The concept of maximalism focuses on the provision of maximum comfort while fully churning out anything related to your preferred theme. By the sound of it, maximalism might seem messy, but maximalism does not mean you are required to fill your house up to its brim with decorations. It simply focuses on making your house comfortable, through the things you love.
Maximalism: The Basics
- Load up on lots of colors.
- The more artwork the better.
- Strive for comfort and add only the decor that you love.
- Maximalism is a book lover's dream — you can't have too many books.
- Don't strive for perfection, strive for personalization.
Be Generous with Color
Colors play a major role in making and breaking any theme or aesthetic you are following. A strictly followed color scheme tends to make a place seem a lot more put together which is an important aspect of the maximalist theme.
Starting from a basic color palette is always preferable since it can act as a way of restricting yourself and exploring your options instead of going overboard. Added to that, it can also help form the first base layer, around which you will be working later on.
If you’re looking for inspiration on the internet, something you will come across is that darker colors are often used as wall colors. It could also be darker colored wall hangings, however, it is important to make use of lighter tones in the center of the room to balance everything out.
Create a Wall of Art
One of maximalism’s prominent design features is gallery walls. You can create accent walls and fill them with artwork but you won’t be falling away from the trend. The goal when creating a gallery wall is to fill up the wall with everything that you love. However, don’t focus too much on coordinating the frames, color, and subject of your art.
The one thing you do need to be careful about is to space your artwork properly and stick to a specific measurement. Also, remember to stick your art on the wall carefully and neatly, so neither your artwork is damaged, nor your wall.
Decorate with what you love
Everyone loves to be surrounded by their favorite aesthetics and everything that they love. This is what maximalism tends to exploit; this means now there will be more of your favorite colors, fabric, as well as accessories.
Follow the same rule you did when setting up a base color to avoid your decorations from becoming too random, use some kind of a restriction. A common restriction would be limiting yourself to certain colors or patterns. Select a few colors and repeat them throughout the room or house.
Books are a must-have for a maximalist decorating
Book lovers tend to severely benefit from the maximalist décor. This is because, unlike other aesthetics which require you to neatly display only a limited number of books, maximalism does the opposite. You can have as many books as you want to on display, neatly stacked on tall bookshelves. You can even keep your favorite nighttime reads on your nightstands/side tables!
Maximalism is all about comfort!
Even though less is more, this mindset can take away a lot of comfort from your life as well. This is one of the reasons why trends such as Hygge crept up into our houses. However such trends used to lack the glamor a lot of us also crave. This is what makes maximalism the best of both worlds since it tends to look elegant all while also consisting of all our comfortable décor.
Boho-style decorating is a perfect match for maximalism
Fans of the boho aesthetic will instantly fall in love with maximalism. Both of the aesthetics follow the concept of excess, which is why can be used interchangeably! Boho style makes use of the unexpectedness and unsymmetrical layouts which is similar to maximalism. Utilizing certain aspects of the boho style can help you decorate your house in a maximalism aesthetic as well, for example you can hang print fabric onto your walls as well!
Utilize the vintage accents as well
Not everything has to be bright and cheerful in maximalism, you can lean towards the antique gloomy vintage styles as well. Mid-century aesthetics however tend to lean towards minimalism, but its strong colors and expressive designs can be utilized in a maximal style as well.
Décor from the Victorian era tends to focus its style upon excess as well. This is the reason why mering both these styles is so common.
A maximalist house does not have to be perfect
With maximalism, you need to know that the concept of perfection does not exist, since it focuses on creating a space that you love. Therefore, the pressure of succeeding and perfecting anything does not exist. Even if others might consider your décor imperfect, it does not matter since the house only needs to be perfect from your point of view!
