BoHo chic has never been more in vogue, so anyone thinking of decorating their room in a Bohemian style will have plenty of options for expressing their taste. While BoHo can work anywhere in the house, it’s particularly popular for living rooms and bedrooms. The first rule of BoHo is that there are no rules, it’s all about your own personality and one of the joys of the style is that it looks fresh and eclectic rather than planned and organized. Having said that, there are some tips for capturing that freedom-loving Bohemian spirit.
BoHo style typically includes a lot of bold colour. It’s fine to use clean white or soft creams and pastels as a base or a backdrop, but for the real BoHo look you need to be brave and embrace primary colours. Cushions, curtains, rugs, bedspreads, wall-hangings all need to make a statement, there’s nothing to be shy about. Remember that the original BoHo lifestyle was one lived by people who loved to travel and to bring back exotic souvenirs, so ethnic prints and art are particularly suitable. The key to making this work without it becoming fussy is to keep the overall form simple. In other words, as a rule of thumb, look for furniture with clean shapes and lines rather than for highly ornate pieces.
On the subject of furniture, another great benefit of BoHo is that it’s a style which respects vintage items. Although contemporary, it has its roots in a time long before the advent of mass production. Items were made by hand and made to last. They were carefully looked after so that as they aged they developed more character rather than just becoming worn. After flat-pack furniture became commonplace, a lot of older, wooden furniture went out of fashion, largely because it was designed to be used at a time when houses and lifestyles were both very different. This furniture can often still be bought very affordably and updated for modern living. Sometimes this involves little more than getting creative with paint, at other times items may need more significant work to make them fit into modern homes, for example an old dresser could be separated into a cupboard and low shelves to make it suitable for a modern house with lower ceilings.
The real highlight of BoHo, however, is personality. The original Bohemians were travellers and lovers of the unconventional. They were typically artists, writers and poets, musicians and actors. They created works of art themselves and were friends with others who did likewise. This means that for a room truly to have BoHo style, it needs to have plenty of evidence of artistic pursuits. Those who find themselves yearning to buy art online are probably Bohemians at heart and creating a modern BoHo look for their home would be a natural choice. Lovers of literature and music are also part of the BoHo circle. Indeed, some people argue that a room can only be completely BoHo if there are plenty of books on display and while CDs may be a modern invention, they show an appreciation of music which is very BoHo (and vinyl is even better). The trick then, is to display these items in keeping with the BoHo style. Forget about formally organizing your precious into neatly regimented lines of frames and items organized tidily on shelves, let it live and breathe. Bohemians loved art, but often had relatively little space, so what space they had was typically crammed full of their favourite items. Pictures were grouped together, however they fitted best into the space, books were piled on floors, knick-knacks were pushed onto shelves.
