Psychedelic room décor represents a culture and lifestyle from a bygone era that still resonates with people today -- from young hipsters to old hippies. You don't need mind-altering drugs to appreciate the creativity and artistic expression found in psychedelic décor; it's a natural fit for those with carefree spirits and unconventional lifestyles.
Creating a Psychedelic Room
Psychedelic décor relates strongly to folk art and rooms decorated with a bohemian feel. An eclectic mix of bright, colorful fabrics, painted furniture, and ethic or tribal accents sets the right tone for a psychedelic room. Mix in mood enhancing lights and some retro hippy accessories and you'll have a fabulously funky space.
Colorful Floors
Add texture, color and pattern to floors with bohemian style rugs. Use one rug as an accent or cover the floor with multiple, overlapping rugs featuring colorful stripes, zig-zags, ikat or patchwork patterns. Kilim rugs and tribal rugs with a faded, vintage look are ideal but you can also mix in colorful carpet remnants for a welcoming surface to bare feet or sitting. Be sure to bind the edges of carpet remnants to give them a finished look.
Find bohemian style rugs at:
- Burke Décor - Abstract multicolored rugs, ikat patterns, geometric designs
- Kilim.com - Large selection of tribal kilim rugs, overdyed rugs, patchwork, and vintage Turkish rugs
A Place for Friends
Create a comfy gathering place in a living room, family room, den, or basement by scattering cushions around a low coffee table or on a sectional sofa or bench style seating. Moroccan poufs can be used as small tables or extra seating and fit perfectly with bohemian style. East Indian fabrics, cushions, and pillows are vibrantly colored with embroidered details and patterns that also work well.
Pull a funky color from a fabric or rug pattern for the walls or at least an accent wall such as turquoise, crimson red, coral or tangerine. Paint a few sample boards and move them around the room for a few days before making a final choice. Geometric or abstract wallpaper patterns with a retro feel blend nicely with the layers of patterns on rugs, pillows and tapestries.
A Place for Insight, Meditation, and Relaxation
While there's no denying the connection to drugs in psychedelic décor, it can also relate to mind expansion through meditative and spiritual practices. Purple is a mystical color that incites spiritual insight and creativity.
- A jewel-toned shade, such as amethyst or deep purple, makes an excellent choice for a psychedelic inspired bedroom, den or bonus room dedicated to contemplative meditation.
- Consider indigo for a night sky feel on the ceiling in the same room.
- In the bedroom, maintain a low profile with a platform style bed and layer rugs and cushions over the floor.
Décor for Walls and Ceilings
Hang colorful tapestries on walls depicting fantasy landscapes, tie-dye colors, mesmerizing patterns, mandalas and celestial or spiritual symbols. Peace signs, mushrooms, yin yang symbols, and flowers are common designs. Drape sheer fabric or hang cotton tapestries on or from the ceiling
Other Accents
Drip candles in bottles are very boho hippy, especially with color changing candles or neon wax that glows under black lights. Use them as colorful accents on coffee or end tables or make a little altar with drip candles and a Buddha statue for meditating. Throw in a sugar skull incense burner and hang a few dream catchers and you just might be a hippy.
- Trippy Store.com has a large selection of decor including tapestries, posters, dream catchers, ashtrays, incense burners, blankets, curtains, clocks, mirrors, and more.
- At Hippie Shop, you'll find a variety of tapestries, posters, drip candles, dream catchers, incense burners, and window stickers.
Mood Lighting
Fairy lights or string lights hung behind sheer fabric, strung along ceilings and walls, or integrated with furniture add a mystical feel to a bedroom or cushy seating area for friends. In the living room or family room, hang a Moroccan pendant lantern to cast an intricate pattern on the walls and ceiling when illuminated.
Incite a psychedelic feel with lava lamps or plasma lamps placed on wall shelves, end tables, bookcases or dressers.
- TAZI Designs has a nice selection of hanging pendant Moroccan lanterns.
- Lava Lamp.com offers three different sizes of lava lamps; don't miss the Colormax collection.
- Aurora Plasma Designs has globe plasma lamps.
Include a Black Light Display
Much of psychedelic art is black light reactive, giving wall art an other-worldly feel when displayed under ultra-violet light. Florescent tapestries and posters stand out best against a dark background, making purple walls or a darkly painted ceiling ideal. You can also limit the black light display to just a portion of the room.
Best Lights to Use
The best type of black light lamps to buy for creating really bright glowing effects are florescent tube lights called black light blue lamps. The florescent powder coating inside the tubes is designed to emit long wave UV light while the tube is made from a special glass called Wood's glass, which filters out most of the visible light. Regular florescent tubular black lights also work well and many are designed to link together.
At Wildfire Lighting and Visual Effects, you'll find inexpensive black light blue tube lamps but the mounting hardware is sold separately.
Display Ideas
Cover the ceiling in a bedroom with psychedelic tapestries or posters so when you're lying on the bed, the vibrant glowing colors, symbols, and patterns fill your mind. Add glowing plastic ceiling stars to make the images appear to float in space.
Create a glowing art gallery in a corner, a nook, or a portion of a wall away from the other lights in the room. If you're really ambitious, cover an entire room or a basement in black light art. Try a gallery in a hallway and hang a florescent beaded curtain in the entrance.
DIY Graffiti Wall
Paint an accent wall black or make a folding room divider by hinging three plywood panels together. Paint the plywood black before connecting the panels. Use stencils and florescent neon paint to create a psychedelic graffiti wall. Look for designs such as mushrooms, peace signs, stars, flowers with smiley faces, butterflies, smiley faces, and yin yang symbols.
Find black light gear, paint, and décor at:
- BlackLight.com has a large selection of black light reactive décor including tapestries, posters, candles, clocks and beaded curtains, in addition to high quality paint and lights.
- DirectGlow.com offers inexpensive linkable black lights, black light reactive fabric, acrylic and tempera paint, tapestries, drip candles, beaded curtains and a large selection of glowing stars, butterflies, mushrooms, peace signs and aliens.
Adding a Psychedelic Touch
If you like the boho hippy vibe but don't want to commit an entire room to this look, just add one or two accents for a psychedelic touch.
In the Bedroom
- Create an eye-catching focal point with tie-dyed bedding or hang a psychedelic tapestry on the wall behind the headboard.
- Use vibrantly colored fabric, a tie-dyed sheet, or a large tapestry to create a simple canopy over the bed, attaching it with hooks or ceiling mount curtain rods.
- Paint a colorful folk art style headboard or chair.
In the Living Room
- Frame a psychedelic tapestry and hang it as wall art over the sofa.
- Scatter an assortment of boldly colored pillows in mixed patterns on sofas and chairs. Include a table lamp, floor lamp or pendant lamp with a funky retro shade.
- Add a bohemian style area rug and pull a color from the rug for an accent wall.
In a Den or Office
- Paint a wildly colorful desk.
- Hang a gallery wall of trippy posters or just frame and hang two or three.
- Use a sugar skull ashtray for paperclips, put a sugar skull incense burner nearby, and hang a sugar skull clock on the wall.
Décor You Can't Ignore
Whether it's the whole room or just a few accents, psychedelic décor rarely goes unnoticed. If you have a creative, artistic side, you can make much of it yourself.
