Bohemian Modern E-Book

Emily Henson

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 134

Beschreibung

Emily Henson explores the elements that come together to create this eclectic, colourful and contemporary look and draws inspiration from an array of real-life Bohemian Modern homes.

Leseprobe

Bohemian

MODERN

Bohemian

MODERN

Emily Henson

Photography by

Katya de Grunwald

SENIOR DESIGNER Toni Kay

SENIOR COMMISSIONING EDITOR Annabel Morgan

LOCATION RESEARCH Jess Walton

PRODUCTION Gordana Simakovic

ART DIRECTOR Leslie Harrington

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Julia Charles

PUBLISHER Cindy Richards

First published in 2015.

This revised edition published in 2020

by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields,

London WC1R 4BW

and

341 E 116th Street

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

Text copyright © Emily Henson 2015, 2020

Design and photographs copyright © Ryland Peters & Small 2015, 2020

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-78879-286-8

E-ISBN 978-1-78879-313-1

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress CIP data has been applied for.

Printed and bound in China

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 The Details

Pattern and colour

Textiles

Contrast

Bring the outdoors in

Collections

Styling

Creativity before consumption

2 The Homes

Sources

Credits

Index

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

I first had the idea for Bohemian Modern when I was travelling in Los Angeles for my first book. It was sparked in part by a resurgence in that ancient knotting technique that was popular in the 1970s – macramé. I kid you not, everywhere I looked people were doing it. This craft that my mother’s generation was probably so glad to see the back of was making my own generation go bananas. Oversized macramé wall hangings, mini macramé necklaces, plant holders, bed canopies and dog coats (OK, I made that last one up, but I’m certain they exist). I tried my hand at it, and I admit it was fun. Kind of like my favourite childhood game, Cat’s Cradle, but with a prize at the end: a plant holder! The 1970s were having a comeback, and as a child of the ’80s I was into it.

In this Danish family home, a garden designer has mixed ‘granny chic’ florals with Moroccan rugs and framed posters for a quirky and stylish bohemian look.

An architect and artist built this Dutch home from the ground up. They have flawlessly blended old and new, sleek and rough, for a rustic bohemian style.

I became curious about people who were taking those ideas made popular in the 1970s and rethinking them for today’s world. Not just macramé but also houseplants en masse, boucherouite rugs and, dare I say it, dream catchers – basically, all those clichéd ideas that spring to mind when you think of 1970s interiors. I had lived in Los Angeles for many years and had seen the style re-emerge in the hills of Echo Park, home to many new bohemians seeking a liberated and creative lifestyle. I set out to find modern homes that fitted this idea of 21st-century bohemian, but what I found instead was a group of individuals who tick the Bohemian Modern box not just because their homes scream ‘modern hippy’ (although some do) but because they are actually living a Bohemian Modern lifestyle – creative, unconventional and shunning the status quo in interiors, and doing so with such flair and success. They are bohemian in spirit, not just in style.

For Bohemian Modern, I travelled Europe to share with you the homes of artists, architects and designers of all kinds, from furniture and interiors to textiles and gardens. I certainly saw my fair share of macramé and kilim rugs, as you might expect in a bohemian home, but more excitingly I also saw innovation and creativity in the homeowners’ interiors choices. They proved to be free spirits who refuse to follow the rules, choosing instead to make up their own. I finished my travels feeling truly inspired and reinvigorated in my own work as a stylist and designer.

In a Moroccan riad, white-washed walls provide a clean canvas for the homeowner’s collection of retro furniture – not what you expect to find within the walls of the ancient medina.

Polished limestone plaster coats the floors in this lakeside home near Amsterdam. Corners are filled with plants, and the neutral base is broken up by the orange plastic chairs, found in the junk.

THE DETAILS

A woven plastic stair runner in red and white zigzags provides a playful contrast to the worn brick walls of this stairway.

A plastic rug is paired with a mini plastic pouffe. These rugs are a colourful and practical addition to the Bohemian Modern home – great both indoors and out, and easily cleaned.

A glossy red kitchen shelf holds a selection of eye-catching cans and packages. Frequently used items such as coffee and tea can easily be decanted into more attractive containers.

A vibrant mix of patterned pillows – some handmade, some store-bought – livens up a plain bed.

