How to Create A Multi-Purpose Living Space
Scaling back your home’s ambient clutter doesn’t need to take tons of time and effort. At its heart, leading a minimalist lifestyle is about reducing stress and clutter. It’s not all about just “going less” though. It’s also about prioritizing functionality. Perhaps nowhere can clutter and unnecessary excess be seen than in the home.
Let’s face it, most of us have more space than we need. What do we do? We feel the need to fill it. That’s all well and good but is it practical? Is it functional? How can we get the most out of our space and create a functional, efficient environment to life and perhaps even work? By creating a simplified multi-purpose living space, you can focus on functionality without expensive new trends or fads.
Using modern, minimalist design choices, you will be amazed at how much more use you can get from your belongings. For the uninitiated, we’re not talking about simply downsizing. Sure, getting rid of that extra chair or table might make sense. However, we’re not advocating that you turn your living room into a bland box with creme-colored walls and a lone table and chair in the center. Far from it, with modern minimalist design choices, you can enjoy plenty of decorative touches and give your space personality and depth without taking up space or cluttering your life.
Below are some of the numerous ways that you can enhance your living room, bedroom, offices, and more, quickly. A few minor adjustments prove practical enough to transform your busy, cluttered living spaces into a relaxing minimalist atmosphere.
Emphasize Storage First
How can you pursue a minimalist interior design scheme if you can’t store anything away? Even items that don’t rest on tables, like cable cords and digital set-top boxes, can benefit from getting stowed or at least organized!
Clearing away clutter from your primary surfaces should take precedence over any other design ideas. Make this your primary goal and the basis for the rest of your approach. You want to reduce distractions, clutter, mess, junk, and “stuff” as much as possible.
If you can’t go cordless (and it’s difficult these days to do it 100%), use cable covers, hide them behind furniture, or secure them neatly together as harmoniously as possible. If you can, utilize storage items that double as ottomans, furniture, or that can hide inside walls or counters. With today’s Do It Yourself culture, you can quickly find inspiration online when you can’t locate items for purchase.
Start with a Focal Point
If you were to invite your friends and family over, what or where should they look? Too many living spaces have ambiguous focal points, adding to the overall feelings of chaos. We want to alleviate the chaos!
Whether you want to create a dedicated media room or you have an exceptional piece of art, start with the primary focus. From there, work your way out so that the item still takes center stage while adjusting your furniture and décor.
Not only does this give your living space a sense of direction, but it allows you to design more efficiently. When you know not to crowd essential items with other belongings, it opens the area around them for additional space.
Maximize Natural Lighting
The way that the mind perceives light and space lend you a straightforward optical illusion for your benefit. When interior living spaces utilize tons of natural lighting, it makes the room appear much larger.
And while you won’t receive any physical free space, you enjoy the perception of more openness to improve rooms’ appearances. You can take the effect even further with white or lighter wall paints that compliment the incoming sunlight.
Other ways to enhance the illusion remain hanging mirrored décor items and choosing darker accent wall colors. When all these elements work together, you use the light to your advantage while reducing your sense of clutter.
Simplify Furniture Pieces
Bigger may prove better for negative space, but not when you purchase new furniture pieces for your home. When your sofas, tables, loveseats, and other items take up tons of walking rooms, you aren’t minimizing effectively.
Try and stick to sets that offer broad, neutral designs and subdued color schemes to avoid taking away from sunlight. Not only will a large sofa demand the focal point of your guests, but it will seem out of place.
You don’t need to settle for earth tones, however, and grays, dark blues, and white hues match more décor pieces. Choosing the right designs for your new furniture sets should enhance your living spaces instead of taking them over.
Ready To Get Started?
Remember, minimalism is about reducing clutter, simplifying your life, eliminating distractions, and living more harmoniously with your surroundings. It isn’t simply about doing less or smaller; though that can certainly be a part of it.
Jumping into minimalism doesn’t have to mean throwing out half of your furniture or buying a smaller couch. At its heart, it’s about reducing unnecessary clutter and approaching your space from a more functional perspective.
If you’re just getting started, you don’t need to jump in with a drastic change. Simply start reducing the amount of clutter in your space and discard or donate items you no longer need. Freeing your space of ancillary clutter is an important first step.