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Designing your ideal home is much more than a creative exercise; it is an opportunity to represent yourself in your living space, and a very real route to translating your essence into tangible reality. This act is a fundamentally impactful one for your way of living, too, whether reflecting a minimalist philosophy or facilitating your true engagement with it. But what is a minimalist home, how does it track with de-cluttering and how can you achieve it?

What Makes a Minimalist Home?

Minimalism by no means a new concept. Indeed, it has been a mainstay of art and philosophy for at least six decades, having truly taken root in the mid-20^th century. Minimalist homes embody the key tenets of the philosophy, combining stark forms and aesthetics with a celebration of space.

Everything is used sparingly, from colour to furnishings, to carefully curate an environment that is itself, in and of itself. Indeed, one of the key draws to minimalist design is that it seeks not to evoke or reference, but instead just be – and be completely itself to boot. But how can it be achieved at home?

Decluttering

Minimalism and the de-cluttering movement naturally go hand in hand. There is no room for superfluity in minimalist décor, and the presence of clutter can have a negative impact on such carefully curated spaces. This extends beyond the natural impulse to adorn surfaces with trinkets, though. In de-cluttering with minimalism in mind, you should be interrogating every aspect of each room; do you really need that cupboard, or shelf, or cabinet?

The Kitchen

Speaking of cabinets, the kitchen presents an interesting problem with regard to minimalist aesthetic. Kitchens are attractors of clutter, being a social space as well as a functional one – but many items of clutter that can come to adorn surfaces have undeniable function, as does practically every item of furniture.

Minimalist kitchens are major works, that can require significant funding to achieve. Those that hope to give their kitchen such an uplift can use equity release to self-fund renovations, enabling themselves to learn something from an adjacent form in the process: brutalism. Sharp, perfunctory aesthetics are achieved with an embracing of raw and functional materials.

Colour Palettes

This brings us neatly to the subject of colour. Minimalism is often associated with monochromism, wherein the absence of colour evokes a sense of the minimal. But this is not always the case. Minimalism does not seek not to be perceived, but to make perception matter! With this in mind, stabs of colour can be potent in a space. Just think carefully about the positioning and purpose of each shade in your palette. A statement coffee table can draw attention to the centre of the room, with the psychological impact of expanding its walls and suggesting expansiveness.

Lighting

Lighting, then, plays an especially vital part in completing the minimalist image. The things you want to draw attention to should be lit well; ambient and task lighting can achieve this well, and in form can represent your design philosophy too (think anglepoise lamps). Light temperature can also play an important part, allowing you to control the comfort of a space without compromising your clutter-free ideals.