Ah, geometry. How I loathed it as a high school freshman. And how I love it now…or, at least, the artistic renditions of geometry. With their unabashed patterns and repetition and bold, often colorful, designs, geometric prints infuse spaces with life and movement and pattern and energy. Any space can use a bit of geometry. Of course, we don’t want visitors to burst into cardio intervals upon entering a geometric printed room, so we must use it with care and with caution and with an eye toward balance.Here are some ways that bold geometric patterns are successfully incorporated into a space…and equally successfully balanced into that space.

All geometric, all the time.

This space is balanced in its use of color – blues and neutral hues overall, with a bold geometric carpet and one gigantic pop of modern abstract art at eye level. The furniture lines are rounded, both obviously and subtly, and they are kept open so as to complement (and kind of mimic) the modern prints. The furniture pieces’ solid coloring provides balance to the geometric energy.

Geometry in this space is balanced by the free-form wall mural of birds in flight.

Varied scales of geometric prints (e.g., the large black and white chevron rug, smaller neutral lattice on the pouf chairs) help them to balance each other. Additionally, the careful use of color (restricted to just three pillows) puts the space overall in harmony with its patterns.

Two mid-scale geometric printed club chairs are the only pattern in this room.

Of course, bold artwork on the wall keeps things interesting, and the link-framed mirror create a subtle tie-in to geometry, but the connection is neither overt nor immediately obvious. I like how the chair print reads almost as a neutral here – this works well in a neutral-focused space.

Green, white, and black is such a fresh color combination.

Obviously the brightest color, the green here is tastefully kept to a minimum and covers just the two bar stools. Color, paired with the geometric pattern, gives those stools’ presence an enormous bang-for-your-buck. Furthermore, although kept in light neutral color palette, the room overall is large enough to balance the pop provided by the chairs.

This room is the epitome of balance perfection.

The large-scale geometric chevron print of the club chairs is stand-out, but it’s beautifully balanced by so many other interesting, non-geometric elements in the space. The bubbles chandelier draws our eye upward, the floral throw pillows break up the rest of the solid color, the bamboo framed mirror is a subtle and lovely nod to the movement of the geometry, and the wall color bespeaks soothing calm. I love everything about this space.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.