Simplifying Your Home for the New Year
As we pack away the holiday décor, and stash the wreaths, ornaments, and menorahs to welcome the new year, we are all presented with an opportunity to re-evaluate and simplify our homes and lifestyles.
Whether your resolution is to embrace minimalism, or simply to optimize your space, the beginning of the new year offers a chance to remove anything, in both your home and life, that doesn’t serve you, and embrace what does. Below, we’ve created a guide for the best ways to approach simplifying your space.
Get organized
Discovering your organizational style is key for maintaining motivation. At the beginning of the new year, it can be easy to set ambitious goals for yourself and steadily lose motivation as the task progresses.
Simplifying, decluttering, and reorganizing your home can feel daunting, which is why it’s best to reflect on your productivity. Do you prefer a complete overhaul, all at once? Or a slower progression of changing your space. Do you work best with a specific, detailed plan for each room Or do you find it easier to base your decisions off of in-the-moment intuition. Consider your lifestyle, habits, and personality before you begin to simplify.
Embrace the emptiness
Don’t be afraid of “Negative Space”. The empty spaces between furniture and on walls, is a necessary aspect of interior design. It allows the eyes to rest, and can highlight focal points of the room.
Learning how to use negative space is integral for simplifying your home, as it can decrease visual stimulation, and encourage a calm, peaceful mood in a room. Once you embrace the empty spaces in your home, you can use them to highlight pieces that encapsulate your style, and design with more intention and thoughtfulness.
Be intentional about your design
Simplifying doesn’t mean sacrificing your style, it’s about clarifying and defining your personal taste. While it’s important to embrace negative space in order to inspire tranquility and highlight visually important pieces, finding furniture that epitomizes your style can also help simplify your spaces.
Instead of overwhelming a room with décor, try being more intentional about your design. A great way to simplify your space and enhance your look is to create a visual focal point for each room that epitomizes your personal style. This can range from a floor lamp, to a statement sofa, or even artwork. Once you find the pieces that define each room, try to remove other visual noise and focus on honing into your authentic style.
Re-imagine your storage
Invest in functional furniture. Maximizing your storage space can decrease clutter and elevate your décor. By updating your furniture and finding multi-functional storage pieces that blend with your style, you can combine form and function to optimize simplicity.
For those with minimal floor space, a great way to maximize your storage space and open up any room is by using vertical storage or wall space. Ladders are a great multifunctional vertical storage piece, and floating shelves are ideal for those with even less floor space. For those looking for more discrete storage, storage beds, and benches are easy and stylish solutions.
Keep colors consistent and neutral
Create a harmonious and cohesive look in your home by maintaining consistent colors in each room. Neutral Colors are ideal for simplifying spaces, as they can highlight other design elements and blend well with colorful accents that you may use throughout the year.
Maintaining a consistent and neutral color palette throughout your home will also simplify styling, and decrease visual stimulation to create a calm, peaceful mood within your home. Opt for off-white and beige colors for a more subdued and natural look, or gray and crisp white for a more contemporary, fresh feel.
Minimize maintenance
Simplicity is about more than décor; upkeep is just as important. One of the many benefits of simplifying your home is being able to streamline your lifestyle. In the process of decluttering and updating furniture and décor, try to find pieces that minimize maintenance, and compliment your lifestyle.
Consider the materials in your furniture and décor. If you’re replacing a sofa and you have pets or children, try a performance fabric to reduce stains. If you’re hoping to add a rug to a heavily trafficked space in your home, consider wool or jute for a more durable option. Research before replacing or updating furniture, and simplify your décor and your life by reducing time spent cleaning, washing, and wiping.
The process of simplifying your home can mean anything from complete renovation to light reorganization. Yet, regardless of the size and scale of the project, reducing visual noise and prioritizing personal style will always result in a more elevated space. For more customized guidance on simplifying your home and lifestyle, come in for a free design consultation today.
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