Kare Design: A Look At Carnivalcore Design

If you close your eyes and think about happy childhood memories, you may experience a nostalgic rush of excitement when you think about fun times spent at the carnival. Carnivalcore is a design aesthetic based around this feeling – the nostalgia and joy of visiting the carnival. Let’s take a closer look at this design trend and how you can bring it into your own home…

Carnivalcore focuses on the carefree – a time where childlike wonder was the central fascination of life. Themes often associated with this aesthetic are neon signs, sweets, muffled pop songs and fairground rides. It’s playful and dramatic and used to create an innocent and jovial atmosphere, often centred around summer.

In an article at Architectural Digest, author Sydney Gore explains: “The unspoken truth is that you’re either a spectator or a performer at the circus, but Carnivalcore invites us all to participate in reclaiming our innocence by latching on to carefree ideals that break away from the real world.”

In real homes…

Singer Paloma Faith once dabbled with elements of the circus for the theme of her child’s bedroom. It, therefore, featured an original hand-painted mural amongst other quirky things like striped curtains, animal prints, and games strategically scattered around.

Cara Delevingne’s Los Angeles home is another prime example of this nowstalgic trend with its tented poker room, ball pit, trampolines, costume room, and an attic party bunker that might be a dungeon.

Nicolò Bini, the architectural designer behind Cara’s home—as well as the dizzying property that the actress and model once shared with her sister, Poppy—likes to refer to this maximalist moment in design as ushering in the “house of fun.” He views the rise of the carnivalcore trend as a modern reinterpretation that reminds him of the trippy undertones within Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, noting how there’s also a mischievous side to such a whimsical theme.

In your home

If the idea of childhood nostalgia and the carnival excites you, then you may want to bring the carnivalcore trend into your own interior. How? Embrace your carefree and child-like side and choose accents that have colour and excitement. Common colourways include neons, rainbows and pastel tones. Motifs are typically related to clowns and carnival rides, carousels and jesters, to name a few.