How to Decorate in Indian Style

If you decorate your house in  Indian style, you’ll be filling it with color, exoticism, and spirituality.

There are some fundamental things to keep in mind as you decorate your house this way. As we’ll explain in this article, there are some fabrics, textures, and colors that you can use for this style. 

There are several ways of going about this, as long as you make sure that you’re not cluttering your home with these elements.

You also can’t forget that Indian culture includes the custom of going barefoot in the house. What does that mean for you? It means you need to think along the lines of puff chairs, rugs, and small tables. If you decorate in Indian style, you’ll be shifting some of your daily activities (eating, drinking, chatting) closer to the floor.

What colors to use to decorate in Indian style

Firstly, you need to make your spaces colorful, it will give them an exotic touch. The best colors to use are ochre, gold, yellow, orange, red, and fuchsia. You should have them in your fabrics, decorative pieces, furniture, and walls.

Here’s an interesting point: these colors have a strong relationship to chakras. Chakras are focal points of energy, and they exist in specific parts of our body, helping balance our physical and mental self.

They also have a link to elements like water, fire, etc…There are seven in total, and each of them is represented by a color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Furniture and objects

This style generally uses natural, handmade materials.

Some of the most common woods for furniture are bamboo, oak, teak, and walnut. You could also use shisham, a tree native to the Indian subcontinent. It’s seen as one of the most elegant woods at the moment. People use it to create things like sideboards, dressers, and desks.

You can also use lacquered furniture because lacquer makes wood easier to maintain and clean. In fact, lacquer is a varnish we make from the sap of specific trees, many of which are native to India.

Wood isn’t the only option, though. You can also use fibers like rattan, which isn’t very tough but it is very elastic. This means you can bend and fold it to create furniture. Of course, there’s also wicker, which is a light, tough fiber.

You can find trunks, side tables, and center tables, and all kinds of other things. For example, there are things like chakki tables, which are handmade in India. They’re short and both the legs and outside face have geometrical or floral patterns carved on them.

Objects and accessories are usually made out of things like clay, terracotta, or metal. You’ll often see jars, tea sets, and spice racks in this kind of home. 

Lamps also make your home feel warm and inviting. There’s an enormous variety of them out there in Indian style.

You can also complement your objects and furniture with little elephant figurines, or mini statues that represent gods. Or, you could use candles and incense to make your home feel more mystical and spiritual.

How to decorate in an Indian style: fabrics

Last but not least, we’re going to tell you about the fabrics in this style of home. Any tourist will tell you they’re one of the first things that grab your attention when you go to India for the first time.

They’re becoming more common in the market, so you should be able to find something you like. This includes things like tablecloths, rugs, cushions, mats, bedsheets, etc… It’s more expensive outside of India, but silk is very common in home decor there.

But back to decorative schemes: the most common patterns are geometrical, floral, and swirl. Material-wise, there’s also paisley, which you might know as cashmere. Here’s a fun fact: cashmere goes back over 2,000 years and has been adapted to the textile industries of various countries, without ever losing its true essence.

The Sun is a very common image in India because it represents the Hindu god, Surya. You’ll often see this illustrated image of the sun on fabrics and prints.

Conclusion

Before we go, we want to remind you that even though many companies manufacture things that recreate this style, you can always find original pieces from India at antique stores, street markets, auctions, flea markets…Online stores are also very popular for this kind of thing. So, use this style to create a colorful, warm, positive feel in your home.