How To Incorporate Animal Print Into Your Apartment

By Sarah Christine Davis on November 13, 2015

This article is brought to you by CORT, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway and the world’s largest furniture rental and relocation services company. To learn more about how we can help college students like you, click here.

Successfully incorporating animal print into your apartment decor can be a tricky task. When it comes to animal print, the line between charming and tacky is a fine one.

There are so many things that you have to take into consideration. What kind of animal print will you use? Will you make an attempt to combine different animal prints? Do you want the animal print to stand out in your apartment or do you want it to be more subtle?

All of these tough questions are asked in addition to the difficult duty of simply making the animal print look good in your apartment.

As one of the strongest patterns out there, animal print requires deliberation about a number of different, yet all equally important, concepts. Apartment Therapy offers several concepts to take into consideration when incorporating patterns such as animal print into a room, such as color intensity, companion fabrics, and balancing.

Clearly, it’s not as easy as you may think it is to use animal print in your apartment in a classy, not tacky, way. Luckily, there’s a lot of advice out there on how to do this. I’ve compiled a list of the basic rules for fitting animal print into your apartment. Read on to learn more!

Add some sophistication.

Image via Etsy

As previously stated, a major fear that you may or may not experience with using animal prints is creating a tacky room. Freshome suggests that one way to avoid this is to use artwork to help the room stay sophisticated.

Their website says, “If you are concerned that your space will feel like an African safari instead of a living room, tie your furnishings and artwork together.”

Using artwork often brings up another major fear: costliness. Cheap art isn’t often good, and good art often isn’t cheap. However, a good trick is to take a few hours traveling to your area’s local thrift and consignment shops. They usually contain unique and quality art at a much lower cost than art galleries.

Mix it up.

Image via Apartment Therapy

According to the website Lonny, “don’t mix patterns” is an old rule that should be broken.

For the majority of us who aren’t interior design experts who have an eye for mixing patterns, Lonny advises, “There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to mixing patterns, but it does take a bit of trial and error.”

You can hone into your patience and see what works. You may be surprised at the unique creations that you can devise.

Conversely, Apartment Therapy offers more hard and fast rules for combining patterns. They recommend grouping three different patterns together, with the first being the strongest, the second having similar colors as the first but in a smaller size, and the third being a complementary or neutral color in an even smaller size.

Keep your options open.

There are so many different ways to incorporate animal print into your apartment with things that you already have or need like a hamper — in zebra print — aside from wall decorations and throw blankets.

Keep it subtle with a zebra print tissue box next to your bed. Conversely, you could also include a cheetah print mousepad in your office to match with your animal print folders.

Image via Touch of Class

In the bathroom, instead of using something as ostentatious as a shower curtain, you can incorporate a matching toothbrush holder and soap dish set with a complementary hand cloth.

Florida State University senior Cody Vanderploeg said, “During the cold nights of Netflix and chill by myself, I like to cuddle up with my panda print pillow.”

Get silly with it.

Reminisce about the times when you had a Sidekick phone and zebra or cheetah print items constituted everything that you owned. Incorporating animal prints into your apartment can take you back to those simpler times.

Image via Homed It

Go big or go home with animal print wallpaper in your living room. If you’re feeling risky, you can even put some on your ceiling, as seen above.

You can also have an animal-print themed party and temporarily deck your apartment out in everything animal print related. Check out your local party store or Etsy for leopard print table runners, giraffe print paper plates, cow print favor boxes, and more.

Try it out first.

Image via Walmart

If you don’t want to make a full commitment to the world of animal print decor, all is not lost.

One way to try out animal print in your apartment is to get a zebra print chair slip cover, such as this one from Overstock.

Additionally, to avoid the trouble and turmoil that comes with putting up wallpaper, putting up an animal print tapestry can be a great option.

A few other temporary ideas include a tiger print table cloth, a snake skin lampshade, or a giraffe print door mat.

Looking for a more convenient way to furnish your off-campus apartment? Rent stylish furniture from CORT and save time and money. For more information on furniture rental packages, click here.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format