Vivre la vie Boheme!

For those who live in Concord or subscribe to the KAZA shop blog, we do a lot of windows at KAZA in the Bohemian style.  We love the combination eclectic, cultured, vintage style, that is Boho.  It is important to give your space a soul when designing bohemian, if not, it will only seem contrived. It needs to reflect things you love.

But….what do you love?

The cultural definition of “Bohemian” is  descriptive term for a stereotypical way of life for artists and intellectuals. According to the stereotype, bohemians live in material poverty because they prefer their art or their learning to lesser goods; they are also unconventional in habits and dress, and sometimes in morals.

hmmmmm….well, I don’t know if I agree completely with that definition. My definition of Bohemian is a bit different. My idea of Bohemian is a person whom is well traveled. I don’t mean, staying at 5 star hotels “well traveled”. I mean, someone who travels to really experience the lifestyle of another culture. Not luxurious, by any means. A much more organic, primitive voyage…perhaps on a Pilgrimage, like the late Jennifer Lash. A complete immersion in another culture; scent, taste, sight, language and touch and bringing that rich experience back home.

It also is an appreciation for vintage and all things that make you tingle inside. Sparkly cushions sitting on an old kilim. A vintage Pucci inspired fabric made into a pillow with an antique rich velvet backing. Artwork is formal, abstract and sometimes personal.

Bohemian is the yummy “sweet and salty” of design!

The first time I went to France, I had gone to visit some friends in Lille. I was bored. I wanted to buy berets and visit the Eiffel Tower (hey, I was only 19!)….until dinner. Dinner was my “V8 moment” and I started to really enjoy the experience of living as a real French woman; from the couscous stuffed tomatoes to the room temperature water served in an ornate blue bottle, to the fresh strawberries we bought at the local Marche Aux Puce, to picking herbs in the back garden,  to the interesting and rich conversations and laughs, –I was absorbing everything.

On my way to the airport in Paris, I stopped at a fabulous cheese and wine shop to  buy some “souvenirs” and on the plane someone complained that my now warming cheese smelled like “someone had parfum that was not agreeable”. I of course gave an, “oh yeah….you’re right! P.U.!”  look, looked around suspiciously and quickly stuffed my bag into the overhead compartment.

That first trip to France changed me and made me realize how berets and the Eiffel Tower were not France. Not really. I took a piece of that culture, not to change my culture-I love my culture, but to enrich it.

Whenever I receive a packet from Turkey, it smells smoky. Not cigarette smoky, more of an incense. The paper feel different that wraps the new pieces. Heavier. It sounds different too.  I always think of the history of where it comes from. In Salihli, it is the place where the first coin in history was made. There is evidence of 25,000 year old footprints there. The food they eat is very natural. No extra spicing. To actually taste something, at it’s purest form, is very normal for them. I actually had to show my friends there, pictures of a “drive thru” restaurant (they were stunned, at the thought, that many USA  meals are eaten in cars). I watch how they eat…how they live, how they interact. They are comfortable in their skin and are very proud of their rich heritage.

Living “une vie Boheme” is more of a lifestyle, created to reflect what we love…our experiences that have formed us into who we are. Taking what we love and surrounding ourselves with it. It’s a big world —reach out and you will come back a changed person. Take a Moroccan cooking class and learn what those “tagine” things are. Learn a cool new language–Croatia is a beautiful place to visit. Take a Turkish felt rug making class. Go to the local Glendi and taste the rich flavours of Greece. Go to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and see a famous Masterpiece up close. Or go to the seaside and just breathe it in.

anne becker elle decor antique ikat

So…in a nutshell; surround yourself with things you love and learn about more things to love as a gift to yourself. I think there is a little Bohemian in all of us.

Chinoiserie

Fabulous Braemore Chinoiserie

In Design School, we had a textile class and were given certain fabrics to research. I was stuck with Ikat and lace—-my two worst styles (I have changed my mind about the Ikat and now love it! —More about that later). I remember seeing the different chinoiserie swatches, being presented in class and dreaming of designing a room based on them. Not just one yummy swatch….but all of them in the same room!

