Thai Design Style translated for modern interiors

Traditional Thai design style is all about rainbow-coloured silks, intricate pattern – whether on textiles or wood carvings, architecture-inspired finial pots, woven bamboo, lacquerware furniture and hand-thrown, hand-painted pottery and ceramics. But how do you introduce Thai style décor to contemporary homes without it feeling themed or pastiche? Here’s how…

1 Thai cottons and handwoven costume panels in a rainbow-bright colour palette. 2 A beautiful embroidered, sequinned and beaded child’s jacket sourced in the local textile markets of Chiangmai. 3 Vintage woven costume panels sourced in Thailand.

Unique wall art, full of soul and stories.

• If you love the colours and textile handicrafts of Thailand, source some of your favourite Thai textiles and frame them as wall art. They add another dimension to a gallery wall and serve as an enduring memory of a place lived, loved or travelled.

1 Framed Thai textiles created by Designs By Origin past and present. Shop our current eclectic wall art edit here…

Patterned lampshades bring culturally-inspired colour.

• Another option is to use your Thai textile – cotton, linen or hemp textiles are best – to create an elegant drum shade. Team the finished lampshade with a simple lamp base, classic or modern, and let the pattern literally glow.

Handmade Thai textile lampshades with the stripes, motifs and colours typical of the traditional Thai design aesthetic. These striking and eye-catching designs can look wonderful in a contemporary interior combined with sleek modern upholstery and furniture. They look equally elegant in a more classic setting.

Take inspiration from traditional Thai design styles. 

• Rainbow-bright fabrics – mainly netting, cottons and silks are in evidence everywhere across Thailand. In both the cities and on the islands, they are used to decorate the beautiful spirit shrines built adjacent to almost every residential building. They also adorn the ‘longtail’ boats ploughing the waters of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok and sailing between the many islands in the south of the country.

1 & 2 Rainbow-bright netting adorns Thai spirit houses and shrines across the country. 3 Brightly coloured silks and netting tied to a longtail boat at Railay Bay on Krabi.

Add colourful accents with Thai silk photograph frames.

• Colourful silk and woven textile banners and decorations flutter in the breeze from luxe hotel poolsides to the verandas of riverside dwellings, temple gardens and even the rooftops of city skyscrapers. Our handmade silk photograph frames – available in Poppy red, Emerald green and Royal blue – are a great way to accent a modern interior with a little of this vibrant and authentically-Thai material. Shop the collection here.

1 A handmade, Thai silk photograph frame in vibrant Emerald green silk from our collection. 2 Silk ribbons decorating a riverside bar in Bangkok. 3 Woven decorations made from colourful cottons, pom poms, beads and bamboo.

Blue & green should always be seen!

Blues and greens co-exist regularly in Thai décor: from vibrant aquas, cobalt and pool blues to jade, lime and emerald greens. These intense shades are often grounded by deeper, darker and earthier hues such as terracotta, ochre, carmine red and aubergine.

1 Our founder, Annabel Smith, at Ancient Siam on the outskirts of Bangkok. She is sat in a beautiful wooden waterside stilt house decorated in this very colour palette. 2 A floating market scene provides a snapshot of this beautiful colour palette seen across Thailand. Even the vibrant, lime-hued pomelos match! 3 Another image of our cobalt blue and emerald green handmade Thai silk photograph frames.

Seek out vintage wood carvings or panels as 3-D wall art.

• Carved wood decoration is everywhere in Thailand: Adorning the tops of temples; used in the construction of traditional wooden stilt houses; and, as decorative panels and mirrors within traditional Thai interiors. Source vintage carvings from specialist Thai antiques dealers to introduce this uniquely Thai decorative aesthetic into your own home.

1 A towering Thai temple with ornately decorative wood carvings on the hips and ridges of it’s pagoda style roofline. 2 A beautiful wood-carved oval wall mirror with mirror glass mosaic detailing.

Hand-thrown Thai ceramics introduce shape, form and pattern.

From ornately hand-painted and gilded Benjarong pottery to urn-shaped celadon pots; from hand-thrown ceramic sink bowls to traditional, blue and white tableware, the Thai ceramic tradition has a long  and rich history but is still very much alive and thriving. Ceramic homewares are not only beautiful but often useful too. Create a unique spa-style bathroom with a one-of-a-kind sink. Serve your best Thai meal on authentic plates. Use pretty lidded pots for storing cotton wool balls or hair accessories on your dressing table. Or create a ‘wow!’ moment by styling a trio of over-sized, hand-decorated pots in a decorative vignette; by an out-of-season fireside for example.

1 A large, glossy celadon urn with inky-black, Lotus flower decoration and an elegant, urn-shaped silhouette. Display large decorative pots as statement pieces in their own right. 2 Take inspiration from two-tone ceramic sinks on an old lacquer bench in this Thai spa bathroom. 3 Vintage Benjarong pots with their ornately decorated and gilded exterior.

Orchids spilling out of pots and planters add a tropical feel.

Okay, okay – orchids are everywhere in Thailand and not so easy (or inexpensive!) to buy by the armful outside Asia. But, even a single plant – choose vibrant magenta pinks over white – creates the right note and adds that tropical feel seen in homes, hotels and restaurants all over Thailand. Green leaves of the tropical variety also add verdancy to your ‘room-scape’ so add these in pots and planters throughout – bathrooms and shower rooms are a great option for this. As an aside – if you ever do make the hop across to holiday in Thailand, don’t hesitate to visit the busy, bustling and ridiculously colourful Bangkok plant and flower markets. They are incredible!

1 Orchid sprays filling hand-made Thai ceramic pots on a woven side table. 2 A giant verdigris urn (on a swing platform no less!) is filled with a vast arrangement of vibrantly-hued magenta orchids in this modern hotel lobby in Chiangmai. 3 Tropical green leaves also add verdancy and jungle vibes to a modern monochrome Thai exterior. This look also translates to interior décor. Just ensure the plant varieties you opt for love the light conditions and humidity in the room in which you place them. Steamy bathrooms might just be the best place for them! 

And lastly…

Thai design style is very of the moment thanks to the latest instalment of the HBO series ‘The White Lotus’. We were delighted to contribute to a great article by Rent. which focuses on how to get the look from each of the three series of The White Lotus set in Hawaii, Sicily and Thailand consecutively. Read the full article here to add warmth, texture and personality to your home: Bring The White Lotus Aesthetic Into Your Home: Décor Inspired By Iconic Locations Rent is a subsidiary of Redfin.com