Pattern and colour

I’ve always been drawn to vibrant colours and patterns. Although I’ve toned it down in recent years, I still tend to choose colour over neutral and print over plain. When I think of a bohemian home, this is what springs to mind. Not that every Bohemian Modern home has a vibrant colour palette – you will see in the case studies that some don’t – but very often it is a defining element. Whether they are introduced via textiles, paint, tiles or wallpaper, pattern and colour are great starting points for a room’s décor, and a foundation upon which to build a strong look.

In this stylish open-plan living space, a feminine floral rug is the perfect contrast to the pop of yellow on the freestanding ‘wall’. Hidden within the yellow panelling are the utility pipes from the kitchen below. What could have been unsightly has been cleverly disguised and built into a stunning feature.

A removable baby gate prevents tumbles from this custom-built bunk bed. Its interior is painted a shocking acid yellow, a fun contrast to the geometric pink blanket.

In this children’s room, a lacquered apple green dresser doubles as a handy changing table. It provides a lively jolt of colour against the watery blue wall.

Chunky corduroy may not be the first thing you think of in a Bohemian Modern home, but when a boxy chair is covered in a hot pink shade, it is current and stylish, particularly when partnered with a blue-grey wall and a folksy cushion.

THIS MAY NOT BE GROUND-BREAKING INFORMATION, but it’s worth remembering that choosing a colour story and trying to stick to it can make or break a room. A stripe, an Ikat print and a chevron can live side by side if they are all in complementary shades of blue, grey and green, for example, but if each individual pattern is also in a different colour, it can feel too chaotic. You can mix together as many patterns as you want, as long as they share a similar group of colours.

But here’s where I contradict myself, because the flip side of this so-called rule is that ‘every colour in the rainbow’ is also a perfectly acceptable colour story in the Bohemian Modern home. Sometimes it works to go over the top, but be prepared for a lively home. If you can get the balance right, multi-coloured craziness can work. You wouldn’t guess it now from looking at my fairly subdued living room (see pages 108–115), but there was a time, a few years ago, when I had a multitude of different hues in my house – furniture, textiles and art were all wildly colourful. What kept it from feeling too overpowering (although it came very close to the line) were the white walls and floorboards. This calm, whitewashed backdrop allowed me to go a bit crazy with everything else while avoiding the carnival look.

From the interior courtyard of this Moroccan riad, a door leads to a bedroom. Although many different patterned tiles have been used, the restricted palette of greys, blues and greens keeps the overall feel calm and tranquil.

If these tiles were white, imagine how different this kitchen would feel. When your kitchen cabinets are shades of white or grey, you can transform the room with a single-coloured tile backdrop. Sometimes all you need is one strong colour in a room, and it pays to be bold.

In this Moroccan kitchen, things are kept organic with exclusively handmade ceramic wares on display. Glazed in shades of green, blue and yellow, they tie in beautifully with the rest of the home’s décor.

Alternating between solid and patterned tiles, this staircase in a Moroccan riad is covered top to bottom in colour. However, a palette of blues and greens has been strictly adhered to throughout the interior, for a cohesive and calming effect.

Because I’m drawn to colour and pattern mostly through textiles, I prefer to keep my walls white or a very soft off-white shade. It means that I can alter the whole look of a room just by changing the cushions or curtains or bedding. But you may prefer to bathe yourself in every imaginable shade of blue, green, pink and yellow, in which case forgo the neutral base altogether and paint your walls in clashing colours. When viewed side by side, rooms painted in different colours are great fun, and when patterns are layered on top it can be a winning look, as long as you exercise a little restraint. Paint can have a huge impact on a space and it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to do it yourself. If coating your walls in vivid colours feels like a step too far, try painting one piece of furniture in a dramatic shade, and preferably in a high-gloss or lacquer finish, to keep it modern.

In this bright sunroom, piles of sheepskins and long-haired goatskins make for a cosy reading nook.

These homeowners have gone for the more-is-more approach, combining colour and pattern in their giant floor cushions. Vintage blankets can easily be sewn into floor cushion covers.

In this outside ‘room’, the owner’s old bed has been converted into a sofa and layered with cushions made from pieces of kilim rug patchworked together.

This stool came with the appliquéd chevron design already in place, but it would be easy enough to replicate to add pattern to a plain blanket or cushion.

