Enjoy bursts of colors and patterns when you bring Desi style to your space! Here are loads of tips on incorporating this vibrant style in your home.

If you’ve never heard of the Desi decor style, you’re not alone. Unlike other standard decor styles, this is one that has been around for ages, but is only gaining its own identity as a decor style now. If you love your pani puris, cotton kurtas and Bollywood music, you might just find that the Desi style is perfect for you!

Decor Styles 101: Desi

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact date this style began to get popular; it’s always been around in Indian homes and thanks to social media today, it’s become more commonplace abroad as well. Desi style is something that can be made to suit any kind of personality. It can be austere and simple or opulent and grand.

What’s more, India is such a diverse country that when you say desi decor, it can include elements from any region! You’ll find homes with South Indian temple motifs or Mughal-style inlays. The breeziness of a Goa home will be different from the earthiness of a home in Bihar.

If this is confusing you, don’t worry – here’s help! Regardless of the region, there are a few common elements that define the Desi style. They’re characteristic of the vibrant Indian culture and are easy enough to identify.

Characteristics of Desi Decor

• The biggest identifying feature of Desi homes is all the bright and vibrant colors, both contrasting and complementing
• Desi homes generally have solid wood furniture, and they’ve often got carvings and intricate details like inlays
• Dark woods are more common, like teak, ebony, rosewood and walnut
• The Desi style features an abundance of Indian fabrics, like ikat, bandhani, kantha and more
• Indians tend to do most of their activities closer to the ground, including eating, and the decor reflects this
• You’ll often find idols and figurines dotting a Desi home, made of various materials like brass, wood and marble

10 Ways to Bring the Desi Style to your Space

1. Choose a Color Palette

There really is no color that’s out of bounds in desi decor, except perhaps black and white! While that gives you ample opportunities to play around with color, it can also be overwhelming. To ensure you have harmony in your decor, choose a color palette with 2-3 colors.

Go with complementary colors on the color wheel if you’re having trouble putting together a color scheme. Popular colors in desi style are mustard, magenta, orange, rust, maroon, bottle green and deep blues. Gold is also a great pick as it goes with all the other colors and suits the Indian aesthetic very well.

2. Include a large Indian Element

To truly make an impact and ground your decor style, get in a large element that’s totally Indian. It could be a large engraved wooden chest, a jharoka or decorative window or a mandir. An excellent option is an indoor swing made of wood and brass chains.

Jaalis are another great way to get that strong Indian presence in your home. You can use them on headboards or in wall panels or as partitions. You can also use a large mirror with a jaali style frame.

3. Make use of Heirloom Pieces

One of the lovely things about desi decor is that it gives you an opportunity to put out all those lovely antique pieces you’ve inherited from your mother or grandmother. Whether it’s a brass lamp, a set of Rajasthani puppet dolls or a marble bust, you can proudly display them in your space.

This also applies to larger items like chairs and dressers. Antique wooden furniture made from teak is extremely durable and can last a lifetime. Even if you don’t have family heirlooms, flea markets and antique shops in your city will have many interesting pieces.

4. Get Imaginative with Seating

As mentioned earlier, many Indian families prefer sitting on the floor for meals and other activities, and you can reflect this earthiness by playing around with your seating. Opt for low sofas or get a diwan instead of a couch.

You can also try other options like quaint, embroidered foot stools or floor cushions. Another fun option is a charpoi, which is essentially a cot which you can then add cushions for comfort.

5. Decorate with Handicrafts

When it comes to handicrafts, India is a true treasure trove! There are so many handicrafts specific to each part of India, and they’re all beautiful in their own right. You can get lovely blue pottery from Jaipur, Raja Rani puppets from Rajasthan, sandalwood boxes from Karnataka or Aranmula mirrors from Kerala.

Even if you don’t want to get too specific, you can decorate with an assortment of decor pieces made of metal, marble, wood or brass. Leather is not too popular in desi decor. When placing planters, the earthy, terracotta ones are best.

6. Use Indian Fabrics in Furnishings

You need fabric for all your furnishings, and considering the variety available in India, you’ll run out of ways to use them! The best part about these fabrics is that they are multipurpose – you can use any of them for drapes, bed covers, table cloths, cushions and more.

For regular furnishings, go with ikat, dabu, kasavu, khadi or bandhani. Where you need a more expensive look, choose kantha, kutch or silk. For rugs, nothing beats a soft, woven Kashmiri carpet!

7. Dress up the Walls

In desi decor, walls are a blank canvas which you can put anything on! One option is to paint the walls a bright color and leave them blank. Else, you can paint them in a light color like cream or beige and then decorate them.

Stenciling is a very popular way of decorating walls and it’s also a budget-friendly way to refresh your home. Try Mughal-style block prints or mehendi designs for a unique kind of look on your walls.

8. Think about Repurposing

If you know Indians, you know we’re experts at reusing and repurposing old items! This is ideal for desi decor too, as you can use a single thing in many ways. Turn an old cot into a desk, or an old decorative door into a table top. If you find a window from an old traditional house, use it as wall art.

Sarees and dupattas in traditional fabrics can be turned into table runners, cushion covers and bed runners. Another excellent option is to use a trunk as a coffee table – you get extra storage plus a place to lay down your coffee cup!

9. Celebrate Indian Art

India has many traditional art forms, many of which are unfortunately still not very well known. Celebrate local artists by buying traditional art pieces from them, whether it’s a Warli painting from Maharashtra, a piece of Madhubani art from Bihar, or a Tanjore painting from down south.

Another interesting thing to try is framing fabric. If you have a beautiful piece that has been hand worked, frame it hang it up on your wall. You can also do this if part of your saree has been damaged and you don’t want to throw the rest away.

10. Keep a Variety of Plants and Flowers

Plants form an integral part of desi decor, and they’re ideally lush, with a lot of leaves, rather than succulents. Areca palm, snake plant, pothos, holy basil and peace lily are popular choices.

Flowers also feature prominently in desi homes, with local flowers placed in many interesting ways. They could small garlands trailing out of pots or floating in a large brass vessel like an urli.

As you see, getting the desi style in your space is not hard at all – you’ll actually have trouble choosing a few among the many options available! If you prefer minimalism and straight, clean lines, desi decor might be a little challenging, although it’s still doable. In desi style, every corner of your home reflects some part of Indian  heritage, and often has many years of stories to tell. If you love the idea of filling your space with these, you’ll love the desi style!

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Blogging Challenge 2021.