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Keep it simple: Five furniture and décor tips for the minimalist

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If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a cluttered home, too much décor, just too much of everything, there may be a minimalist hiding inside of you. Let that aesthetic out! Here’s how to decorate with a minimalist style without sacrificing beauty, sophistication or personality.

Focus, Focus, Focus
Minimalism isn’t easy to achieve. Paring down your possessions and décor shows that you’ve worked hard to streamline your life and surroundings. Does that mean all the fun will be sucked out of your home? Hardly. Minimalism is far from boring. In fact, it’s the ideal way to showcase the elements of your home that you love the best. While minimalism is a décor theme in and of itself, it’s also the kind of décor approach that really lets your focal point shine, albeit in an understated way. Decide what your focal point is: a favorite piece of art, stunning view, eclectic fireplace or unique couch. “Tasteful” and “stunning” will be two adjectives used most often to describe your new minimalist space.

Shoo Out the Clutter
Clutter is the root of all evil in a home. Whether you’re bombarded by collections, toys, stacks of magazines and papers or just a bunch of “stuff” that doesn’t have a permanent home–other than the spot where you’ve left it to collect dust–then you may find that embracing minimalism will help you reduce stress and truly find serenity in your abode. Organization is often the key to reducing clutter, but hiding your goods in baskets and closets isn’t always enough. The best minimalism is about purging and making a permanent reduction in clutter. An uncluttered home will allow you to see the true design possibilities with your space, the opportunities for rearranging furniture, accessorizing and adorning your walls.

Color Inside the Lines
You can embrace minimalism and still have a colorful home; you’ll just have fewer colors than you once might have had. If minimalism is about reducing chaos, then too many shades and designs can be distracting and create a frenetic energy that you’d rather not encourage. To avoid the danger of busy-ness that accompanies lots of color, choose a single color or a small color palette and stick with it. You’ll avoid a one-note space if you bring in textures to add interest and dimension to your minimalistic color scheme such as satin pillows, leather couch, metal lamps, wooden picture frames, puffy quilt; you get the idea.

Keep Like with Like
You do not need to eschew the things you love to go for a minimalist look. But instead of scattering accessories on all empty counters, shelves, floors and walls, consolidate décor together in one area. Put all picture frames on one table, all vases on one bookshelf; you get the idea. Your décor will still be edited, but it will make an impact in its cohesiveness.

Find a Balance
A table on either side of the bed, two pillows on either side of the couch, four chairs at a table, pairs of art–arranging décor in a balanced way is an important tenet of minimalist design that affects how you and others will perceive your space. But you don’t want to feel like your home always has to be “just so” to keep that much-desired balance in place–you want to live there and feel comfortable in it after all! HLM

Linnore Gonzales is also the owner of a full service decorating company, Decor & You. “Decor & You furnishes and refines residential and commercial interiors. Our designers have the power to simplify how people achieve comfort, style and value in their homes and businesses. It’s an ambitious goal, and Decor & You delivers it – right to your door!”