Anthropologies' "Chinoiserie" Bed

I always tend to worry about  presenting Chinoiserie to a client, honestly. I have not even carried any of it at the shop. Coming from a french speaking home, I knew how to pronounce it and worried it would sound pretentious. It is the same with Chicken Cordon Bleu, a la carte, Provencal, Mardi Gras, etc (totally off subject-lol).  I know how to say it and feel foolish if I force myself to say it with an American accent.  The United States is a melting pot of nationalities, yet I think french is the only language that can sound pretentious if said correctly, pensez-vous?

Horchow Chair

According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Chinoiserie  is a “17th- and 18th-century Western style of  interior design , pottery, textiles, and garden design that represents fanciful European interpretations of Chinese styles. In the first decades of the 17th century, English and Italian and, later, other craftsmen began to draw freely on decorative forms found on cabinets, porcelain vessels, and embroideries imported from China. The earliest appearance of a major chinoiserie interior scheme was in Louis Le Vau’s Trianon de porcelaine of 1670–71 (subsequently destroyed), built for Louis XIV at Versailles. The fad spread rapidly; indeed, no court residence, especially in Germany, was complete without its Chinese room, which was often, as it had been for Louis, the room for the prince’s mistress (e.g., Lackkabinett, Schloss Ludwigsburg, Württemberg, 1714–22). Chinoiserie, used mainly in conjunction with Baroque and Rococo Styles, featured extensive gilding and lacquering; much use of blue-and-white (e.g., Delftware); asymmetrical forms; disruptions of orthodox perspective; and Oriental figures and motifs. The style—with its lightness and asymmetry and the capriciousness of many of its motifs—also appeared in the fine arts, as in the paintings of the French artists Antoine Watteau and François Boucher”.

According to KAZA, it is plain ‘ol fabulous!

Beautiful Chinoiserie Wallpaper

What I love about Chinoiserie is that it fits such a vast decorating scheme. It can easily be in the most formal of homes to the most chic bohemian style home without feeling displaced. One of the few patterns that can easily make the crossover.

Ballard Design- 95$

Antique Chinoiserie Desk

Pink jo Walker

Seeing the rich colours in Chinoiserie can give us an idea of how important colour was, when this style was created.

antique inkwell

Can you imagine these in a Bohemian, Eclectic Design? GORGEOUS!

Mmmmmm……we really need to do a Chinoiserie Window, at the shop,  soon.

Collections in Design

I just recently started collecting things….good pieces that make me happy. When I was in my 20’s, I would buy things to fill in gaps in my design. As I entered my 30’s, I became more sentamental and found things that I truly had a passion and interest in and have incorportated it in my own home design.

My first collection I had started was Turquoise Pottery. Not new Turquoise Pottery…but old Turquoise Pottery…with fabulous crazing, discolourations and slight imperfections. My first piece was a small casserole dish with a lid. I loved the sound it made when I closed the lid. Sort of a muffled “clunk”. It will always be my favourite piece.

Below are some interesting collections that inspire me. I would love an art wall and be more adventerous with the art I choose to display. I think of Sarah Swan’s Photography (KAZA’s May Featured Artist) and how her pictures are so colourful and alive. I imagined my dining room wall being full, floor to ceiling, with her ‘bloom’ line of photographs.

Designer, Kristin Buckingham created a wall of art that is so inspiring without feeling contrived (below).

Collection of Art--by Designer, Kristen Buckingham

Collections do not need to be expensive pieces. Nor do you need to buy every piece at once. In fact, part of the fun of having a collection is taking the time to buy the pieces that have purpose and meaning.

I love the natural collection (below)–coral, sponges, mounted butterflies, etc.

My personal natural collection in my own home is a gorgeous hornets nest (empty of course!-lol), corals, rocks and minerals, finger sponges, etc. Each piece is a memory for me and takes me back to a special time in my life.

collections do not need to be a bunch of the same things or same colours. Sometimes...it can be a collection in theme. Such as this gorgeous Nature Collection.

I have just recently started collecting creme stoneware for my kitchen. I love the simplicity of the creme and alot of those pieces make that cool sound…that muffled “clunk” that I mentioned above. I really love that sound. I remember my grandmother (memere) making oven-baked bread pudding  in her old, crazed floral casserole dish. She would lift the lid to gently check the breads consistancy and it would smell sweet and “clunk” , she would close the lid and return it to baking. Mmmmm….I love that memory.

Creme Stoneware--Gorgeous!

KAZA’s New Collection:

At the shop, we have decided to showcase a collection of cameras-ranging in age from the early 1900's to 1980's