The fashion world has been looking back at the bohemian style of the 70s for several years. Popular clothing brands collect loose-fitting blouses, dresses with flared sleeves, fringed suede vests and other attributes of the hippie era. Interior design is also not far behind. The relaxed boho style is still a rare phenomenon in comparison to other styles, but interior designers see great potential in it, and at the same time, space for creativity. If you don’t fully understand what boho chic is, it’s time to find out. Spoiler alert: you run the risk of falling in love, or at least feeling sympathetic for a long time.
What boho chic is and why to love it
Scandinavian, loft, hi-tech – while everyone knows these styles, boho remains a rare guest among trend news. At the same time, it cannot be said that the boho style exists on the outskirts of the interior world. This design direction remains stable in popularity, and its individual components are regularly knocked out to the tops of interior trends. Boho, aka bohemian style, translated from French (“boheme”) means “gypsy”.
Boho interior for freedom-loving creative people
If your soul does not thrive in the palace colors and industrial lofts, but asks for “ai ne ne ne ne”, take a look at the relaxed, cozy and original boho. This style, like no other, allows you to show individuality in the interior and populate the space with special “magic” things. Boho exists not only to represent the 70s, eras and styles are intertwined in this interior, harmoniously combining in whimsical eclectic compositions. Here lives a riot of colors and ornaments. The manifestation of boho in the interior is very diverse. But, like any style, it has its own characteristic features.
Style cocktail
The style mix in a bohemian interior is dictated not by logic, but by the heart. There is room for hippie aesthetics, glamor, classic, eco, South American Gothic and more. The boho interior is indifferent only to the cold technocratic hi-tech. Furniture and decor in the boho interior is striking in its variety. Colonial-style furniture heavyweights can coexist with transparent acrylic chairs, a fashionable coffee table, stained glass lampshade and a shabby “grandmother’s” chair. African figurines share a shelf with oriental jugs and a sculpture of Venus de Milo, velvet coexists with wicker furniture, and Moroccan patterns with a chevron print. For this eclecticism, the boho style is often criticized. However, you need to understand that creating a harmonious design based on such diverse components is a separate kind of interior art.
Explosive mixture of colors
While most interior styles preach restraint and color minimalism, boho comes off to its fullest. The boho interior has a place for all your favorite shades. Red, terracotta, purple, fuchsia, blue – boho fans don’t need to stop at one bright color.
Still, you need to manage colors in a boho interior wisely. When it is overdone even a little, the cozy festive colors will turn into psychological discomfort. Therefore, neutral light walls often become the basis for a riot of boho-style colors, and calm natural tones dilute the bright palette.
Anarchic and cozy style
A lovely and free boho style that mixes old and new has lots of natural accents and more houseplants than you can imagine! An abundance of various things, pieces of furniture, decorative elements, various pillows and blankets, handmade things, natural materials! Often this style can be seen in homes of creative, open and bright people who boldly make decisions! To some, boho may seem too colorful, with oversaturated objects in the interior. But, behind all this saturation there is harmony and order!
The style is very fresh, atmospheric, uplifting and helps to feel harmony inside. It helps to relax after a noisy city and a gray strict office, come home to your cozy oasis, gain strength, energy, be calm and in a good mood!
Style features
To create an organic and cozy interior, decide on the color scheme and decide which motif you like best: modern, oriental or European. You will need lots of textiles and various decor items. Pillows, blankets, rugs, handmade things, carefully and neatly placed in a prominent place in the interior, lamps, things that warm your soul.
A variety of colors should be combined with each other. Absolutely any colors that are close to your soul will do, the main thing is to please you and make you feel comfortable and cozy. Paints should be saturated, for example, shades of green, red, lemon, blue, orange, as well as warm natural colors. Just do not forget to dilute the bright range of colors with white in the interior!
If you don’t like the abundance of colors, you should limit yourself to neutral shades. Boho interior can completely do without bright color accents – in this case, the emphasis is on a variety of textures. The same rule applies here – the more the better.
Boho style furniture
Antique furniture will be the perfect complement to the interior. It is not necessary that all the furniture be vintage, a couple of things are enough to make the boho style recognizable. Almost any furniture can be realized in the boho style, for example, lay a bright blanket, arrange a lot of different pillows. You can combine completely different objects: antique objects that have their own history, unique design and style, or sofas in rich colors and beautiful carvings on the frame, couches, tables, chairs. A quick visit to Homey Design Store will help you find just the right furniture.
Ceiling, floor and wall decoration
The materials should be natural, for example, if there is nothing to replace the plastic with, then you can give preference to the imitation of wood. The ceiling can be whitewashed, stucco or non-glossy stretch ceiling in natural color (you can read about stretch ceilings and see examples here). If there are wooden beams along the ceiling, then you can use them as an accent!
The floor in the boho style can be stone or laid with ceramic tiles, parquet boards, if it is an imitation, the main thing is that the appearance resembles a natural board in structure and color.
Walls should be part of the decor. They can be painted in a solid, bright color, decorated with paintings, panels, carpet, interesting mirrors and paintings!
Creative mess of boho decor
The boho style is formed not by decoration, but by accessories. Aristotle argued that nature abhors a vacuum. Similarly, the boho style in the interior does not tolerate empty space. There are a lot of items in the boho interior, a lot. Their placement in the room may seem messy, but the mess is not boho chic. The line is sometimes thin, but always obvious. If staying in a cluttered room is fraught with psychological discomfort, then the boho space is conducive to creativity and relaxation.
Each item should tell the story of the people living in the apartment! You can combine non-standard things, vintage and exquisite, purchased from your travels, a combination of ornaments from all over the world. It is important that each object is in harmony with each other so that there is no feeling of tension in your environment, but it is beautiful, soulful and cozy!