More and more people are learning to experiment with their interior design styles, what with the fact that they are resigned to stay at home all day. While minimalism was a huge trend pre-pandemic (and still is to an extent) thanks to the popularity of Scandinavian and Japanese design styles, many are beginning to look the other direction and try out maximalism — the design of excess.
This is because being forced to enjoy all activities indoors has made many homeowners accumulate personal items at an exponential rate. The challenge has then become how to organize these home items to make them look purposeful and decorative, versus misplaced and littered.
An anti-minimalist approach — cluttercore is messy, eclectic, and a celebration of one's favorite objects at home. Here are a few tips to help you learn the art of organized chaos, decorating with "clutter."
Stick to a color palette.
Using the same few colors in a room allows ornaments grouped together to look less like clutter and more like an intentional design choice. If you're planning to put up a gallery wall or fill up open shelves with knick-knacks and mementos, it's best that these décor-central areas cast a singular image. Examples of ways to execute this include arranging your books by color and going full-on matchy-matchy by displaying similar items in similar designs (i.e. china).
While a monochromatic color palette helps simplify the space and decrease visual clutter, there's no reason why you can't use a color scheme with 3-5 complementary hues and still get the same effect. The trick is to make sure the same colors can be found throughout the home, and that they mesh rather than clash. You'll find that saturated shades work well with other vibrant colors (think pop art interior design) and that muted tones match neutrals, pastels, and dark tones the best.
Pro tip: Use an online color palette generator before making any design purchase. The last thing you want is to get a home accessory that's in a color that's 2 shades too light.
Make sure everything has its place.
The secret to an organized home is storage. Finding a space for everything in your home is crucial in eliminating the look and feel of chaos. In the case of ornament-heavy designs, it's imperative that you determine a spot where every piece lives unless you want to come home to a space that's disorganized. Put a catchall in your entryway, custom cabinetry that can fit books, vases and bottles, and other embellishments of varying sizes, and invest in functional storage solutions.
Storage cabinets with glass doors are great additions to homes as they allow whatever is stored inside to shine and become accents. Display cabinetry also helps make a space feel more bright and airy like open shelving, without the latter's tendency to accumulate dust and pose safety risks. A glass cupboard will work best in the kitchen, filled with all sorts of dinner — and cookware, but can also be used in a bedroom to showcase figurines and other important home accessories.
Use smaller pieces to create a single accent.
An abundance of small ornaments, when scattered across a space, makes for a disorganized home. This is because smaller pieces demand less attention visually, but can easily build up and block surfaces or walls, making a space feel much less open.
Now, you don't have to forgo little knick-knacks just because you're afraid to make your home look cluttered. A smart way to work around this risk is to center a number of decorations to build a larger accent. Smaller plants can be grouped in a single table to create an indoor pocket garden, and mismatched figurines of varying sizes can be side by side in a hallway shelf.
Framed artwork is popular among those who decorate with this tip in mind. An art wall makes for a beautiful and sophisticated design element (and it can even cover up imperfections or paint cracks in your wall!) Pro tip: Start from the center when laying out your gallery wall. As much as possible, test it out before hanging anything - the last thing you want is random holes on your plaster.
Create pockets of calm.
Following the idea that visual contrast is best achieved when you concentrate your "clutter" in specific areas, you should also create pockets of calm across your personal space. By keeping certain parts of your house simple and understated, you are able to see that the home in its entirety isn't necessarily messy, and that the organized clutter functions as a decorative accent.
If your dirty kitchen is filled to the brim day in and day out, and you have the outdoor space for it, consider setting up a lounge area in your deck with just plants and comfortable seating. In your bedroom, designate "busy" corners where you can do work and keep the rest of your bedroom relaxing by using neutrals and limiting the amount of stuff atop the bedside tables.
Another benefit to this design approach is that simple designs tend to evoke a sense of freedom to do and think about what matters most. Minimalist interior designers will argue that pops of minimalism — when strategically placed in a home — allows you to free up some headspace and make way for the visual stimulation and inspiration enjoyed in more maximalist décor and styles.
Just go for it.
The best part about the personal design process is that you're free to try out as many design styles and layouts as you desire. Using ornaments and small items to style your home is a low-commitment, possibly-economical way of testing out which aesthetic works best for you and your personal space. At the end of the day, you're the one that gets to spend the most time in your home — so fill it up with things you love, things that inspire you, and things that make living at home a much more pleasant experience.