When it was imported into Europe in the 1600s, manufacturers gradually began to print the medium-weight, plain-woven fabric in check, often in blue on white, its most popular pairing. Gingham is made of carded, medium or fine yarns, where the colouring is on the warp yarns and always along the grain, the weft.

With Labor Day approaching, there is no better time to break out the gingham, in my opinion: picnic blankets, napkins, aprons and baskets lined with gingham are all perfectly festive. Few, however, dare to incorporate gingham into home décor. Perhaps they fear the commitment to such a striking pattern, or perhaps there are confused associations with kitschy Italian diners. Whatever the case, it seems a shame to me that it is so frequently neglected as an interior design element. Below are five images that hopefully prove how attractive gingham can be indoors.