Color Explorations
Bohemian Dream
This Color Exploration installment is a slightly nostalgic one for me - a free spirited, slightly offbeat and exuberantly eclectic hodgepodge of Bohemian flare that has always appealed to my unconventional color loving nature. My Bohemian Dream includes a few essentials: a fabulous kilim or three; soft seating like a large pouf, living greenery, music (instruments for preference, but failing that a turntable and decent collection of '60's through '90's vinyls will do) and at least one pet!
Traditional Kilims - Anatolian, Turkish, Caucasian and Persian - add a perfect global touch exploding with extravagant color. Once viewed as purely utilitarian and rather low on the value ladder, Kilims are now highly appreciated for their workmanship and color and, in households where the kids and pets tend to rule the roost, for their durability in the anti-shredding-by-cat and ability-to-hide-stains departments - something I learned while growing up. My parents' kilim rugs have withstood many years worth of a veritable menagerie of dogs, cats, parrots, orphaned lambs and even monkeys (yes, monkeys - and not the tiny hand-reared kind that sit meekly on your shoulder: I'm referring to the wild, far larger vervet monkeys that live in the area and occasionally find their way into the house to steal whatever strikes their fancy as sustenance or entertainment that day). Needless to say, my mother's kilim choices tend to run to the browner tones while I opt for the brighter, lighter reds, at least while my own pet collection consists of a more manageable three and doesn't involve wild walk-ins.
My style guide below has a kilim rug as a focal point, with neutral soft furnishings to balance it out. But who says a kilim has to be on the floor? If your floor treatments are neutral toned, why not create an utterly unique soft seating arrangement with vibrant, oversized kilim floor pillows and poufs? They're more difficult to find, like this amazing (but sold out) one from store thebohemiansouk, but you could always buy rugs and have some custom made to suit.
Of course, no good Bohemian theme (in my world at least) is complete without a plethora of plants - terrariums and tillandsia, hanging planters overflowing with trailing vines and succulents, container plants on floors, decorating tables and set on windowsills. And at least a few of those will be edibles or medicinals: cooking herbs (basil, parsley and various mint varieties are scattered throughout my house), pineapple plants and aloe vera to name but a few of my own favorites.
The Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree, Ficus Lyrata, seems to have earned the status of King of the House Plants in recent years - I see it everywhere in decor blogs, magazines and ezines and displaying its glorious foliage all over Instagram and Pinterest. A truly beautiful plant with showy broad leaves that grows handsomely in low indoor light, but one that would be even more alluring to me (a foodie who believes wholeheartedly in 'clean' eating), if it produced edible fruit that like that of its cousin Ficus Carica, the Common Fig - rather less well suited to indoor growing than the Fiddle Leaf version.
