Designer and Boho Bungalow proprietress, Faith Parker, says the surroundings of a home should inform its interior design, “There should definitely be some flow to it.”
It’s no wonder then that her Cazadero ranch home is decorated in a richly layered, eclectic style, inspired by the West County ethos and landscape; the redwoods, the farmlands, the ranches and the coast. She achieves this particular take on the boho vibe by incorporating many different style-elements: vintage mid-century furniture pieces, with playful updates in “right-now” colors like orange and teal; woven textiles with traditional and modern patterns; and imports from her travels abroad.
Today, Parker, who is trained in architecture, extends her decorating skills beyond her home as she helps customers at her Occidental and Sebastopol stores identify their own look. She likes to encourage people to have fun with design, to “play with” decorating ideas and not take things too seriously.
In addition to looking at the surroundings of a home, Parker also subscribes to the idea that your wardrobe can serve as inspiration for your decor. For the stiletto-heel collector, for example, Parker suggests using elements of glamour, like a chandelier or shimmery textiles. For the shades of gray, simply-styled customer, she would suggest making ease and simplicity the through-lines, translated, for example, into slipcovers and casual elements.
The West County designer also suggests people choose a color palette and stick to it when decorating their home – a rug can become “the color story” for a room. While Parker rotates her own home decor piece by piece, so that it becomes completely different every couple of years, she always sticks with trusty shades of navy blue, and the new pieces and colors she incorporates revolve around this color scheme.
The latest trend within the vast universe of boho is one that incorporates lots of botanicals. Aptly named “jungalow,” Parker believes this is a style that will stick around for a while – she sites Justina Blakeney’s work and popular Instagram hashtags like #thecrazyplantlady as influences; her own ode to Jungalow is botanical, peelable wallpaper in her entryway.
“It would be too busy for another room,” she says, so she sets the tone of her decor in a brief and powerful way, right at the front door.
As part of constantly mixing and transitioning her home decor, Parker refinishes and reupholsters vintage pieces. A fan of juxtaposition, she couldn’t imagine sticking to one time period only – be it vintage, modern or traditional – instead she likes to have different styles “opposing each other.”
But, all the uninhibited intermingling aside, Parker insists there are still rules. For instance, if you’re mixing three patterns, you need one small, one medium and one large; drapes need to be hung well beyond the top and side edges of windows and chandeliers within 36 inches from the table, in order to engage the area.
Other than that, though, you’re pretty much free to play, explore and mix it up as much as you want.
