Spotlight on: Checkerboard

I have long been a fan of a good checkerboard pattern. (Also patchwork, buffalo check, windowpane check, gingham…you get the idea.) Checkerboard, that alteration of squares of the same size in two colors, has been around for hundreds of years. It’s also having a real moment. The latest issue of Domino (an excellent one in my opinion) had so many instances of the pattern, they had to break it down in the index.

What’s so appealing about it? It is regular but has energy. The color combinations are endless. It can be created in many scales and materials. And it feels “in style” in any era.

I did a little round up of products in home and fashion, and loved all the proof of just how versatile it is.

You can see checkerboard patterns in furniture from the 19th century to mid-twentieth-century (number 13) to Pottery Barn 2021 ( table, number 7).

In fashion, long-standing cult brands like Louis Vuitton (number 15), Todd Snyder (number 11) and Vans (number 18) have popularized the pattern.

In Morocco, you can get a rug in most color combinations (number 5: feeling ochre at this moment—and always), and if the all-over effect is too much for you, you can search out an Azilal rug, some of which use checkerboard just as a border to a solid field.

There’s also something interesting about products that create the pattern through dimension and material, not color. Loving Thibaut’s gold woven wallpaper (number 2) and the woven rope console through Layla Grayce (number 8). Woven baskets have been made in this pattern for ever (number 9). Speaking of the material mix, I’m always a fan of bone inlay, and this letter-opener (number 12) uses it to create a checkerboard. You can even create the pattern through absence, as in the modern take on arts and craft side tables (number 4.)

I was surprised to find there are popular china patterns in checker (beyond Mackenzie Childs, which my step-grandmother loves), and you can find it on all things ceramic, from mugs (number 10 ) to vases (number 14).

Checkerboard is also a common motif in art. (Do we see a theme here?) I’m a particular fan of Joan Grubin’s three-dimensional paper pieces (number 19), which use shadows from paint on the back of elevated squares to throw colorful shadows on the paper ground—multi-dimensional goodness.

And last but not least, obviously there are the fabrics! Way too hard to narrow it down, but here we have some options on ready-made goods: cut velvet throw pillows (number 2), Missoni towels (yes please! number 16) and mixed with cane and leather—to fabulous effect—on a contemporary armchair (number 17).

I left out the cake! You know something is muy popular if it was a category on the Great British Baking Show. Recipe can be found here—though I frankly chose this version based on the photo, and can not vouch for the cake itself. (On further inspection, it only has a three-star review.)

In case you are desperate for one of the links, here is the full round up in numerical order:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.

—Heather