The great thing about learning how to decorate Bohemian style is that rather offbeat, artistic people tend to be drawn to it, so many of the necessary instincts are probably already going to be in place. To pull it off successfully, you will need a good eye for color, a bit of wild abandon, and a taste for eclectic surroundings.

Glance around your home, your attic, your garage, for starters. You may find many of the design props that will head you in the Bohemian direction. It helps if you are an avid junker, too. By that I mean a person who loves to explore thrift stores, antique malls, and flea markets. You can even find some interesting pieces dragged out into the alley on garbage day. Often a little minor repair, slip cover, or creative placement of a scarf or throw is all you need to turn the tragically torn into the happily hip.

Start with one room and let your imagination run wild. Collecting enough pieces to look 'casually evolved' over time....takes time. You can't just run out and buy the look in a store in one afternoon. Start collecting fabrics, pillows, interesting objects d'art, funky furniture, and great vintage items and pictures to hang on the wall. Free up your inner gypsy and don't be afraid to mix patterns as long as they are members of the same loose color scheme to some degree. The day will come when you have collected your way into true Bohemian style.

Most colors can work in Bohemian style with the exception of neon colors. Because the style tends to be busy and even cluttered, a somewhat neutral wall color is going to be easier to work with. White is a little stark but certainly ivory, shades of tan, and rich browns will be easier to accessorize without major clashing. You will want quite a few items hanging on the walls so a lot of your paint is going to be covered anyway. http://www.zimbio.com/Decorating+Bohemian+Bedroom/articles/Ck0CPK9 kdaH/Interior+Design+Bold+Artistic+Bohemian

There is nothing wrong with the use of deep jewel tones or soft pastels either but your pictures, fabrics, and what-nots will have to be selected a bit more carefully if you use these hues. While this style can certainly showcase a lot of color, there still needs to be a soothing, comfortable cohesiveness achieved by limiting the palette to some degree. Even filling a room with faded hues would work fine. Just be sure the colors you choose make sense together. A favorite painting is a great place from which to derive a color scheme in this or any other decorating style.

As for rugs, you'll want to work with one or more area rugs. Wall to wall carpeting is not the friend of Bohemian style and is entirely too modern and conventional. Hard wood floors are definitely preferable even to tile. Threadbare Orientals are ideal as are any of the rough woven rugs that appear to have come from the middle east. Tapestries are great on the walls or floor too. Scatter them with your palette in mind to warm parts of the room. They are wonderful over the backs of worn sofas and chairs also.

The name of the game in decorating in the Bohemian chic style is eclecticism. Vintage pieces paired with some modern touches is core to the look but there must be a cohesiveness to the room too. This can be supplied by color scheme or effective juxta-positioning of old and new. Ideally each piece should be able to stand on its own and display a great deal of individuality. A plain modern piece plays effectively off of an elaborately carved chair, for example. An elegant fringed shawl fresh off the department store shelf draped over the foot board of an antique bed would be another example of this old and new style pairing.http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2781/list/Save-Old-Furniture-with-Bohemian-Chic-Decor

Part of what makes this style work is the textural difference. Old pieces that might have wound up as a curbside donation can be freshened in this way and add outstandingly to a room for the very reason that they might be dismissed from a more contemporary style. Patina, chipped paint, faded colors and frayed edges are all desirable attributes in this decorating format. Whatever you do, be sure to layer your furniture surfaces and think like a gypsy! Study photos of the style in magazines or online and soak up what appeals to you about it. Even inexpensive furniture isn't cheap so you will want to choose from the standpoint of being educated in the genre.

Accessorizing your Bohemian chic space is a great deal of fun and doesn't have to be expensive. For at least some of your treasures, allow yourself to be drawn to the unconventional item. Offbeat collections can be fabulous additions as well. Make a whole weekend of it now and then. Hit the thrift stores, antique malls, and garage sales in your area for some unique 'scores'. Don't expect to find everything at once though. The space you are decorating should evolve.

The use of bright and even modern art prints paired with impressionist style art can work well as tabletop art on antique easels. An example of what wouldn't work well would be very traditional art such as hunt scenes found in Country English design. The impressionist work has the required romance and becomes offbeat against a bold graphic. Just be sure that your color scheme is working. It can be quite broad, but you still have to have one!

Some great collections to acquire over time would be small, ornately framed mirrors that would be grouped together perhaps on a dresser. Tiny English tins look great on a shelf as do stacks of quilts. Quilts require a careful eye though. You certainly don't want to cross over into the land of 'country'! Vintage perfume bottles look great on a tarnished sterling silver tea tray on a dresser. If you can't imagine it in the wagon of a traveling gypsy clan, pass on it!

Overall, just think very romantically, artistically, and unconventionally. Release your inner gypsy and allow the muse to flow. Decorating to the right music can really enhance the experience. Have fun! http://www.wnbwest.com/home/decorating-a-bohemian-chic-space