This North Carolina Artist and Interior Decorator Has Her Own Fabric Line and Home Decor Collection

Bari Ackerman designs floral art for “anything that art can go on.”

Her fascination with florals began when she was a child, and she remembers watching her mother carefully cut lilacs so Bari could take them to her teachers. That floral foundation made it easy for Bari to decide what she would try to paint the first time she picked up a paintbrush: flowers.

At the time, Bari was a handbag designer in her 30s looking for a way to set her bags apart from the others on the market. She digitally drew her own fabric line for her purses, but then she switched to painting.

“There was a real visceral kind of joy to the art, and that’s when everything really changed,” she said.

Bari’s signature designs feature bold florals, bright colors, geometric patterns and the occasional animal print, all of which she blends together into a busy-yet-seamless look that she calls “curated maximalism.”

The prints and motifs she loves cover almost every surface of her Charlotte, North Carolina, home. While the design elements technically break the rule about not mixing patterns, there are common themes in each piece, and their placement is intentional.

“Where I think ‘more is more,’ I feel like the 'more' part of it should be intentional rather than just stuff for stuff’s sake,” she said.

The rug in her breakfast nook is one of her floral designs that was turned into a Loloi rug. The fabric on the chairs is also one of her original designs, and the light fixture is from the same Hudson Lane line as the fixture above her formal dining table.

"I splurge on lighting because I believe it elevates every space with very little effort," Bari explained.

Bari's formal dining table sits opposite her handpainted floral mural. While Bari does use many colors, she always ties in black, which is seen on the light fixture above the table and again on the fixture in her dining nook off the kitchen. According to Bari's design principles, a touch of black is what helps ground a space no matter the color palette or design scheme she has chosen.

Bari's love for floral and natural elements extends to living plants. She has several houseplants in fun planters throughout her home.

Bari’s fabric collections span dozens of prints that feature florals in different scales, geometric motifs and animal prints. Flowers and plants are a staple in Bari’s world, but birds and branches make frequent appearances. Many of her geometric prints give off an art deco vibe, which jives with her principle of pairing simple things with ornate things to bring a room together.

Her skill in mixing patterns led her to write Bloom Wild: a free-spirited guide to decorating with floral patterns. The book is a complete instruction manual for decorators to find their floral vibe, successfully mix the patterns and then apply those concepts to everything from bed linens to table tops to outdoor spaces.

One of the best examples of Bari’s formula is in her bathroom. There are patterns of different scales — skinny stripes on the towel and bold stripes on the walls — and shades of pink from each pop in the floral shower curtain. If you look closely, you can see more floral art in the same color scheme reflected in the bathroom mirror.

When Bari needs to purchase fabric she didn't design, she buys quilt-weight fabrics from Fat Quarter Shop, which is one of the merchants that carries her fabric line. She also likes to search for vintage fabric on eBay. As for upholstery fabric, she is madly in love with William Morris prints.

Get all the details in Bari’s book, on her blog or by following her on Facebook. You can also shop her signature floral look at her website, where she sells everything from stationery to full-size paintings and a variety of home goods and decor items.