Textiles

For as long as I can remember I've had a thing for textiles. From an early age, I would scour jumble sales and charity shops/thrift stores, picking up scraps of fabric or sometimes dresses and scarves, always with the intention of turning them into something for my room and later my home. A basket of fabric holds endless possibilities for me – just a few yards of material can be swiftly transformed into a bedspread, curtains, cushions or a slipcover. Textiles are at the heart of the Bohemian Modern home, whether plain and textured or patterned and fringed.

In this Danish home, an antique bench is tucked under the stairs, creating a seating nook with a view to the garden. A Juju hat – a feathered ceremonial headdress from Cameroon – adorns the wall above a set of cushions made from antique kilim rugs. An angular standard lamp by Italian lighting brand Artemide adds a contemporary touch.

Rugs and other textiles can have major impact when hung on the wall. In this Belgian townhouse, an antique piece has been hung next to the fireplace on a simple wooden dowel. Another way of hanging a rug without damaging is by Velcro tape, the loop side of the tape carefully sewn by hand to the back of the textile and the adhesive hook side attached to the wall.

MY LOVE OF TEXTILES STARTED when I was about seven years old and my mum opened an antique clothing shop in West London called Nostalgia. For the next few years, I spent every day after school in the large changing room, trying on 1930s bed jackets in peachy satin, and colourful tulle petticoats from the 1950s, daydreaming in front of the mirror with the lightbulbs around the frame. I loved the feeling of the fabric in my hand, so much more luxurious than the polyester of my 1970s childhood. It’s a wonder I didn’t go into fashion. When I was a little older, I became more interested in interiors, and instead of wearing the vintage scarves my mum would buy for her shop, I would ‘borrow’ them and pin them onto my bedroom wall like a piece of art.

There are so many ways to bring textiles into the Bohemian Modern home, from the obvious choices of rugs and cushions to less-expected ones such as wall hangings and children’s teepees. Re-imagining uses for textiles is important too: rugs don’t only belong on the floor; a sheepskin or kilim will make an effective cover-up for a worn armchair or can add colour and comfort to a plain sofa. By layering cushions in varying patterns and textures, you can create an inviting and eclectic place to hunker down with a book. A striking rug can also become a focal point when displayed on a wall. Hung above a sofa or on a blank wall, it’s an easy way to elevate a room – minimum effort, maximum impact.

The walls of this bedroom are kept white to offset the many patterned textiles. The textiles and the art are all in natural, earthy shades, including the headboard, which the owner covered herself by sewing a very basic slipcover from a favourite vintage fabric. The wooden lamp is by Muuto.

A child’s bedroom in Morocco could have felt cold and sterile with its tadelakt (lime plaster) floors and shelves, but warmed up with a multi-coloured boucherouite rug and a star-smattered tepee, it’s playful and cosy. Boucherouite rugs are usually made in the rag rug style from various textiles and are easily cleaned, so perfect for kids’ rooms.

Whether you sew or not, fabric bought by the metre/yard has so much potential. I learned how to sew when I was pregnant with my now 15-year-old daughter, and I still use the same machine. It’s worth learning even the most basic stitch, as it opens up a world of possibilities in DIY interiors. If you can’t or don’t want to learn, it’s easy enough to find someone to do the work for you. There are also plenty of no-sew ways to use textiles, such as stapling or even just tucking fabric over a tired seat or draping a tapestry over a chair back. You can also stretch some onto a canvas or frame it, creating instant wall art. Every home should have a stash of textiles on hand for when a quick update is needed.

In this Danish home, a vintage kilim rug adds texture to an otherwise sleek corner. A 1960s chair has been upholstered in man’s pinstripe suiting fabric, while the homeowner’s own photography is displayed on glass panels behind.

In my living room, I dyed a piece of grey linen using the Japanese shibori technique. I sewed a channel at the top and hung it on a wooden dowel. I also dyed some extra fabric to make cushions.

In this Dutch home, a group of disparate items somehow makes sense. Although of different eras and styles, they create their own unique look.

In my own bedroom, metallics enliven the built-in cupboards. Slick copper lighting and pewter candleholders provide contrast to the room’s Victorian details.

An original 18th-century fresco dominates this grand staircase, but instead of using antique furniture, a neon block of wood and a crackled metal chair add a touch of modern cool.

A vibrant curtain and jungly plants enliven this sterile bathroom, testament to the fact that a few quick fixes can make all the difference.