Art Deco Interior Design
How Chevron Patterns Shine in Art Deco Spaces
Walk past a 1930s facade in Los Angeles or Napier and there’s a good chance a chevron is on it, a row of inverted V bands marking out a stripe, a border or a stretch of floor. The motif also ran across ceramics and textiles made in the 1920s and 1930s, and it gives a flat surface direction and rhythm.
Critics at the time had a name for the style, and it wasn’t Art Deco, a label coined in the 1960s. The V&A records that it was then known as Style Moderne. Zigzag Moderne came later, as a classification by architectural historian David Gebhard, who counts chevrons among that substyle’s standard decoration, alongside zigzags and sunbursts.
What does a chevron look like in Art Deco design?
Britannica describes the base form as two slanting lines meeting in an inverted V. Art Deco designers repeated it at fixed intervals until it read as a band.
Architectural historian David Gebhard lists chevrons next to zigzags, sunbursts, spirals and stylized plants and animals as the standard decoration of Zigzag Moderne.
In practice the V gets built in a few ways. Designers stacked bands row on row so the pattern climbs a surface, or wrapped one or two runs around a vase, border or cornice. Nesting a V inside a V narrows the eye toward a point. And now and then a single oversized V became the whole shape of a window, panel or doorway.
Stacked and banded chevrons
Ceramics give the clearest dated examples of banding. Carlton Ware’s Handcraft chevron vase, pattern 3657 (1932 to 1936), wraps black and silver chevron and triangular motifs around a globular body on a mid-green ground, according to the Carters Auctions catalogue.
Architecture does the same at larger scale. Gold chevron-shaped stripes decorate the walls beside the clock at the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles (whiteMAD).
Stacked rows appear underfoot there too. The Los Angeles Conservancy reports that the sidewalks on the Broadway and Ninth Street sides of the building are multi-colored terrazzo laid in a pattern of zigzags and chevrons.
Nested and single large chevrons
One big chevron behaves like a shape, not a pattern.
The canteen block at the Hoover Building in Perivale, London, added in 1938, has a long vertical V-shaped window at the front (Modernism in Metroland).
Nested chevrons are the quietest version. They suit small fields like grilles and lamp bases, where a repeated row would swamp the object.
Where did the chevron in Art Deco come from?
Art Deco didn’t invent the chevron. It took an old form and fed it from newer sources, including a geometric strain of Art Nouveau and Egyptian and Mesoamerican imagery. The 1925 Paris exposition then gave the style its name.
Britannica traces the chevron to very early pottery and textiles. It also notes that zigzag bands made of joined chevrons were among the most common Romanesque ornaments, especially in Norman-influenced regions.
Rachel Moss’s study of Romanesque chevron ornament (BAR Publishing) describes the motif as ubiquitous in northwestern Europe from the late eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries.
The V&A says the geometric work of Josef Hoffmann and Charles Rennie Mackintosh fed directly into the Art Deco search for modern forms.
Egypt came into it later. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts dates the craze for all things Egyptian to the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and Egyptian motifs became part of Art Deco’s language from then on.
On the Mesoamerican side, the V&A says 1920s designers looked to Africa, East Asia and Mesoamerica. John Betjeman tied the Hoover Building’s primary colors to Aztec and Mayan fashions at the 1925 Paris Exhibition (Britain from Above).
Art Nouveau interiors ran on flowing lines, the opposite of a chevron’s straight edges. The V&A still counts the older style among Art Deco’s key sources, though. There’s more on that background in this guide to Art Nouveau interiors.
Is the chevron really an Art Deco motif?
A few decor sites say it isn’t. The record doesn’t back them up.
The V&A notes that the style was known in its own day as Style Moderne, and Gebhard’s later classification of its zigzag substyle, Zigzag Moderne, names chevrons among its decoration.
Timing is where the sources need care. Gebhard’s sequence has Zigzag Moderne popular in the 1920s and replaced by Streamline Moderne in the 1930s.
Chevron work kept going after that hand-off. Napier’s downtown rebuild ran from 1931 to 1933, and the Carlton Ware vase dates to 1932 to 1936. Treat the sequence as a rule of thumb, not a cutoff.
Key dates
- Chevron moldings fill Norman and Romanesque stonework from the late 11th to the early 13th century (Rachel Moss, BAR Publishing).
- Tutankhamun’s tomb is discovered in 1922 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).
- The 1925 Paris exposition, with some 20 countries taking part, launches the style (Victoria and Albert Museum).
