How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home

Tartan Home Decor, Furnishings Scotland, Interior Pattern Architecture, Cloth

How to Incorporate Scottish Tartan Into Your Home

Classic Scottish Pattern – Interior Design Furnishing in Scotland

8 Jul 2017

Scottish Tartan in Homes

How to Incorporate Scottish Tartan Into Your Home

This classic Scottish pattern is fantastically versatile, looking country-house classic through to coolly contemporary, as these rooms show
Article first published on Houzz

Jo Simmons, Houzz Contributor

Sporting crisscrossing stripes in a range of colours, tartan is an instantly recognisable pattern. It comes with a rich history, too. The Falkirk design is the oldest recorded scrap of tartan, dating from the 3rd century, but tartan as we know it was not commonly worn in Scotland before the 16th century.

In the 19th century, there was a buzz around romantic Scottish culture, thanks in part to the books of Sir Walter Scott. In 1822, when King George IV visited Scotland, demand for tartan went through the roof and it was made the national dress. Tartans from this period became clan or family specific, but before the 1800s they were regional. This was because tartan designs were created by local weavers for regional tastes, using whatever natural dyes were available in the area.

Tartan has migrated from kilts and clothing to use in a domestic setting, and while rooms that incorporated tartan used to look a little heavy or, at best, ski chalet-ish, today’s interiors use tartan in original, thoughtful ways. Furthermore, tartan is no longer confined to woollen fabric and crops up on all kinds of materials, from cotton to ceramics, in a range of contemporary colours. So why not fall in love with tartan and bring it into your home? It’s time for a Highland fling.

How to Incorporate Scottish Tartan

Take to the floor
A tartan carpet is not to everyone’s taste, but used confidently and teamed with surprising, exciting furniture and accessories, it can look a wee bit marvellous. Here, the tartan underfoot takes on a glamorous feel, combined with boudoir-style satin bedding and a mirrored cabinet. The rustic, raw plaster walls add a gritty contrast, for a room that’s bold and super sure of itself.

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home

Limit the colour palette
Let your tartan wallpaper call the design shots in a room by teaming it with pieces that pick up on its key colours. Here, a dramatic black bed frame and grey pillows tie in beautifully with the grey and black tartan paper, while the white bedding adds a crisp contrast.

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home

Head upstairs
The linear design of a tartan pattern makes it ideal as a stair runner, its up and down lines leading your eye, and you, along. Teamed with white-painted stairs, it’s a smart look.

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home
photo by Ali Hamilton Interiors – More traditional living room ideas

Try it on seating
Upholstery in a tartan fabric looks stylish, bringing a whiff of country-house chic to a room, but without dominating the scheme. Here, a rich blue tartan on the sofa and footstools is teamed with a cobalt blue rug, creating a wash of lush colour against a neutral backdrop.

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home

Add as a unifying accent
It’s confined to a cushion, but the tartan fabric on this sofa adds some welcome pattern and seems to unite all the other ingredients in the room, from the throw to the artwork and soft blue upholstery.

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home

Create a colour splash
So simple, but so effective, this tartan blanket transforms this bedroom. It makes the plain white duvet cover come alive and brings warmth and character to the simple scheme.

Find cushions and throws to brighten up your bedroom

How to incorporate Scottish tartan into your home
photo by Scot Meacham Wood Design – Search traditional living room design ideas

Go for gentlemen’s club cool
Tartan is often associated with grown-up schemes – think of a wood-panelled gentlemen’s club or the grand living room in a country estate. It’s a look that can work well today, though, as this beautiful sitting room demonstrates. Rich, dark walls that pick up on the deep blue in the tartan-upholstered chair create a warm atmosphere, while the huge painting adds further classic character and colour.

Discover 10 reasons to love dark blue

Discover 10 reasons to love dark blue

Reproduce in tiles This wonderful tartan floor is actually a mosaic tile design, carefully laid to reproduce the classic Scottish favourite underfoot. It’s a clever, witty way to bring colour and pattern into this cloakroom.

See more ways to dazzle with mosaic tiles

Major Scottish Buildings

Key Buildings in Scotland Articles – architectural selection below:

George Square Glasgow
City Chambers Glasgow
photo © Adrian Welch

Glasgow Walking Tours

Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Glasgow Buildings

Glasgow Transport Museum
Museum of Transport Glasgow
photograph : Alan McAteer

WASPS South Block, Glasgow Scoops UK’s Richest Architecture Prize
Maggies Gartnavel
photograph : Dapple Photography
WASPS South Block Glasgow

Ghost of Water Row (no budget – all work and material given in kind)
Edo Architecture (Client: Edo Architecture)
The Ghost of Water Row

4 Linsiadar
studioKAP (Client: Ms Margrit Macleod)
Isle of Lewis House

Buildings / photos for the How to Include Scottish Tartan in a Home – Interior Design Scotland page welcome