Primitive Vs Primal Home Decor

Primitive home decor is a term which can mean a lot of things. Technically it refers to a subset of rustic home decorating, in which accessories are clearly hand made, and have noticeable flaws and defects do to the nature of the hand made process. It is sort of an art of the imperfect.

However primitive decor can also have a completely different connotation, when referring to a primal artistic spirit. In this way primitive could almost be replaced with tribal, in that the reference is to a more basic, simple, and natural way of life, that is more in line with the evolutionary truths which helped to create us.

An example of rustic home decor in the most commonly understood sense would be hand made branch wood furnishings. These are pieces such as rocking chairs and end tables, that are made out of actual tree branch pieces. The result is a little chaotic, and unfinished looking (although a good crafter will also have built a very solid design).

By contrast primitive decor in a common sense would involve rough natural stone pieces, tribal art, hunting prints or skins, and other really primal pieces, which speaks to an almost animalistic hunter gatherer nature, that is within us all.

The contrast between the two may seem subtle, but it is an important distinction between pieces made in an old cottage rustic style, and pieces which are supposed to evoke a primal reaction in you. As such, primitive decor should probably be replaced with the label of primal decor, with the choice of using the term "tribal decor" when it is appropriate.

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