- 1930 brings the completion of the Chrysler Building in May (Designing Buildings) and of the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles (Michelin Guide).
- The Carlton Ware chevron vase, pattern 3657, dates to 1932 to 1936 (Carters Auctions).
How does the Art Deco chevron differ from zigzag, herringbone and sunburst motifs?
The quick version is that a chevron is a continuous V band, and a zigzag is joined chevrons run together as one line. Herringbone breaks the V up, since it’s built from rectangles butted end to side. A sunburst doesn’t use a V at all, because its rays fan out from a single point.
| Motif | Construction | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Chevron | Continuous V band, pieces meet point to point | Facade stripes, borders, ceramics, floors |
| Zigzag | Joined chevrons running as one line | Moldings, grilles, Zigzag Moderne facades |
| Herringbone | Rectangles butted end to side, broken V | Floors, brickwork, tweed |
| Sunburst | Rays fanning from one point | Entrance reliefs, tower crowns |
| Stepped form | Setbacks rising in tiers | Tower tops, ziggurat silhouettes |
Chevron vs zigzag
The word zigzag does double duty. Zigzag Moderne is the name of a substyle, and a zigzag band is also a plain run of joined chevrons, as Britannica describes it in Romanesque moldings.
A zigzag is free to wander in width and angle, whereas a chevron band sticks to one V at one size.
The wider family of angled lines gets its own treatment in this look at how zigzag patterns appear across Art Deco design.
Chevron vs herringbone
The V is the same, but the joint isn’t.
Professional Remodeler’s editor says chevron pieces meet in a mitered joint with the ends touching, while herringbone ends are butted. Remodelista quotes a flooring specialist saying chevron blocks run point to point, with ends cut at an angle for an unbroken zigzag.
Retail guides disagree on the angles. Pooky, a lighting retailer, gives a 40-degree angle between a chevron’s arms and sets herringbone rows at 45 degrees. Living Spaces, a furniture retailer, says chevron pieces meet at 45 degrees and herringbone pieces at 90 degrees.
Since the numbers vary by source, the joint is the more reliable test.
Chevron vs sunburst and stepped forms
What separates the last three is the direction of repetition. A chevron repeats along a line. Sunbursts go around a point, and stepped forms rise up a profile.
The Eastern Columbia Building shows two of them side by side. Its two-story vestibule carries a blue and gold terra cotta sunburst (Michelin Guide), while the zigzags and chevrons run across the facade.
Designers favored the fan shape at entrances and tower tops, and this page on the sunburst motif in Art Deco covers how it was drawn and where it sits.
Stepped forms follow Gebhard’s description of a central tower that lowers in steps toward the edges.
Which buildings show Art Deco chevrons?
The Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles and the rebuilt town center of Napier, New Zealand, both carry documented chevron ornament. The Chrysler Building and the Hoover Building in London sit nearby in the family, with V, zigzag and sunburst forms.
Eastern Columbia Building, Los Angeles
The building opened in 1930 and stands 13 stories (Michelin Guide). Its turquoise and gold glazed terra cotta carries gold chevron-shaped stripes beside the clock, chevrons and zigzags across the facade, and chevron terrazzo on the sidewalks. Claud Beelman was the architect.
It was the headquarters of the Eastern Outfitting Company and the Columbia Outfitting Company, so the ornament was a retail statement as much as a style choice.
Napier, New Zealand
An earthquake on 3 February 1931 destroyed most of Napier’s center. Smithsonian Magazine reports that 111 new buildings went up downtown between 1931 and 1933, and most of them took their cues from Art Deco.
UNESCO’s tentative-list entry says the district’s ornament appears in exterior stucco relief, interior plasterwork, leaded glass, metal grilles, flooring and joinery. Hawke’s Bay Tourism describes the facades as embellished with geometric motifs, sunbursts and chevrons.
Chrysler Building and Hoover Building
The Chrysler Building in New York, completed in May 1930, is usually classed as Zigzag Moderne. Its crown is seven radiating arched elements set with triangular windows (Dezeen), so it reads as a sunburst, not a chevron stack.
Its terraced crown also follows the setback logic of stepped forms in Art Deco buildings.
The Hoover Building in Perivale opened on 2 May 1933, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for the Hoover Company. Brooks Murray’s planning summary says the ornament is said to draw on Central and North American Indian art, with Egyptian touches. Modernism in Metroland, by contrast, calls the decoration of the main block largely Egyptian and notes that no documentation of the American link has been found.
The 1938 canteen block adds the long V-shaped window described earlier.
