Sweet dream or decorating nightmare: Are dreamcatchers back in vogue?

As anyone who’s watched The Block knows, mastering the skills of styling a modern-day bedroom is pretty much the key to life success.

But what if The Block had been around a couple of decades ago, when Scotty, Shelley and Shaynna were merely a glint in a TV producer’s eye?

Could these renovation experts have ever, pray tell, predicted that dancing flowers, rockstar sunnies, would go out of vogue? That Fido Dido bedspreads would fail to make a comeback or that teenage bedrooms would no longer be plastered with posters of Jason Priestley?

Admittedly, it can be a sticky wicket trying to guess when trends are suddenly going to rocket back into fashion (90210 did get a second life). Who could have predicted the mysterious resurgence of Crocs, macrame, high-waisted jeans and white Reebok sneakers?

As for the boudoir, who knew that lava lamps would be replaced years later by a sea of Himalayan salt lamps promising to ward off electronic nasties. Or that our sleeping quarters would begin morphing into botanic gardens. Fiddle leaf fig, anyone?

But this article isn’t really about any of that. It’s about dreamcatchers. Yep, they’re back – in a big, boho way – appearing everywhere from Bali to Byron. A friend reports seeing dreamy dreamcatchers selling for 500 clams at a high-end boutique in LA.

So what on earth brought on this dream run? What’s the line between tacky, and terribly on-trend these days? And would it be embarrassing if I bought a dreamcatcher, or more embarrassing if I didn’t?

First I posed a few hard-hitting questions to Emma Blomfield, an interior stylist and co-founder of The Decorating School.

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Are they stylish, I ask? “If they’re done in the right way they can be,” says Blomfield. “For a kid’s room I think they’re really cute, a bit whimsical.”

But for adults, especially those who let their dreamcatchers stray into living quarters, “it’s still a fine line between tacky and stylish”, Blomfield warns.

“Keep it relatively neutral with a focus on texture. If you’re going to go for hot pink … maybe not.”

So why are dreamcatchers suddenly back in our bedrooms?

“I think that with boho there’s a lot of macrame products on the market, and that’s been a real trend in the last 18 months,” says Blomfield. “They’re probably a continuation of that. I’d say it’s stemmed from boho.”

Of course the first dreamcatchers definitely weren’t designed for commercial purposes. Instead, they were believed to have originated with the Ojibwe indigenous people in North America, before becoming popular with Native Americans of many cultures.

The common legend is that dreamcatchers ward off bad dreams, and catch the good ones in their web. Mostly, they were said to have been woven by grandmothers, who would hang them above babies’ cradles for protection.

Later, they became associated with hippies, before becoming more mainstream, sparking talk of cultural appropriation.

Emma Debroke, manager at online retailer the Dreamcatcher Collective, says the modern-day dreamcatchers differ from the traditional designs.

Some people buy them to comfort children, while some people just find their designs calming. Each year, the business sells thousands of dreamcatchers, including DIY kits, with their popularity constantly growing.

“It’s grown astronomically – we now have over 43,000 followers on Instagram, and that’s only in the last two years,” says Debroke.

“People are also buying them [the dreamcatcher craft kits] for their kids because they want them involved and away from technology.”

Kate Attfield’s business Sew Craft Cook runs birthday parties and school holiday workshops teaching children craft skills. Her dreamcatcher workshop is by far the most popular.

“They’re kind of textural and interesting,” says Attfield. “Some of the kids talk about catching their dreams but the majority of them just actually think they’re beautiful.”

She believes people are becoming interested in living in a more natural way, and perhaps creating something with elements that are unique to them. “I think people have had enough of commercial stuff.”