Butterflycore is the latest trend in whimsical home decor

Butterfly-themed prints can bring plenty of colour to a small room.  Photo by matthieu jungfer/Unsplash

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At first the butterflycore esthetic might seem a little too juvenile for the serious-minded among us. The insects, with their flitting flight patterns and whimsical colouring, are often assicated with 1960s flower children or else literal children.

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But when deciding whether the trend has a place in your home, perhaps it helps to recall another aspect of butterfly symbolism: metamorphosis. As in, entering a new stage in your life and leaving the past behind.

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Mariah Carey did as much with her 1997 album Butterfly.

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“When I made that album, I was leaving a point in my life that was extremely stifling and I had to go through an actual metamorphosis to become a grown woman who was strong enough to get out of that situation,” she told Variety in 2022. “It was me breaking through, to become free enough to fly.”

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Jewelry designer Barbara Taveres echoed that idea in a recent article for Better Homes & Gardens.

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“We are drawn to things that lift us mentally and emotionally,” she said. “In my opinion, this is not even about following a trend; this is about maintaining dreamlike vision for your life, and that is always worth preserving.”

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As an esthetic, butterflycore also celebrates the natural world and sits nicely among other movements such as biophilic decor, which emphasizes earthy colours, natural materials, plants, and sunlight.

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What’s more, style expert Caralyn Mirand Koch believes that butterflycore is in line with the current shift away from spartan, function-first interiors bathed in grey, beige and white.

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“Those spaces photographed beautifully, but they didn’t feel personal or lived-in,” she told Better Homes & Gardens. “Butterflycore encourages people to embrace softness, colour, and sentiment again.”

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Incorporating aspects of butterflycore requires a touch of subtlety, said Koch, lest you feel like you live in a lepidopterarium.

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“I wouldn’t start with butterfly prints everywhere,” she said. “I’d focus on creating the feeling first. Think soft botanical-inspired colours, fresh flowers or branches, natural textures like rattan, linen, and wood, vintage-inspired artwork, and delicate lighting.”

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Once those elements are in place, you can decide how overt you want your butterfly references to be.

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Maybe you opt for a few framed butterfly prints in vibrant colours or more demure black and white. Butterfly-themed wallpaper could fill a smaller area such as a powder room or become the main attraction in a bedroom. Three-dimensional butterfly wall sculptures or light fixtures can give a space texture and depth, whether at a small or large scale.

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“The overt butterfly motifs may ebb and flow,” said Koch, “but the feeling of bringing the outdoors in is timeless.”

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