Readers who want the wider field can browse a longer list of famous Art Deco buildings.
Which materials and objects carried the chevron?
The chevron traveled through terrazzo, inlaid wood and wrought iron, and also onto painted ceramics and block-printed silk. The medium set the character of the V’s edge, whether that was a metal strip, an inlay line, a hammered bar, a brushed band or a carved printing block.
Materials
Terrazzo floors used divider strips of brass, copper, nickel, silver or zinc to hold the line between colors. Inlay work set ivory into dense, fine-grained woods such as macassar ebony. Wrought iron meant hammered bars, then electroplating or patinas for color.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s CAMEO database dates the divider-strip method to 1919. Before it, terrazzo was rarely used, and the strips also cut cracking from expansion and settling.
A strip is what lets an installer keep a crisp edge between two colors, and a V border depends on that edge.
Ruhlmann is the benchmark on the inlay side. The Met’s record for his ca. 1925 “Fuseaux” cabinet describes an extraordinarily complex marquetry pattern in macassar ebony and ivory, though it does not single out chevrons.
Edgar Brandt’s workshop ran on an assembly production line and electroplated iron with other metals to vary the color, according to the V&A. Joan Kahr’s 1999 biography adds gold and silver patinas over iron, bronze and steel.
Terrazzo has one limit worth knowing. CAMEO lists acids and alkalis as a risk, since both can etch or pit the surface. For how period floors handled borders and medallions, see this guide to how Art Deco floors used inlay patterns.
Objects and designers
Sonia Delaunay’s Tissu simultane no. 46 (1924) shows how much the carrier changes a pattern. Cooper Hewitt notes she printed the same design on cotton and on silk, and the silk keeps the color on the surface for a more painterly effect.
Her simultane fabrics, sold from a boutique she shared with Jacques Heim at the 1925 exposition, carried blocks, stripes and waves in mainly primary colors (V&A). A facsimile portfolio of her textile watercolors in the same collection includes broad zigzag stripes.
Clarice Cliff’s Bizarre range reached the trade in 1927, and Historic England calls its hand-painted geometric forms an immediate commercial success. Louise Irvine of WMODA says her bold geometric patterns began to appear in 1927, with names such as Luxor, Sunray and Mondrian, although the V&A dates its Sunray vase to 1929.
Color and finish
Deco palettes tended to go one of two ways, metal against dark or saturated color. Brandt’s ironwork took gold and silver patinas, Delaunay’s block prints paired primary colors with black (V&A), and the Guardian Building in Detroit, finished in 1929, used orange-tan “Guardian Brick”.
The Guardian’s geometry comes from colored brick, stone and polychromed terra cotta, with custom tiles from Pewabic Pottery (Building Design+Construction, 2010). The sources describe no chevron there, which makes it a useful case of pattern built from color alone.
Metal-and-dark schemes and primary schemes both lean on a dark anchor. This breakdown of how the period’s color pairings work covers the combinations in more detail.
How do you use chevron patterns in a modern Art Deco interior?
Choose one surface for the chevron, pick the construction that fits the budget, size the pieces to the room, and anchor the V with dark contrast and metal trim. A single well-built chevron surface carries the whole motif.
- Settle on a single surface (floor, backsplash, feature wall or textile) and leave the rest alone.
- Decide on the construction. True chevron needs mitered ends, while herringbone uses plain rectangles.
- Size the pieces to the room. Small ones tighten the pattern and large planks make it dramatic (Pebble Tile Shop).
- Go dark on the palette, with black or deep contrast and brass, chrome or nickel trim framing the edges.
- Order extra material, since tile estimating guides put chevron waste at 15 to 20 percent.
- Dry-lay first. Snap a centerline, set a small section and check alignment every few rows.
Quantities decide step five. Calculate the tile count for your room first, then add the pattern’s waste on top.
What does a chevron cost compared with herringbone?
Guides agree that chevron costs more than herringbone, though they split on how much.
Pebble Tile Shop puts chevron labor at 10 to 20 percent above herringbone. Journeyman says higher waste plus professional installation can make chevron 30 to 50 percent more expensive overall than herringbone of the same material.
Waste figures vary too. Pebble Tile Shop puts herringbone at 10 to 15 percent and chevron at 15 to 20 percent or more, while Flooring Clarity gives 10 to 20 percent for herringbone and 15 to 30 percent for chevron.
The scope differs (one figure covers labor only, the other total cost including waste), which explains part of the spread.
