How to Make Good Use of Wicker Furniture in Your Decorating

Once relegated to porches, patios, and poolsides, wicker furniture has long been making a comeback. Leaving its garden-only connotations in its wake, wicker is an interior mainstay these days. Designers and homeowners alike revere wicker for its tactility—its expressive texture can single-handedly wake up a room—and its charm. If you’re stuck on wicker, you might be wondering how to effectively weave it into your home. Here, we show you how this woven wonder can be incorporated into virtually any space, simply by opting for the right piece. From wicker basics like wicker baskets and wicker chairs to wicker specialties like trompe l’oeil wicker tables, this is how you work wicker for the win!

Wicker Basics

Wicker Baskets

Wicker storage baskets act as the gateway to most homeowners’ wicker addictions. Durable and virtually style-agnostic, wicker baskets can be stowed just about anywhere. As a bonus, they’re extremely cost-effective, making it easy to pick up one—or five—on a whim. Consider using large wicker baskets to act not just as storage, but as planters, floor vases, or even hampers. (The latter is the perfect use for a wicker basket with lid.) Designers are also fond of placing large wicker baskets under a console. For an unexpected look, try stowing wicker baskets under an acrylic waterfall console. Elsewhere in the home, use small wicker baskets to bring order and style to open shelving, pantries, and playrooms.

Wicker Ottomans

Ottomans are always a great opportunity to integrate contrasting colors, textures, and patterns into a space. Wicker delivers on all of these fronts, making a wicker ottoman a dynamic option for any project. Use wicker ottomans to enliven areas in need of a touch of character, such as a breakfast nook. Wicker can make even the most minimalist of furnishings look miles more whimsical. Don’t just limit yourself to using wicker ottomans as seating, either. A duo or trio of wicker ottomans can sub for a traditional coffee table. This is an especially apt move if you have on-the-move kiddos who don’t currently mix with the sharp corners found on most traditional coffee tables.  

Wicker Garden Furniture

You can’t talk about wicker without talking about its garden origins. Employing wicker furniture outdoors is a classic-as-can-be move that will always earn rave reviews. Don’t be shy about using a surplus of wicker outdoors. A back patio or balcony festooned with wicker furniture evokes a feeling of summer-ready elegance. When opting for outdoor wicker chairs, consider taking liberties with the fabrics you select for seat cushions. Wicker’s classic look allows you to have a bit of fun with prints and colors. Seersucker stripes are a safe bet, but global prints or florals can up the roguish charm.

Wicker Specialties

Wicker Peacock Chairs

The undisputable grand dame of wicker furniture is the peacock chair. An unlikely throne that has seated everyone from Bridget Bardot to Morticia Adams, the Peacock chair dates back to Victorian times. While it’s common to see these wicker chairs staged in low-key boho surrounds, we love to see them placed in luxurious Haute Bohemian-style interiors. Their intricate scrollwork makes them the perfect accomplice to Chinoiserie, as well as global prints like Suzani. You might also think about using them in coastal designs. Thanks to their circular backs, wicker peacock chairs hit it off famously with decor featuring pretty scallop details. 

Trompe l’oeil Wicker

Wicker’s tight weave and flexibility make it ideal for assuming sculptural shapes like trompe l’oeil. Wicker “ghost” tables and consoles are among the most common designs you’ll come across, but wicker animals in the style of Mario Lopez Torres are becoming more popular as well. Give wicker trompe l’oeil “ghost” tables a place of prominence and play up their palpable playfulness with madcap prints and colors. Another alternative is to pander to its postmodernist qualities and pair it with Lucite, brass, and laminate pieces in a pastel palette. 

The Many Shades of Wicker

White Wicker

White wicker’s shabby chic connotations earned it a place on many designers’ no-fly lists for years. Thankfully, white wicker furniture has gotten a new lease on life thanks to designers who are casting it in a way that feels more greenhouse glamour than Parisian parody. We personally love how designer Lilian Hart pairs an entire suite of white wicker with a natural-colored jute rug in the room above. The unfussy foundation dials down the sweetness factor and lends the room a literal visual buzz. 

Black Wicker

Open weave wicker naturally recalls the elegance of sculpted wrought iron—even more so when it’s painted black! The atrium-style breakfast room above makes a compelling case for black wicker. Black wicker chairs partnered with a wrought iron table, plant stand, and chandelier radiate off-the-cuff splendor. The black diamond checkerboard painted on the floor mirrors the wicker’s diamond pattern, adding another layer of sophistication and whimsicality to the space. 

Dark Brown Wicker

There’s no crisper contrast than brown and white. Tee up a breezy island aura by partnering dark brown rattan (a less manipulated form of wicker) with bright white upholstery. Digs Design Company did exactly that to cue up the airy lake-cabin-meets-tropical-cabana above. This room also serves as a reminder that wicker is the perfect complement to waterside-inspired interiors, and it can skew tropical just as easily as cabin-by-the-lake-ish.

Lead design by Liliane Hart Interiors / Photo by Carter Berg