Ultimate DIY Guide to Preppy Style for the Home - Crafting Is My Therapy (2024)

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Modern Preppy style for the home combines tradition and bold color for a fun, polished look that is all-American. Preppy home style is intimately American with its love of red, white and blue, gingham and stripes, but it’s much more than that. It’s a modern style that honors the genteel traditions of the past, while playing with color and pattern that’s American innovation. Anchored by traditional styled furnishings, paired with attention demanding fabrics and accessories that add the fun. It’s your grandma’s beautiful club chairs with bright pink piping or your grandfather’s studded leather couch with bright plaid throw pillows. Read on to see if preppy style might be right for you and how you can add fun preppy touches to your home without a country club budget.

Preppy Interior Design Style is More of A Feeling

Preppy interior design style is more of a feeling than anything else. It’s built upon the substantial back of traditional style modified to evoke the feeling of sophistication that comes with country clubs, equestrian events and social graces. Preppy style uses bright colors set against the traditional backdrop of neutrals in brown and white to radiate confidence. A second cousin to modern farmhouse, preppy style has all the same reverence for furnishings with history but seeks pieces that have less wear and more polish. Like modern farmhouse, Preppy style is often set against a backdrop of white and other neutrals but favors bolder colored accents than generally used with modern farmhouse.

Designer Ralph Lauren might be considered the father of Preppy interior design style with his love of red, white, blue and teens in tennis skirts and deck shoes. If you love his photo shoots and the way they make you feel, then Preppy style might be perfect for you. If you like sophistication paired with color and energy, then modern preppy style for the home is perfection.

Style Element: Layered Patterns

Preppy interior design features a genteel mix of patterns. Plaid is the traditional pattern of preppy style, but it isn’t the only one. Stripes, hounds tooth, herringbone and gingham checks mix to create a curated look that’s anything but stuffy. Create a cozy mix of deep colored plaids and dark navy blue stripes or lighten up the room with patterns in bold colors like bright green and white.

How to DIY it:Mixing patterns is a great way to stretch your budget. Upholster kitchen stools and ottomans in easy to find neutral plaid fabrics and spend more on the coordinating fabric for the throw pillows. Make sure that you watch the scale of your patterns, as big patterned fabric will overwhelm small spaces and small patterns get lost in big rooms.

Another super-accessible patterned element is the traditional needlepoint pillow. Keep an eye out for these hidden gems at thrift stores (check out our list of reliable thrift store finds for the home designer) and garage sales, or ask grandma if she has one she’s willing to part with.

Curtains are another super-easy way to add preppy style pattern to your room. Look for plaids, gingham, or stripe fabrics. I have tall ceilings that can make finding curtains difficult, but I’ve solved that problem with my super-simple way to lengthen curtains with one seam. Check out that article if you have tall ceilings and can sew a straight line.

Style Element: Monograms

Monograms are an essential design element for preppy style rooms. Monograms show your pride in your heritage and pop up in practically every preppy styled room. Bathrooms sport monogrammed towels and rugs, bedrooms have monogrammed throw pillows and duvet covers. Check out our DIY guide to creating a Spa Retreat for more great bathroom ideas.

How to DIY It: Luckily, it’s never been easier to DIY your monogram. If you don’t believe me, just search YouTube for “design a monogram” and you will be rewarded with loads of wonderful tutorials on how to create your personal monogram. Once you’ve designed your family monogram, you can create simple pillow envelopes that can be embellished with your monogram using a sharpie marker or paint. Or use our ugly pillow makeover tips to create throw pillows that can be painted with your design. You’ll also find great tutorials on how to create a monogram cut file for your Cricut Die Cutting Machine if you want to use iron-on vinyl to create monogrammed pillows and bedding.

If monogrammed pillows aren’t your style, print and frame a simple monogram using Word or Google Docs. To modernize your monogram, choose bold rather than cursive lettering. Don’t forget to look for unexpected places to add monograms like the backs of chairs, to add a modern touch to the traditional monogram.

Style Element: Traditional Color Combinations

Preppy style for the home has traditionally favored the color combinations of blue and white, or pink and green. But red, pine green, yellow and brown play nicely in a modern preppy home. Really, any bold color paired with white gets a modern preppy vibe when seen in classic patterns like gingham, stripes and plaids. Traditional pieces, like this upholstered headboard turn preppy when covered in bright colors or punchy patterns.

How to DIY It:Painting wood furniture is a DIY dream for transforming a room, and modern preppy style for your home is easy to achieve with a paintbrush and a vision. Refinish night stands, tables and dressers by painting them bright, glossy white. Update the drawer fronts with striped or gingham wallpaper, and you have a perfectly preppy dresser. While your updating your preppy bedroom, check out our tips on turning your bedroom into a suite.

Painted furniture with a preppy twist works in every room of the house. Paint kitchen chairs or bar stools and cover the seats in plaid fabric. Paint your coffee table bright yellow to highlight your Equestrian magazines and fresh flowers in a vase. A bright blue entry table topped with traditional blue and white china vases is anything but stuffy.

How to DIY It:This style element is perfect for the DIY-er and only requires a glue gun and a steady hand. Add piping to a traditional club chair, glue a pom-pom trim around a throw pillow or add a grosgrain ribbon detail to the bottom of your curtains.

Style Element: Heirloom Accessories

With preppy style, hand-me-downs become “heirlooms” artfully displayed. Vintage steamer trunks and suitcases used as nightstands and coffee tables subtly remind visitors that your ancestors were well-traveled, even if they never left the state. Wooden tennis rackets and equestrian accessories hint at a sporting life of leisure and make amazing wall decor. The love of the sea and vacations at Cape Cod show up in a preppy styled home as nautical accessories, artfully displayed but not overdone.

How to DIY It:The trick with accessories is to add them to the space without overloading it or making it look “themed.” While a few hunting prints look great in a preppy home (especially against a bold colored wall), too many hunting accessories can make it look like a cabin. The same holds for nautical accessories. Pepper your room with them, but don’t create your room around them. Look for vintage or vintage-looking accessories in thrift stores and at garage sales. Keep an eye out for vintage looking hunting and golf prints that can look fresh against a white wall or next to a bright pink end table. I love to repaint the mat around a painting a bold and unexpected color to give an old painting a new twist.

Botanical prints also work beautifully in preppy spaces. Look for books of prints to frame, or purchase printable botanical prints and have them printed as engineering prints to frame. If you have questions about printing engineering prints, check out our post on the North Pole Hot Cocoa Bar where we give you the details on how to do it. If you like free printables, don’t forget to subscribe for access to our huge freebie library.

Preppy style is all about a love of stripes and tradition with a twist of fun that’s playful without being gaudy. It reminds us of family tradition, good manners and to have tea every afternoon. When you modernize preppy style by favoring glossy white side tables over heavy stained drop-leaf tables, and gingham wallpaper accents over gingham curtains you create a home that is fresh and traditional without ever being boring.

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