Pebble Tile Shop’s advice is blunt. Specifying chevron when the budget or the installer suits herringbone better costs more than necessary.
As a rule of thumb, go with herringbone when budget or installer skill is the limit, and chevron when the unbroken V is the point. Honestly, for most rooms herringbone is the easier call.
What goes with a chevron surface?
Havwoods suggests coordinating chevron floors with curved architectural forms.
Flooring Clarity’s Art Deco bathroom guide suggests a plain field tile with decorative accents, and symmetry around a focal point. Mixing the V with other prints follows the wider rules of pattern in interior design.
When does a chevron stop reading as Art Deco?
The V itself never changes. What pulls a chevron out of Art Deco is the tone, material or company around it, any of which can point to another period.
Tone and material
Pale floors are the first culprit. Havwoods says lighter oak tones suit contemporary coastal, Scandinavian and minimalist interiors, while deeper smoked or warm mid-tones feel more refined and luxurious, so tone alone can pull a floor out of the period.
Printed motifs are the other. One design blogger blames cheap mass production for chevron pillows and plant pots (Retro Avangarda).
A printed V has none of the weight of terrazzo, inlay or ironwork, and the eye picks that up.
Period cues that point elsewhere
Chevron carries other decades too. Pooky traces it through 1970s fashion, and the Italian house Missoni built a signature on chevron knits and homeware.
Carters Auctions’ catalog copy lists chevron as a staple of mid-century modern and contemporary furniture as well as Art Deco, so a wooden V in a room can read mid-century. The line between the two is drawn in this comparison of Art Deco and mid-century modern interiors.
Overuse and execution
Too much chevron is a problem on its own. Flooring Clarity recommends selective detailing so a small room does not feel crowded.
Execution is the other trap. DG Floors says chevron needs precise angled cuts and tighter tolerances than herringbone, and Flooring Clarity lists poor layout alignment, weak substrate preparation and underestimated waste as the usual errors.
Scale decides whether one chevron surface feels deliberate or busy. The principles behind that call are covered in scale and proportion in interior design.
One chevron surface, built well, beats three built cheaply.
Chevron Patterns in Art Deco FAQ
Where does the word chevron come from?
It comes from French, where it names a pair of roof rafters that meet in an inverted V. Britannica adds that heraldry borrowed the shape as a bent bar, and uniforms use it on sleeves to mark rank or length of service.
Is the chevron an Art Nouveau motif?
Not at its core. Art Nouveau favored flowing, plant-based lines, so the chevron sits with the angular vocabulary Art Deco built instead.
The V&A ties only the geometric strain of Art Nouveau, the work of Josef Hoffmann and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, to that later turn.
How is chevron different from flame stitch?
Flame stitch zigzags too, but with sharp peaks and usually several colors, with many shades of each hue. Houzz calls it more organic and varied than chevron or herringbone, which repeat one regular V.
Why do flooring suppliers call chevron Hungarian point?
The two names overlap in the trade. Ted Todd lists Hungarian point as another name for chevron flooring.
Direct Wood Flooring traces the label to point de Hongrie, a style of embroidery from which the chevron pattern derives.
Does chevron direction change how big a room looks?
Possibly. Tango Tile says horizontal tile layouts make a space feel wider while vertical ones make ceilings look higher, although it treats chevron as a separate, more dynamic layout. Journeyman adds that chevron’s directional quality can make a narrow living room feel longer.
Flooring Clarity recommends a dry-laid mock-up before committing to a layout.
Telling a Period Chevron from a Reproduction
A period Art Deco chevron is dated by its maker’s mark first and its materials second, because a stamp carries a production window that styling cannot. Pattern numbers help as well. A number like Carlton Ware’s 3657 can be checked against its 1932 to 1936 window.
Marks go first because they are the narrowest record. Toovey’s dates the Bizarre by Clarice Cliff stamp to 1928 through 1936, and the V&A records a c.1930 Edgar Brandt wall light stamped with his name and country.
The constraint is that a name alone proves nothing. Antiques Trade Gazette reports that pieces bearing the Clarice Cliff name were made into the early 1960s.
Materials come second. CAMEO describes period terrazzo as typically 30 percent Portland cement and 70 percent stone chips, while TileBar notes that today’s binders can be resin as well as cement.
Furniture follows different tells, set out in the defining traits of Art Deco furniture.
- Kitchen Color Schemes by Cabinet Color: What Pairs Well - October 19, 2026
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- Interior Design Styles: Find Your Primary and Secondary - October 14, 2026
