With the right homewares and decor, any living room, bedroom, or kitchen can be an extension of your personality. All interior styles reflect individuality, but boho is the ultimate style if you want to display your travel memoirs and sense of adventure.
You'd be hard-pressed to flick through any interior magazine or Pinterest board without seeing boho style houses. Boho remains chic while drawing on the eclectic design principle of mixing and matching furniture. It achieves this with neutral tones and textures, creating interest in a room without overwhelming. This article will explain how to create a boho style house, the importance of neutral tones and choosing the right wall art.
What is Boho?
Boho, short for bohemian, is an unconventional style, usually associated with artists and nomads. Encompassing creativity, wanderlust, and culture, boho transports you to another place in time.
Originally a fashion statement, boho has relocated to our homes. Its light and airy aesthetic celebrates earthy tones and textures with accents of colour. Imagine pampas grass, palm trees, cactus prints, oak furniture, vintage Moroccan rugs, warm and cool tones of reds, yellows, greens, blues and pastels. Boho is an effortless style. There are no rules. Mix and match your travel memoirs, soft furnishings and favourite photography.
What are Neutral Colours?
Neutral colours, meaning without colour, are often misunderstood as boring. Yet, neutral colours are more complex than beige, ivory, and white. Each colour has unique undertones, and understanding these tones will help you accent the room with the right colours. For example, there are thousands of shades of white, with warm or cool undertones. The shade you use will inform your furnishing colours, yellows and reds or hues of green and blue.
How do these two styles relate?
While boho draws on a nomadic and adventurous lifestyle, often filled with a medley of travel memories, a neutral palette separates boho from the chaotic eclectic style. Neutral coloured walls or flooring act as a blank canvas allowing you to tell your story with homewares, vintage furniture and inspiring wall art. Using neutral tones throughout your boho-inspired home keeps the space chic and polished with a sense of calm and tranquillity.
Boho House Decor Ideas
When it comes to creating a boho home, there are no rules. As boho relies on your experience, travels, and personal taste, your home will look very different to your neighbours. That being said, boho does follow one or two design principles, including a foundation of neutral colours. When you enter a boho room, there will be defining features, including a statement rug (often Moroccan style), timber furniture, and wanderlust prints. The individuality of boho will depend on your life, where you've travelled, the pieces you've collected and the story you want to tell. Fill your home with books, artwork, instruments, plants and vintage knick-knacks, organised chaos and your life so far on display.
Ideas for living spaces
The living room is a shared space enjoyed by the whole family and an opportunity to showcase your story and create a welcoming and inviting area to relax and unwind. The furniture and decor you choose will depend on the temperature of your neutral colour palette. If you're after coastal-inspired boho-chic select cooler undertones. Define the space with a rug adorned with blue and green, hang ocean and beach prints on the walls, and bring nature indoors with plants. Use warmer tones to accent colourful pieces - think pinks and yellows in desert landscapes, timber furniture, and Moroccan rugs.
Ideas for bedrooms
Obviously, a bedroom needs a bed and bedside tables. However, creating a boho bedroom may also require a timber headboard, area rug under the bed, and wall posters. Finish the look with accents of colour, bedroom wall art, a guitar, tapestry or a dreamcatcher. As a less used space, the bedroom is an opportunity to experiment with different colours and textures, get creative and really express your personal style.
Types of Boho Wall Art
Boho wall art can highlight your personal story and showcase your specific boho style, whether coastal, modern or desert-inspired. Use the colours in each print to complement your furniture, homeware and decor.
Coastal wall art
Coastal wall art is more than beautiful ocean, beach, and sea imagery. Think deserted islands, coastal flora and fauna with hues of blue and green. Whether you live near the beach or dream to, our coastal prints will evoke memories of island time, warm nights, and refreshing ocean swims.
Moroccan & Desert wall art
Bring colourful and lively desert landscapes into your living room or bedroom with Moroccan wall art. Palm trees, cacti, ancient ruins, mosaics, sand dunes elicit a sense of warmth, escapism and adventure. Create a bold boho look using red, pink and yellow furnishings to accentuate the desert landscapes and Moroccan street photography.
Landscape wall art
Landscape wall art brings the outdoors inside. Adorn the walls with your favourite places, coastlines, desert photography, or wild mountains. Bring bold hues of red and yellow into the space with iconic palm springs vibes or ancient European architecture. The subtlety and serenity of ocean or mountain landscapes suit cooler tones, featuring hues of blue and green.
Final Tips for Pairing Decor with Wall Art
When pairing your decor with canvas prints and framed wall art, remember to choose complementary colours. For example, if you've opted for coastal wall art, match the decor by selecting accents of blue fabric, cooler timber tones, such as oak, and finishing touches like shells or driftwood you've collected. If you prefer a Moroccan or European boho style, hang street photography, desert landscapes or exotic animal prints. Finish the look with hints of red and yellow, rich timber furniture, textured fabrics, vintage art and books.