Minimalist Interior Design: Creating Highly Modern Yet Exquisitely Traditional Spaces

Minimalist interior design shows  the beauty of simplicity. Born in the 1960s in contradiction to the Pop art action , minimalist interior design has become a real institution.

The interior is a place of resource, friendliness, reunion. The sanctuary that cuts off life at work, the flow of the street, which allows you to rest.

Minimalist interior design allows you to purify your cocoon of life in order to bring more peace and to focus on what really matters. The principle is to create a functional decoration, with space and light, keeping only the essentials.

Discover the codes of minimalism, the essentials for a refined interior and a simplified home life.

Purify to breathe, move and soothe

Space, the priority of minimalism

The space allows you to take a deep breath, to move easily and to soothe restless spirits during the day. The first essential step will therefore be: sorting. This is about the basic principle of minimalist interior design: only keep what is essential, useful and what we really love.

So prepare the ground by making clear space, keep what you use daily, a few decorative objects that you carry in your heart, and the furniture of which you will never get tired.

By reducing your possessions you will lighten the general atmosphere of the house in minimalist interior design, but also your spirit.

Light is also an important element. Favor natural light by getting rid of too heavy curtains or small furniture blocking the sun in front of the windows. Choose curtains that will make a room brighter. If you are not exposed to the sun, think of mirrors at the back of the room and lacquered furniture.

A visually cleansed and airy house

For a minimalist interior design the bazaar is to be banned. So multiply the storage solutions.

Favor low and closed furniture, where you can store your laundry, your decorative items that you do not want to display. High cupboards are also good allies, because built into the wall they do not overwhelm the room and save storage space.

Find a place for each object, your daily life will be simplified.

Then, the choice of furniture is a step not to be overlooked,reducing the number of furniture does not mean giving up comfort, on the contrary! Take the time to find quality pieces that fit perfectly into your interior and that showcase what you own.

Opt for clean lines, rather simple and low designs to create a harmonious and airy atmospherefor the best minimalist interior design. Indeed, a timeless and natural style will allow you to give grandeur to your interior.

5 decorating tips for a minimalist interior design

Whether in fashion or decoration, the minimalist interior design is on the rise. Awareness of minimalist interior design has been growing for several years, but how to adopt it at home. Our experts offer you their best advice

Minimalism, in a nutshell

White, gray and black. But not only. The minimalist style is not only made up of these three tones. You can also opt for light furniture and decoration in neutral colors such as caramel, beige or greige.

Subtle shades reminiscent of the elegance and simplicity of the most used interior design style.

If you want to make your apartment a true temple in minimalist interior design, know that it is also a philosophy of life: separate yourself from trivial objects and small trinkets and focus on decoration and functional furniture, designs in soft colors.

Noble materials

If you want to adopt a minimalist lifestyle as well as minimalist interior design, bet on exceptional quality and craftsmanship. Oak, linen, cashmere or even marble, use noble materials that will give, in the blink of an eye, a minimalist and refined touch to your interior.

Clean shapes

Inseparable from the minimalist interior design, clean lines and shapes. Whether for furniture or for small decoration, opt for clean and timeless shapes and lines that will withstand time and seasons.

Decorative elements

Decoration yes, but sparingly. Select a few unique and designer pieces that you can keep through the seasons. Pick out a few pieces from well-known designers or up-and-coming small labels and ask yourself the right questions before buying. Think timeless.

 Sober pallette

In terms of colors accepted in minimalist interior design, stay on neutral and sober colors such as gray, white, beige or even greige, a color that has been increasingly popular in recent seasons.

If you want to add a touch of color, do it sparingly and choose elements of graphic decorations or cushions in pastel tones.

Softness

An ideal  minimalist interior designconsists of what is necessary for your comfort, and that is the key. The minimalist style is not synonymous with coldness, on the contrary, it is an invitation to softness and serenity.

Then bet on soft and pleasant materials. For example, linen curtains or a cotton sofa bring a lot of softness.

