Black living room interior with leather sofa, minimalist industrial style

The Minimalist Approach: Less is More in Home Decor

Black living room interior with leather sofa, minimalist industrial style

It’s much better to have a few quality items than a bunch of clutter. This is what the minimalist approach in home decor is all about. Forget about cramping your space with a ton of little items – instead, adding a handful of stylish pieces can say a lot more than lots of little knick-knacks.

Paring down on things in your home can make the space feel more open and breathable. While you don’t exactly have to eliminate everything down to the bare bones, consider the following tips to creating a space that’s comfortable, sophisticated, and easy to take care of.

De-Clutter

Getting rid of overcrowded items sounds like a no-brainer, right? But it’s usually the first step in achieving the trendy minimalist approach in interior design. Certain spaces in the home tend to be easy targets for clutter, such as the dining room, kitchen and living room.

Unopened mail spread all over the dining table, and magazines on the coffee table can make a space look smaller. Clearing the clutter and replacing it with one attention-grabbing piece, such as a seasonal arrangement or tall glass vase, can do wonders for creating a simple yet chic look.

White is More Expressive Than You Think

While white walls might be immediately associated with hospitals and doctor’s offices, this neutral shade is making a comeback in the world of home interior design. Accent walls and punches of bright hues may have been the trend a few years ago, but these days, simple white has found its place in decor.

A white backdrop has the power to highlight certain aspects of your home – such as antique pieces or hand-scraped hardwood flooring. It acts as the perfect canvas upon which you can display all of your finishes, furnishings, and other decor that you want to focus on in your home.

Group Like-Objects Together

Rather than splitting up similar objects, group them together instead. For instance, assemble a few mirrors together on a vacant space on your wall, or cluster glass vases together on your window sill.

Arranging objects in this manner can do wonders for pulling a room together. Just make sure that you don’t overcrowd the area – the key is finding that sweet spot between too little and too many.

Tone Down the Lighting

Task lighting is important in certain space to help focus on what you’re doing, such as in the kitchen when preparing meals. But such lighting has a tendency to create harsh shadows.

To counter this effect, mixing up your lighting can help add a softer ambience to the space that’s conducive to minimalist decor. Ambient lighting that’s non-directional, such as pot lights with dimmers or lamps with soft halogen bulbs, can help to bring warmth to a space.

Be Careful With Your Accessories

It’s easy to overcrowd a room with an over-abundance of accessories. But when it comes to a minimalist decorative approach, less is more. When accessorizing a space, it’s better just to have a handful of striking pieces than a lot of small objects, which will do nothing more than clutter the space. How you use accessories in your home can mean the difference between cozy and cramped.

The Bottom Line

As the saying goes, quality is more important than quantity. This rings especially true when it comes to achieving a minimalist style in your home. It’s practical, simple, and even more affordable. Keep the above suggestions in mind while paring down each room in your home to get back to basics.