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

Bari Ackerman is the brain behind Bari J. Designs, a collection of home goods, wallpaper and fabrics inspired by her love of flowers and dedication to a decor style she calls “curated maximalism.” Shop Bari’s collection, buy her book and see how to recreate her style at home.

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March 28, 2023
Bari Ackerman sits on a pink couch holding a white Goldendoodle.

Bari Ackerman On Her Pink Couch With Her Dog, Ruth

Bari's dedication to curated maximalism extends to her clothes. This dress is a custom creation by Awful Pretty, a garment maker in North Carolina.

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

Bari's dedication to curated maximalism extends to her clothes. This dress is a custom creation by Awful Pretty, a garment maker in North Carolina.

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.

A hand-painted floral mural on the top half of a dining room wall

Hand-Painted Floral Wall Mural Behind A Dining Table

The sconces on Bari's wall provide a three-dimensional geometric element to a floral element, which is perfectly in line with her curated maximalism philosophy.

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

The sconces on Bari's wall provide a three-dimensional geometric element to a floral element, which is perfectly in line with her curated maximalism philosophy.

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.

A guest room with a bed, a gallery wall, and pink walls and ceiling

Curated Maximalism Guest Room with Pink Walls and Ceiling

The bed features a heron-print headboard that she designed in a limited-run collaboration with Joybird. A quilt made of fabric she designed lays across the bed, and she used solid, textured pieces to break up the patterns. The trim, walls and molding in the guest room are painted in Rosé Season by Clare.

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

The bed features a heron-print headboard that she designed in a limited-run collaboration with Joybird. A quilt made of fabric she designed lays across the bed, and she used solid, textured pieces to break up the patterns. The trim, walls and molding in the guest room are painted in Rosé Season by Clare.

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.

6 Home Design Tips for Maximalists
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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.

Bari Ackerman's dining nook with table, four chairs, and circular rug

Bari J. Ackerman's Dining Nook

The green wallpaper in the dining nook is carried through the kitchen and into a butler's pantry.

From: HGTV Handmade

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

The green wallpaper in the dining nook is carried through the kitchen and into a butler's pantry.

"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.

Six-seat table and chairs in a bright dining room with art and plants

Bright Dining Room With Modern Art and Bold Light Fixture

Bari Ackerman's North Carolina home is decorated in a style that she describes as "curated maximalism" with bold floral prints and geometric patterns. Her sleek dining table is accentuated by the modern art, bold light fixture, and cheery green plants.

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

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.

Located in Seattle, Washington, MoonaFabrics offers a variety of designer fabric patterns, including fabrics by designer Bari J. Ackerman. Use these gorgeous fabrics for upholstery, dresses and other craft projects.

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.

$26.79

The book details her formula for pattern mixing. She picks a color palette for the home, and then chooses contrasting fabrics with a common element (Bari calls this a through line) whether that’s shapes or colors. According to Bari, contrast + through line = pattern-mixing success.

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.

A bathroom with vertically striped walls and pink painted ceiling

Striped Bathroom With A Painted Ceiling and Floral Shower Curtain

Love these shades of pink? Recreate the rosebud paint details in your own home.

Photo by: Tomas Espinoza

Tomas Espinoza

Love these shades of pink? Recreate the rosebud paint details in your own home.

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.

Tour Interior Designer Bari Ackerman's Curated Maximalist Home
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