Commonly used to describe cotton cloth bearing the pattern of the same name, Chintz is more accurately a style of surface decoration. In addition to cloth, it can appear on a number of surfaces, such as decorative paper, ceramics, wallpaper and Doctor Martens Boots.
A Chintz is a pattern designed to fill as much of the space as possible, leaving very little background. The most usual subjects - flowers, stems and leaves - are extermely well suited to this, with stems creating a skeleton around each other, and flowers and leaves filling the gaps.
Creating your own Chintz doodle is very easy, time consuming and relaxing.
Chintz fabric is seen, in Britain at least, as rather a dated decoration - often seen in houses which haven't been decorated for several years. Ikea ran an advertising campaign in the mid 1990s with the slogan "Chuck out your chintz today!"
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