Do you feel overwhelmed with the amount of clutter and mess in your home? Do you see simple, clean spaces, and wish you could achieve that within your interior design look? If so, you may want to center your remodel and interior design style around minimalism. If you think you won’t be able to de-clutter, you may be underestimating yourself.
What is minimalism and how can you achieve it in your home? In this article we will explore the design movement’s history and values, as well as key tricks to achieve the look in your space.
Some background: A brief history of minimalism
Minimalism began as an artistic movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Artists such as Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Carl Andre, and Richard Serra took painting and sculpture in a new direction, playing with bold lines, colors, and shapes, often manipulating light and texture to emphasize beauty and form through simplicity.
Donald Judd’s minimalist cubes and shapes often featured natural materials like glass, wood, and metal, making art without much adornment. This artistic movement eventually entered the design world, with architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe incorporating the use of rudimentary materials and forms into the design of space and daily life.
Minimalism as a lifestyle
Today, minimalism has expanded beyond the art and design worlds and emerged as a lifestyle movement, featured in the Netflix movie Minimalism, directed by Matt D’Avella. Minimalism as a lifestyle movement is intended to help people free themselves from their possessions and reduce overwhelm, anxiety, and attachment to the consumer world. It helps people stay present, simplify their lives, focus on health and creativity, and much more—according to practitioners like Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus.
Features and qualities of a minimalist style
Combining the aesthetic and material history of minimalism, with today’s lifestyle movement, a minimalist interior design style seeks to achieve specific visual qualities while also providing a high quality of life for all inhabitants of a home.
So, what are some key features and values inherent to a minimalist style?
- Less is more: Minimalism—as the name indicates—is about keeping decoration and ornamentation to a minimum and focusing on shapes and forms in their most essential state.
- Clean lines: Spaces defined by geometric shapes, lines, and curves are characteristic of a minimalist style.
- Quality over quantity: Higher quality pieces that last in the long-term are more important than cheap items that follow trends and get replaced often.
- Focus on essentials: Eliminate excess and stick to core functional objects, tools, and pieces that help you achieve your daily needs.
- Embrace the natural: Focus on materials that are natural like wood, glass, and metal, and incorporate plans or natural details for decoration.
How to achieve a minimalist look in your home
- Reduce clutter by maximizing storage
Minimalism is all about clean surfaces and clutter-free environments that help you maintain a clear mind. While die-hard minimalists may successfully reduce the number items they own to have very few possessions, if you are not this committed, you can make your space achieve a minimalist look by making the most of storage. Built in cabinets and shelves with doors will hide your objects and allow you to keep a clean, streamlined surface look.
- Pick a limited color scheme grounded in neutrals
If you’re someone who loves bold floral wallpaper prints and mixing patterns with ornate textiles and curtains, minimalism probably isn’t the style for you. To achieve a minimalist look, focus on neutral creams, greys, whites, tans, and sages to set a calming tone in your space. Accessorize and decorate with a limited color palette to reduce visual noise and clutter.
Photo credit: Hutomo Abrianto
- Choose few, important pieces
Minimalism doesn’t mean you are prohibited from accessorizing and decorating, but it means picking a few meaningful items and letting go of the rest. Keep your shelves de-cluttered and draw attention to staple pieces that you love. Display items with the most sentimental value and meaning, and feel free to eliminate other possessions over time to free yourself from the overwhelm of having a cluttered home.
Photo credit: Hutomo Abrianto
- Set the tone with lighting
Lighting can make or break a space. If you’re not intentional with your decorating, a minimalist space can accidentally become cold and uninviting. Lighting can solve this issue by bringing in warmth and coziness. Accent lamps and natural lighting are key. Try not to rely too much on cold overhead lighting as it can wash out a space to make it feel flat. Lamps can draw attention to small details and contrast the tone with harsher materials like metal and concrete.
Photo credit: Reinaldo Kevin
- Play with textures over patterns
If you want to have fun with your design, play with a combination of textures instead of bold patterns. If you typically would choose to get graphic, bright accent pillows or curtains, instead play with the natural textures of your wood floor, and knit or linen blanket. Allow natural textures to mix in a way that creates dynamic visual excitement, without becoming overwhelming or busy.
Photo credit: Beazy
- Make it a practice
Staying true to your minimalist style requires you to take on a mindset; it has to be a lifestyle practice, more than just a collection of furniture objects. Focus on how the space can best serve your life and your health. Observe how you feel when you have clutter-free spaces and what lighting, plants, and warm cozy textures make you happy and comfortable. Keep this mindset and understand the importance of the space you have built so you don’t fall into the trap of filling your home with clutter once again.
Photo credit: tu tu
- Get rid of something when you get something new
To ensure you keep your space down to the essentials, make a rule that when you bring something new into your house, you have to get rid of something. This is a “one in one out” rule that can help you make intentional choices when you are buying new items, so you don’t stray away from your new minimalist lifestyle.
Work with our team at 5Blox
If you’re looking to achieve a minimalist aesthetic in your home, or any other interior design style, work with our team at 5blox. We can help you transform your space into your dream home. Book a free consultation today to get started.
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