What is a Boho Style Living Room and How Does It Work?

Combine vintage, bold, and patterned elements for a chic boho style living room.

My husband and I have just started an evening tradition of watching old tv sitcoms.

We love their easy going story lines and often chuckle at the dated styles and trends.

Bell bottoms, perms, and wildly patterned furniture clad in thick plastic was in last night’s episode.

I particularly love the home decor details.

The fact is, just like clothes’ fashion, home decor has trendy looks that go away and find their way back again.

The Modern Boho style is just that. Its nod to vintage 50s, 60s, and 70s brings an easy breezy style, but it can also read as neutral and classic, too.  I’ve been slowly adding it to different corners of our home.

So far, boho style elements have made their way into our Master Bedroom, Dining Room, and now the Living Room.

How to create a Boho Style Living Room

Disclosures: Photowall provided product in exchange for this article. This post also contains affiliate links. See full affiliate disclosure {here}.

Choose Boho Style Wall Art Decor with Bold Shapes

The focal point of this boho living room is the amazing wall art piece above the couch.

I found it on Photowall, and was thrilled how it sets the tone for great boho style.

Rather than have a bunch of small pictures to create a gallery wall above the couch, I instead wanted one large wall art piece. 

(By the way, Photowall is offering my readers a coupon code for the next 30 days. Just enter ritajoy25 at checkout for 25% off your purchase of canvas art, wallpaper, or framed prints. Go to Photowall to start shopping now. And, if you are Canadian, you’ll be happy to know it will arrive at your door in about a week or less!)

If you are feeling adventurous, you can even paint your own boho landscape art. (It’s really fun and easy!)

Lay down a patterned rug

Chic boho style is nearly always seen with a patterned rug of some sort. The Wayfair rug  in our Living Room is neutral and subtle, but its print adds to the overall boho feel of the space. Boho style is often layered with textures and patterns, so you could even layer up different sized rugs with different patterns.

Install Wall Lamps above the couch

Ever since we moved into our townhouse, I’ve been wanting to ditch the side table lamps and try wall lamps above the couch.

We finally took the plunge and LOVE them!

Tips on installing wall lamps above the couch

Once I finally chose a wall lamp style (similar to this), I found there were lots more decisions to make! Here are some tips that we learned along the way:

• Tape off the size of the wall art you’ll have above the couch (if you don’t have it yet) to help you choose the placement of the wall lamps.
• We chose to have the lamp base 18 1/2 inches above the back of the couch.
• Play around with the adjustable arm to get the overall look you like, and adjust each lamp to be the same. We have the back arm totally vertical and parallel to the wall, with the front arm pointing down.
• Don’t forget about the bulbs! Gone are the days of going to the store to pick up a 60 watt bulb! After doing lots of research, we chose dimmable 2700 kelvin bulbs (which is a soft, warm color) with 800 lumens (equivalent to 60 watts).
• Add a dimmable feature to the bulbs. We found that since the lights are directly above your head when you sit on the couch, it’s perfect for reading. However, it’s nice to be able to dim the light when you want to watch those old tv sitcoms in the evening! We discovered this amazing dimmable extension cord that is a total game changer! We just plugged both lamps into it and can turn the lamps on and off and dim them with it. I highly recommend it!

Mix up fabric patterns for a boho chic look

Wildly mixing patterns of fabric and color shades is a mark of freestyle boho decorating.

Our local fabric store is having a clearance sale, so I bought a few different coordinating patterns and made some easy pillow covers with zippers. They will be easy to change out when I’m ready for a new look!

I wanted to play around with bright Fall color this time, but if you wanted a more classic neutral look, it could be done with shades of black, white, and leather brown.

Generously add plants

As I researched boho style decor, I observed that rooms described as boho always had lots of greenery and plants. I’ve recently taken a liking to collecting houseplants and gathered them up to create this boho living room vignette.

I put our largest plant in a DIY planter stand to the side as an anchor point, and scattered around smaller plants in the space. Freely mix up sizes of plants with different shaped leaves, and use vessels of rattan, wicker, pottery or wood to put them in.

Add in some vintage pieces

Vintage pieces are some of my favorites, and I’ve collected items throughout the years. It fits in perfectly with boho style! Vintage chairs sit beside the couch, and the round side table was originally bought decades ago by my grandparents (in the 70s?). I love having a memory of them in my house.

Have fun!

Like every other decorating experiment in my home, I’ve loved playing around with options and looks for this boho style. It’s fun to have some of the big basics in place (like the couch- click here to read how we chose it), but the small things can be changed for different looks and feels. Don’t be afraid to try out something that is totally new for you. You just might find you love the end result and the freshness of a new looking space.

Living with this Boho Style Living Room Decor Look

How do we like living in this space, you ask? Well, here’s the deal. For pictures, I enjoyed styling this space heavy with plants. However, practically speaking, most of the real ones in this photo just won’t thrive in this spot – as it doesn’t get much natural light.

On a day to day basis, we only have 2 pillows sitting on the couch and the real house plants are substituted for smaller items on the tables. We love to have a place for our coffee cups to sit down!

We absolutely love the new lights above the couch, and they are a much better lighting solution in our dark room than the previous table lamps.

Want some more resources for boho decorating?

• Here are over 15 free printable boho art designs
• Create a boho tapestry wall hanging using fabric and printables.

Become a VIP!

Get full access to the library of printable wall art for your home by becoming a VIP newsletter subscriber. Plus, you’ll get more ideas for your home delivered right to your inbox!

PS. And don’t forget! You have 30 days to use the ritajoy25 coupon for 25% off your purchase at Photowall. (Offer expires September 23, 2020.)