Adopting the minimalist interior design is a must

Minimalism is a trend had it’s beginning in the early 60s to in order to be compensating the societie’s needs. He keeps the slight return to the essential, purity, functionality. Famous for its “less is more”, the architect Mies van der Rohe is a fervent defender, having it its letters of nobility.

This absolutely modern minimalist interior trend remains over time, and nowadays when society tends to a much thoughtful and calculated way of consumption, minimalism is having a whole new sense.

For its detractors, this “less is much” is synonymous with coldness, the interior being devoid of objects and therefore soul.

Beware of this simplistic interpretation, this style does not deprive itself of comfort, color – precisely dosed – and contributes to the well-being in the house. So why and how to adopt the minimalist style at home? Two interior design agencies are responding to us.

Working on  your minimalist interior design  means attaching importance to storage, favoring raw materials, enhancing natural light, choosing neutral tones and furniture with refined shapes.

Combining elegance and functionality, this style shapes places that allow introspection, reflection, spaces – devoid of superfluity – giving free rein to thought.

Sabrina Julien, interior designer of Studio Beau Faire, Jamie Drake and Caleb Anderson, interior decorators of Drake and Anderson agency, explain to us why it can be interesting to invite this style into our interior, and how to achieve modern minimalist interior. To your notes!

The minimalist interior design and lifestyle

For interior designer Sabrina Julien, you have to think about the minimalist interior design  like a life philosophy. By having avoid of the excessive, we get back to basics, which surely have a vital circumstance to each of us.

This path has its particular use in the interior where as we are in a search for a comfortable area and it’s particluar fluence as much pleasant as primary.

The idea is not about having just a coffee table and simply a chair, but rather to have for yourself time and space; not to obligate yourself to overhave items.

The decorators of the Vincente Wolf  agency, the expert designers consider minimalism as an approach where decoration is an appropriation of oneself:

Minimalist interior design, avoiding an excessive decor which gives the opportunity to appropriate its design

Each decor thus works with our intimate history. In this, minimalism gives calmness and harmony, and accordingly has it’s contribution to the well-being at home. Nothing bores the eye, reading theminimalist interior design is fluid, why add more?

Contrary to the idea one can have, that is not not a novelty of an lack of reflection but of a reflection in the owner himself: one can have the question about clarifying what is really vital for oneself, of functionality of such and such an object, of the importance of such a color, etc. Hence, we can tend to reduce more than to sum some items . This way is all the more vital as it gives the truest effect of caring about the indoor pollution.

Work on the layout and furnishing of minimalist interior design

The interior designer of the Drake and Anderson studio explains that “if you want to be minimal, you have to avoid the multiplication of too many items. Choose a common garment allows you to initiate continuity and harmony”, so you avoid being scattered.

For the Vicente Wolf  agency, “using noble but simple materials such as wood, stone, natural fiber fabrics, brings dissonance and counterbalances the simplicity and radicality [of the minimalist style]”. The apparent stripping, the refusal of ornament, neutrality does not mean that “we only like grays, white and cream.

That does not mean that we refuse color. In minimalist room design you will obviously not have a profusion of colors, but it is possible to authorize it by touch “.

Define the minimalist identity in the interior

Minimalist room design: bet on functionality

It is normal to hear that minimalism applies to large spaces. Alexa Hampton, on the contrary, highlights the idea that it finds all its depth even in the smallest spaces where the biggest must is to create a dedicated space for keeping the stuff.

The notion is thereupon to “have a vaste storage place to remove the frills” with no feeling of coziness in your minimalist style living room.

Minimalist interior design is about optimizing every centimetre, each angle, to make a cupboard or storage niches makes the space as functional as possible and leaves free circulation. Full height furniture should also be favored because they are not “read like cupboards”, but as decorative elements in their own right.

Tidying up is essential. For example, in a kitchen, “you don’t necessarily need to have the juicer, the toaster, etc. on your worktop all the time … So it is essential to have storage, and ask yourself the question ‘what do I really need?’ “. This principle applies of course to other areas for instance in the bathroom whereas we opt for the tendency of accumulation products.

