With summer’s end quickly approaching I find myself gravitating towards anything and everything Bohemian. Perhaps I’ve been struck with some simple wunderlust and I just can’t comprehend the reality of the days getting shorter or maybe it’s all the boho chic design style I’ve been immersed in this week for my clients. Either way, I’m embracing it with joy and holding tight to my copy of Justina Blakeney’s The New Bohemians, Cool & Collected Homes for a quick fix. Why fight the free-spirit inside when it’s just as easy to dive in and channel my inner bohemian through rich and radiant design and style — even if it is just on the pages of a book or through an inspiration on pin.
And if you’re feeling like me but have an actual opportunity to let your design style venture on over to the wild(er)side, here’s 10 easy ways to welcome in the unexpected, lure your wunderlsut along, and depart from your everyday norm by bring boho home.
10 Easy Tips To Style Your Space Boho Chic
1. Layer on the rugs! Lay the foundation of your carefree and charismatic space with colorful patterns, bold stripes and global geometrics. You can keep it tame and toned by selecting rugs within the same hue and vary the intensity or simply add drama with a faux fur or sheepskin. Or if you’re all about going boho and going home, then color crush all you want and live the dream!
2. Pick your pouf. Knitted or leather, Moroccan or madras, the pouf punctuates your boho chic styles and serves a great function. Plus it’s another easy way to add a layer of texture to a casually Bohemian dressed room or style it glam with gold or silver.
3. Pile on the pillows! Pile them on the floor, pile them by the door, pile them on a couch or on a chair. Pile them in a nook, pile them by a book, just be sure to pile them everywhere. And the same rules apply for your pillows as for your rugs. No rules or your rules, just love it and live it.
4. Be succulent and live richly by decorating with none other than succulents. Their textures and colors are just as varied as the Bohemian style the’ve come to represent and their shapes and sizes can be chosen to define it for you as well. Minimal or Maximus, succulents are a must have in living the lifestyle. Add in some flowering ferns or hang a garden, going green while going bohemian is anything but boring.
5. Think globally and get ready to unveil your traveler’s trinkets proudly. Trip to Paris next to your festival photo, no problem. Your family reunion in the old country beside your collected coins from Hong Kong, money. It’s all you so it all matches and you earned those trappings so show ’em proud!
6. Throw up a hammock or anchor a swinging chair. Movement is key to keeping good energy flowing so why not add a little whimsy if you’ve got the room and keep everything fluid.
7. Reacquaint yourself with red. And while you’re at it, makes friends with the whole spectrum of red from a burnt sienna to a flaming hot pink flamingo before resting upon petal pinks. You will find some version of this primary color acting very primary or blushing in plain sight.
8. Gather up your gallery wall! And here, it’s in true form. Display art and artifacts, cow skulls and cow bells, plant a live wall or simply plant the seeds of family. Any way you hatch it, the more is usually merrier but a few can also look cool and collected.
9. Let nature have it’s way. Rich woods elaborately carved and holing your coffee or simple stumps finding their purpose next to your head as you rest, think trees as far as the eye can see. And by trees, I mean, well, everything. If you can use a limb to hang it, hammer a trinket to it, rest your weary legs upon it, a Bohemian has found a way to design it.
10. Adorn it. Window sills, window boxes, shelves and stoves, chairs and chaises, books stacks and chimney stacks, terrariums and aquariums. If it’s got a ledge, it’s for display purposes fully and if it’s got a surface, it better not be (too) bare.
Final takeaway if you’re going Boho: If there’s one thing decorating Bohemian can teach you, more so than any other design style, it’s to have the confidence and to show off your creativity and forge your own style. After all, perfection finds little comfort in a boho home so don’t be afraid to express yourself and live who you are as you are. Be happy, be content and be comfortable letting your personality shine in whatever you design. And don’t think twice about writing your own rules or breaking your mother’s favorite, just be true to yourself and when all is said and done, it will all blend beautifully. Why? Because it’s all truly you.
Images via Pinterest/ Header Image via Lulu and Georgia
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