6 Tips to Maximize Your Minimalist Interior Design

Calm, cool, and collected not only describes minimalist interior design, but also how the aesthetic makes you feel. So it’s no wonder that minimalist interior design is making a resurgence, especially among busy working professionals who find themselves in need of a dose of tranquility at the end of a hectic day. 

Do you like the idea of transforming your home into a soothing sanctuary? Read on to learn how to incorporate this aesthetic into your home. 

6 Brilliant Minimalist Interior Design Ideas

#1 - Less Is More So Make Your Choices Count

The serenity associated with minimalist interior design comes at a cost: Your stuff.  Every item you display in a room should be essential, provide value, and have a specific function. 

There’s no room for wishy-washy emotion. Your first question when evaluating your possessions, should be, “Can I live without it?”

If the item is not essential, throw it away—or better yet—donate it. 

Of course, this can be easier said than done. We all have emotional attachments to our things.  But no matter how much we love our enormous collection of decorative rainbows, sprinkling them over every available surface doesn’t exactly mesh with a minimalistic aesthetic. But if you love them, maybe reserve a room in which the colors and the knickknacks roam free. It’s your house after all. 

And, with fewer things in your house, each item needs to pull its weight, visually and emotionally. So invest your time and money in choosing the quality items that will carry the room and are built to last.  Not that you need to break the bank to channel the minimalist aesthetic; antique stores often have quality pieces designed for superior form and function.

#2 - Keep Calm Colors and Carry On

In minimalist interior design, color should also be kept to a minimum. Start with a subdued base color such as white or beige that looks clean and bright. 

When including color, it should not distract from the simplicity of the room. As such, color should be used sparingly, consistently, and with a special purpose. Limiting your palette to one secondary hue also helps. 

Traditionally, minimalist design has been in shades of black and white. A newer trend is to pair the base color with a natural color palette such as natural browns, blues, and greens.

When you take away color, you can focus on the shape and texture of furniture and accessories. Pay close attention to the feel of objects—the softness a velvet couch, the warmth of a chunky-knit blanket, or the natural grain of a sisal rug.

#3 - Let There Be Light

Contemporary minimalist spaces are light and bright, so make sure your home is well-lit.  A good start is to remove your curtains and let in the sunshine. But, there’s much more you can do. 

With less furniture, your lights are bound to get more attention. Don’t be afraid to make a statement with your lighting fixtures and choose powerful and interesting shapes—just make sure to keep the color simple and let the form of the fixtures spark conversations. 

Interesting light fixtures spark conversations. 

#4 - Play With Symmetry

With a minimalist design, you need to use all of the decor tricks of the trade. That includes playing with visual enhancements. Symmetry is a great way to add visual interest—and improved well being—without adding additional decor. 

This doesn’t mean that you need two of everything—you just need to strike the right balance. So, if you put a chair on one side of the room, try to balance the room with an object that has the same visual weight. 

If your room feels lopsided, even after trying several configurations, pull out a ladder.  A top-down view may help you better visualize ways to improve the room’s symmetry. 

Symmetry helps to ensure that your space is calming. Features a boucle sisal rug in bone. 

#5 - Be Clean, Be Clutter-free

“A place for everything, and everything in its place.” This proverbial notion can be dated back to the seventeenth century—or approximately the same time we used that punch bowl on our kitchen counter to actually serve punch. While the punch bowl may be an excellent repository for junk mail, it’s visually undercutting our attempts minimalist interior design. 

Most houses have so much countertop chaos. Workspaces such as kitchen counters and desks are littered with objects to help you accomplish the task at hand—and then some. It can be hard to keep surfaces free of gadgets, trinkets, and junk mail but it’s possible with the right approach and discipline.

To make this happen, you need a special place for everything. Harder still, you need the discipline to return objects to their designated space after use. If your blender stays on the counter, it won’t be long until the rice maker, and the air fryer decides to join it. 

If you want to maintain your minimalist aesthetic, you’ll also need to keep the accumulation of daily life at bay. To do this, adopt the “one in, one out” philosophy.  So for every one thing that comes in, one thing goes out. Preferably, the outgoing object would be the same size or larger that the new item you are bringing into your home. 

#6 - Get the Natural Touch

Minimalist design, with its focus on neutral colors and minimal furnishings, can border on cold and sterile. But it’s easy to add warmth by leveraging the natural elements. Use plants as decor, embracing unique shapes, textures, and color variations. 

A minimalist, natural fiber area rug is another excellent source for a texture that can liven up the room without adding distracting colors and patterns. 

Incorporating natural light, fiber rugs, and plants provide warmth. Features an indoor/outdoor rug in mallorca pearl dune.

Go Big On Minimalism 

Adopting a minimalist design aesthetic can take a bit of work, but the resulting calm can make it all worthwhile. We offer a variety of natural fiber minimalist rugs that can add warmth and sophistication to your interior. If you’re looking for inspiration, fill out your style profile, and our in-house designer can help you find the rug to compliment your design aesthetic.