Nothing lifts a room quite like a spot. The polka dot took its name from a nineteenth-century dance craze, and it has never entirely lost that association with high spirits. It is the pattern of children's rooms and summer dresses, of Yayoi Kusama and Christian Dior, and of a great many quietly elegant English interiors that would never describe themselves as playful at all.
That is the useful thing about a spot. It can be as joyful or as restrained as you make it, and the difference is almost entirely a matter of scale and colour. Shrink it, tone it down and space it out and you have something closer to a small print, quiet enough for a dining room. Scale it up, brighten it and crowd it in and you have a nursery, or a downstairs cloakroom with a sense of humour.
It is also one of the oldest patterns in decoration, for the simple reason that it is the easiest mark to make. A dot needs no drawing skill and no repeat to speak of, which is why it turns up on pottery and printed cloth long before it ever reached a wall.
"A spot can be as joyful or as restrained as you make it. It is all a matter of scale and colour."
The Grown-Up Spot
At the quiet end, a spot behaves almost like a small print. Button Spot in Blue, by Cath Kidston, is the classic version, baby blue dots on cream in a matt finish, and above pale panelling it is as pretty as it is unfussy. Brush in Emerald, from Artisan by Bodo Sperlein for Coordonné, is the grown-up opposite: small oval brushmarks stamped in even rows, each one laid down by hand, and the slight irregularity is exactly what makes it.
Some are not quite dots at all. Seed Pod in Green, at the top of this page, from House Small Prints by GP & J Baker, is a seed pod with the appearance of a polka dot, wrapped in swirling flora. And Lulu, from Circles and Straights by Parker & Jules, scatters coloured lozenges through a fine diamond lattice, so the spots read as part of a structure rather than loose on the wall.
Button Spot, Blue by Cath Kidston
Brush, Emerald by Coordonné
Lulu by Parker & Jules
Mini Polka, Forest Friends by Today Interiors
"The smaller and softer the spot, the more grown-up the room."
How and Where to Use It
A spot is one of the most forgiving patterns to live with. Small and tonal, it reads as a texture from across a room and will paper every wall without ever tiring the eye, which makes it a natural for a hallway, a landing or a cloakroom. Larger and brighter, it becomes properly cheerful, and that is where its oldest home still is: Mini Polka, from Forest Friends by Today Interiors, is a delicate scatter made for a child's room, and it proves how little a spot needs to do to be charming.
It is also a lovely companion to a bigger pattern, picking up one colour and repeating it in a quieter key. Watercolour Dots in Sage, from Great Kids by Hohenberger, does that with soft painted spots in muted colours, calm enough for a nursery that will still suit the child in five years. Choose the scale for the room and the colour for the mood, and order a sample first, since a spot changes character completely between a swatch and a whole wall.
Watercolour Dots, Sage by Hohenberger
The spot asks very little and gives a great deal of good humour. It is the pattern people smile at without quite knowing why, and one of very few that works as happily in a child's bedroom as in a grown-up hall.
Ready to Add a Few Spots?
Browse the full Polka Dot & Spots collection, or look sideways into Small Prints and Scallop.
