Guide to Minimalism: All you want to know

Vartika Gupta Vartika Gupta
CASA HARAS, ESTUDIO GEYA ESTUDIO GEYA Salas modernas
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The notion of simplicity and clarity often leads to good design. While dictionaries define the minimalist as things reduced to their most essential level and stripped of surplus, it also seeks to enhance and discover the true spirit of the things in question. 

Minimalism was recognized as a movement after the decade of the 60's. Lead by one of the best architects of our times, Mies Van der Rohe. How was responsible for popularizing the phrase less is more. Nurturing from different cultures, minimalism takes ideas from the Stijl and traditional Japanese design among others to put together a story with synthesis of elements. 

In this Guide to Minimalism, we will talk about its beginnings, its advantages and benefits. Let´s get ready!

Fundamentals of Interior Design

Minimalism is a current style, which shows its beauty through practicality and the apparent stripping of superfluous elements. We can find numerous benefits within this style, among which the most important benefits are:

- Life less stressful: As you have less things to care and bother about, it will reduce the stress and chaos in your life.

- More attractive life: You will see more order, with key elements well displayed, are those that are most interesting and most important for us. Not to mention that maintenance is reduced a lot owing to minimalism. 

Here are a few ideas to decorate your house in a minimalist style.

Minimalism to retain your identity

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Depending on how comfortable you are with the style (or extremism), there are certain guidelines that will dictate your level of minimalism in the home. Always remember that your house, should make you feel comfortable and talk about you. And if storytelling is about, minimalism must be able to do so from a sober and accurate position. See this house that is modern and minimalist at the same time.

Minimal decoration trend

The minimalist rooms must be reduced to their maximum expression, justifying the presence of furniture and objects according to the function to be performed. For that reason, a minimal living room, should have only a sofa, armchairs and a coffee table. To complete the scenario, if required, specific furniture will be present for television, audio or reading, with its corresponding lighting. In this case, it is not about accumulating objects or furniture, but reducing the elements to the most necessary. So showcases, shelves and other, are not appropriate for the minimum space.

Surfaces and textures in minimal style

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The surfaces in the architectural box are usually smooth, without large or detailed textures and full colors.

As we said before, a home devoid of objects or things that represent us would be boring.

For the minimalist, something decorative can be vases of simple lines, made in ceramic or colored glass, not too flashy or shiny!

How to make your home more minimal

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The walls can be dressed with art, as long as the pieces do not dominate the space. Or a desk could also benefit from a portrait that enhances the beauty of the furniture while cheering us with a long-forgotten memory. Understanding the concept of quality over quantity is perhaps, the most important principle of this style.

See yet another spectacular modern and minimalist home.

Decoration Tips

Choose furniture with which, you can and should continue to enjoy the comfort without them dominating the spaces through obstructive distribution. For a minimalist, a well-designed piece of furniture that fulfills its function and is of good quality, is more valuable than five accessory pieces of less usage. Here is a minimalist living room furniture for reference.

Guidelines to minimalism

There are no guidelines or steps to follow to successfully achieve this style, if we fail to change our philosophy against the following elements: achieve peace in the environments, understanding and applying the true simplicity of resources. In this case, the elements of greater volume are furniture, so accepting those that are really functional and useful for us will help us to get rid of the superfluous.

Intimately linked to the previous point, the next exercise consists in asking ourselves what things are truly essential to us. In the answer, we will find those things dispensable.

Our floors and support surfaces should always be clean of objects, while the walls may contain some works of art.

The color palette should be pleasing to the eyes and awaken pleasant sensations. Contrary to what is believed, minimalist environments should not be cold and white boxes. 

The bases and their proportions

As we said before, minimalism, takes a lot of oriental architecture, simple in the best of the senses. But can one be minimalist and incorporate other styles? The answer is yes!. Respecting the proportions and scales of the elements (avoiding to take greater prominence to the environment).

Imagine, for example, a modern art gallery, whose white walls and pure architectural lines house different objects and works of art. The important thing in this case, is not to get away from the main idea and understand that minimalism reigns in space, generating an implicit agreement between the parties, under a magic formula (70% minimalism – 30% other styles) that allows us to glimpse from far to a contained eclecticism.

Conclusion

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The places of storage must hide most things, avoiding exhibiting too much. The simpler the art and decoration, the closer we get to the style. The same principle applies to curtains and textures of genres. Everything must have a place based on its function, to achieve the maximum spatial advantage and mainly our enjoyment. 

The philosophy of minimalism is based on understanding things for what they are and enjoying what is necessary, avoiding the false, pretentious and far from reality in things. See the homeliest little minimalist home.

If you like the ideas of minimalism, show some love by sharing and letting us know your thoughts!

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