This crazy beautiful interior is of an installation architect, artist, and designer Josef Frank created for Swedish interior design company Svenskt Tennin 1939. There a million things we love about it, including the very cool fireplace, the jazzy sofa textiles and how low everything is, making the ceiling seem HIGH and the room airy and spacious. AND dig the black-and-white checkerboard floors, a reflection of Frank’s idea that “Patterns are calming”*. They are an enduring, curiously forthright flooring material that seems to work in just about any space, from modern to classic.

Check out the ones in Julian Schnabel’s New York City home Palazzo Chupi:

Frank’s entire quote gives one much to think about; it flies in the face of a lot of contemporary design that’s around:

The monochromatic surface appears uneasy, while patterns are calming, and the observer is unwillingly influenced by the slow, calm way it is produced. The richness of decoration cannot be fathomed so quickly, in contrast to the monochromatic surface which doesn’t invite any further interest and therefore one is immediately finished with it.

top image via aqqindex