Many home owners find the appeal of minimalist design too sterile for a full-time living space, but also feel maximalist options tend to include such a wide assortment of pieces that impact is lost in the clutter. While both styles also have their points of appeal, it’s clear that many people do not want the empty, open spaces minimalist approaches build any more than the sense of a completely filled room that critics of maximalist design often call attention to as a source of claustrophobia. That leads to the new trend, often called minimalist-maximalist design. While it seems like a contradiction at first, approaching design with a best of both worlds approach leads to highly dramatic interior looks that leave an impression without feeling overly cluttered or making movement through the space difficult.
Impressive Shapes for Impact
Maximalist design plays with a multiplicity of shapes, textures, and other design features to create visual drama in the space, and minimalist-maximalist approaches emphasize these values through the choice of stylistically unique furniture pieces that draw the eye and provide contrast against the rooms floor and wall decor choices. The key to making this approach work is thinking in layers, and the best interior design companies know that means filling the space without cluttering it. How does that work? There are a few ways to incorporate layers, actually:
- Boldly stylized furniture pieces that present thematic unity while contrasting the rest of the room
- Use curves that help the eye travel through the room to move viewers from piece to piece
- Choose materials and colors carefully to create a lasting impression and a sense of design unity across different furniture and accessory choices
The key to avoiding a too-cluttered maximalist approach is by remembering that the bolder your selections, the fewer of them you need to make a space feel full.
Every Accessory Has a Purpose
The minimalist side of these design choices comes from the restrained use of accessories and other small pieces to fill the space and provide more contrast. A few well-selected pieces of art that work with the furniture to create a continuity of texture can work wonders here, but it’s also important to remember contrast when thinking in layers. That means selecting a few unifying pieces that speak to the furniture selections as well as a few contrasting pieces that stand out from the furniture, creating another layer. Often, these smaller contrast pieces echo the color and texture choices present in the flooring choices or on the walls, to create an overall sense of unity even as they contrast against the color and shape that defines the theme of the room’s furniture. Santa Barbara interior design companies with experience producing this effect can help you with more specific recommendations for your own space.
Call in the Pros
Playing with new trends in design is a great way to refresh the appeal of your home or office, but these emerging styles are often difficult to balance while they are still new and not widely adopted. That’s why so many homeowners and business operators call in the professionals, hiring the best interior design Santa Monica they can find to handle style updates whenever they feel like adopting a new look.
