Cultivated Creativity: Tour Bari J. Ackerman’s Maximalist Home Embellished With Hand-Painted Wallpaper

Bari J. Ackerman is an artist and interior designer whose personal touches are seen on every surface of her Charlotte, North Carolina, home. With a style she calls “Curated Maximalism,” Bari’s home features floral motifs, geometric patterns and animal prints where bold colors are welcome and every design element is intentional.

Bari designs art for wallpaper, rugs, bedding, dishes and “anything that art can go on,” she says; you can find her Tufted Wild Bloom rug for sale at Anthropologie. Bari is a fabric designer with a full line of prints that embody her style.

Bari is also the author of the book Bloom Wild: a free-spirited guide to decorating with floral patterns. Bloom Wild is a comprehensive guide to creating your own curated maximalism home using Bari's easy-to-follow methods for pattern mixing as she explains how she chose the decor and themes in her own decorating.

Bari didn’t start creating art until she was in her 30s and was looking to give herself an edge in her handbag business. “I was creating handbags that I sold and wanted to differentiate my work from other handbags on the market, and believed I needed to create my own fabric collection to do so,” she said.

She began designing fabric using design software and eventually switched to painting. Painting gave her a tangible product she could enjoy immediately. “There was a real visceral kind of joy to the art, and that’s when everything really changed,” Bari said.

Bari’s love for florals goes back to childhood, and flowers were the first thing she began to paint. “I have memories of my mom cutting lilacs off the branch, and wrapping it in paper towels and tin foil, and carrying it to school to give it to my teachers,” she explained. Bari also remembers watching her mom spend years working on a floral needlepoint project.