Nonetheless, before tidying up, we must try to minimalize their quantity and find them a place of choice in functional spaces.

So to get rid of the accumulation of items in the bathroom or on the rim of the bathtub, it may be advantageous to create one or more niches which intend things to be well-organized.

The lighting fixtures

A “real” space in minimalist interior design  is a space open to the outside, where natural light circulates freely. To sublimate and play with this light, the choice of the color of the walls is important. The decorators of the Bel Ordinaire agency recommend the use of “muted, faded, almost indefinable colors.

In minimalistic interior, considered cold, they are however counterbalanced by the choice of materials and the overall design”.

Alexa Hampton thus prefers white, “with occasional touches of gray, but not dark, and which highlight the other brighter elements”.

The colored touches can come from the materials used – brass or copper for example – rather than being in a real color.

Thus, instead of playing on patterns, as is often the case in decoration, “bet more on different materials, especially those that have reflections such as metal or glass”. It is therefore the texture that takes precedence over the color.

The furniture in minimalistic interior

Contrary to popular belief when we talk about minimalist interior design, you have to furnish your interior! The designer  specifies that we are not looking for asceticism, but we favor quality rather than quantity. Comfort is therefore essential.

We therefore choose less furniture but of better quality: for example, a beautiful armchair that highlights the rest in the sitting room. The interior designer also advises to avoid the curves and to prefer the rectilinear.

However, if a curvaceous fixture appeals to you, there is nothing wrong with installing it in your decor.

The detail

For the decorators of the Drake and Anderson agency, minimalism is also “the care chose to all the decortaions that are useful on a daily basis”. The essentials of any interior – electrical outlets, door handles, etc. – must be worked on in detail.

Matter is also very important here. Rather than white plastic, choose porcelain or even bakelite.

Another example, “the rug is not the rug you used for it is placed cause it is a place that we are going to tread barefoot”.

Less complex than it seems, the minimalist style nevertheless requires reflection but should in no case seem inaccessible. A philosophy of life or a simple way of arranging your interior space, it’s up to you to make it your own by playing with the codes set out above. Sort out, keep only the essentials and compose a universe that looks like you while letting the space breathe. You will only feel better where the bulky – the superfluous – is no longer .

Minimalist kitchen: clean and practical

Like all rooms in the house, the kitchen is not immune to disorder. It is also often cluttered with household appliances that we only use very rarely. We are no longer aware of the amount of crockery we have: glasses and plates for each use, pots and pans of all sizes, cutlery and utensils accumulated over time and our unlikely needs.

Declutter this step can take some time, but it is essential: minimize the furnishing in the space as much as possible.

Reduce the quantity of objects you have is the first step in a creating minimalist interior. A great sorting is vital in every room

Clear all surfaces and store away. Keep all the items out of sight. Nothing should protrude from cupboards and drawers. You can also avoid vide shelves and glass doors. Forget about the variety of not modern paintings as well as about the collection of little figurines from Provence.

Opt for solid In in case of color picks , white widens the space and makes the look a clean and zen aspect. Gray or beige give a little more cozyness. As for the black, that’s used by simple touch and adds an aesthetic look to a whole space.

Making minimalist furnishing In a minimalist interior, the furniture is few in number, functional, simple, uncluttered and with straight lines. Please note, there is no need to buy new furniture if you already like yours.

If this sorting is an opportunity to completely review the layout of our rooms, we can rely on special interior decoration 3D planning software.

This allows you to relocate your furniture as you want, to test new arrangements. HomeByMe offers this solution as an online software, with free or paid services as needed.

Use noble and natural materials These materials, such as wood, stone, glass, metal, ceramic, provide their dose of heat by breaking the monotony of the white or gray walls.

Limit decorative objects and decor items are super effective and they complete the the house. Beautiful furnishing and fancy functional items can be sufficient on their own.