Pattern overload?

For the longest time I did not like strong patterns, such as zebra, chevron, diamond or similar prints. How could something that hurts the eye when looking at it look good? I just couldn't understand it.

Then one day while browsing around for cute slipper chairs, I found this one and I actually really liked it:

Weird. I never liked zebra prints:

So how come? I soon started realizing that my opinion with regards to patterns seemed to shift. I actually like them as along as the color-scheme is toned-down and very low contrast.

Take for example the zebra pattern in the chairs above. I like the zebra pattern of the first chair because the beige on beige makes this a low-contrast and toned-down version of the normally high-contrast pattern (as in the second chair).

Here is another example:

 (found here)

The black and white chevron pattern used on this rug is very strong and high contrast. Too much for my taste. Now look at the rug below:

(found here)

This one has a diamond pattern in two shades of slate blue/gray. The pattern (which could easily be high contrast) in a low contrast color scheme again makes this easier on the eye. And again, I am loving the second version.

Reading blogs and looking online for items to decorate our home my "suspicion" was confirmed again and again. Now I can actually say that I don't hate patterns (as I used to think), I am just not that big of a fan of their strong color scheme versions. I rather love a toned-down version with low contrasting colors, such as beige on white, dark blue on light blue, or black on gray.

 What is your opinion on this? Do you think low-contrast-patterns are boring? Do you agree with my taste? Have you recently discovered something similar with your own tastes? I am curious.