Buffalo plaid or lumberjack check: whatever you call it, an oversized red and black gingham calls to mind cozy flannel shirts and warm wool blankets. But there’s so much more to this large-scale gingham than that one rustic note. Rendered in different color combinations, the buffalo check becomes a style chameleon. Used in a big way, it can feel edgy and punk, and sprinkled in small doses it can mingle with the most sophisticated surroundings. 

Buffalo check is also the plaid of the moment: Whether you’re perusing a design boutique or the aisles of Target, oversized checks are almost sure to make an appearance, especially come fall. Los Angeles–based designer Heather Taylor, known for her checkered linens, is partially responsible for the buffalo check’s recent popularity. She says, “Gingham or checks are forever classic,” adding, “A check feels traditional but also fresh, and I never seem to get sick of it.”

Here’s how to use this oversized gingham in your home.

Start with accessories.

To avoid going too country cottage with the classic red and black checks, use the pattern in accessories like pillows or blankets so it doesn’t overwhelm the space, says Max Humphrey, an interior designer based in Portland, Oregon, and author of Lodge: An Indoorsy Tour of America’s National Parks. 

Use restraint.

If you want to employ the classic buffalo check of red and black, you’ll need to avoid using too many other classic cabin motifs (antlers, log-style furniture, plaids) to prevent your home from looking like a hunting and fishing store. Balance a bold buffalo check with simple solids, neutral colors, and natural but not overly rustic furnishings. 

Play with other prints.

“Mix checks with other patterns like florals to keep things sophisticated and not too summer camp-y,” says Humphrey. When mixing buffalo checks with other patterns, Humphrey often sticks to a tight color palette, allowing him to mix four different patterns in a relatively small space while maintaining a cohesive look.

Use checks to create a cozy vibe.

“Gingham felt like the perfect pattern for the cabin because it’s inherently cozy,” says Taylor of her historic cabin rental in Idyllwild, California, dubbed the Heather Taylor Cabin. “I think we have checks in different colors and scales in every room in the house. It ties everything together.”

Try it on the walls.

If you want to go bolder, buffalo check in the form of a wallpaper is less expected than on a textile, says Humphrey, who included a buffalo check in his collection with Chasing Paper. This big-impact design move will instantly give a room full of neutral furnishings a big personality. 

Go bigger. 

The difference between a buffalo plaid and a gingham is
the scale, and the bigger you go, the more modern it will feel. “The classic checkered pattern notes its retro and traditional past, but the oversized scale gives it a modern feel,” says Elizabeth Rees, cofounder of Chasing Paper, who commissioned Humphrey’s collection.

Tweak just one hue.

If you want to keep the classic cabin vibes of a buffalo check, try red and white or black and white. “When the check is used with white, it has a more Scandinavian look,” says Mia Jung, director of interiors at Kligerman Architecture and Design, who used a red and white check in a recent project. “I call it Swedish check,” she says. 

Or switch up the whole color scheme.

Another tactic to keep large ginghams from looking too country is to pick checks in fresh colors, like the ones Taylor has created in her home collection. Think unexpected combinations, says Taylor: “Color and scale mixing are key to keeping it interesting.”

Rethink the fabric.

“Classic buffalo check is usually on flannel fabric,” notes Jung, but when a check is used on linen or cotton fabric, it has an entirely different look and feel, even if you stick to one of its iconic red or black palettes.

Try it underfoot.

For a fresh spin on the classic checkerboard floor, you can create the look of a buffalo check with square tiles. You’ll need tiles in white and a color plus a tint of the color midway between the two, like black, white, and gray, or blue, white, and pale blue. You could also achieve this effect with carpet tiles like those sold by FLOR.

Go monochromatic.

It may feel counterintuitive, but another way to make a check feel of-the-moment is to really lean into its color scheme. In her rental cabin, Taylor created color-themed rooms that feature all the trappings of a treacly cottage decor, yet they feel classic and incredibly modern simultaneously because they are decorated in a single color.

The Checkered History of Buffalo Plaid

The history of buffalo plaid dates back to ancient Scotland, but the origin of the name itself is muddled. The earliest depiction of a person wearing a tartan is a 1670 painting of Lord Mungo Murray, which shows the lord wearing a brown and red tartan kilt, and stockings in a red and black check that looks like a contemporary buffalo plaid.

By the eighteenth century, the simple red and black checks had become one of the official tartans of the MacGregor clan. In Scotland today the tartan is known as MacGregor Red and Black, Rob Roy MacGregor, or simply Rob Roy in honor of the noted Highland outlaw of the MacGregor clan whose reputation as a Scottish Robin Hood was exaggerated in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy.

Some say that the phrase “buffalo plaid” appeared when a supposed member of the MacGregor clan emigrated to America. When Jock McCluskey landed in Montana, he is said to have bartered his clan’s tartan blankets with the local tribe, and somehow in that exchange rechristened the pattern “buffalo plaid.”

Another story says that in 1850, when Woolrich Woolen Mills began producing the red and black plaid, a textile designer at the company who kept a herd of buffalo named the pattern “buffalo check” after his livestock. Woolrich’s iconic buffalo check shirts have been synonymous with lumberjacks ever since folklore’s Paul Bunyan was depicted wearing one.

Neither tale of the name can be confirmed, but from the mid-nineteenth century onward, the pattern has been associated with the American frontier and a rustic, outdoorsy life.