You can travel the whole world and can call it home, but we all know that a home is nothing without the heart of the person living in it, without memories hanging on the Wall, without people we love and call family. You don’t adopt a place, a place adopts you, for who you are and then it becomes your home.

Every House reflects the persona of the people living in it. Spaces reflect the ideology of the people occupying it. Not generalizing or making a statement but wall colors, furniture or even your flooring speaks a lot about you.

Spaces and moods are directly related to each other. Happy! Let’s go clubbing; tired and exhausted! Let’s have a coffee at some quiet place; sad? Leave me alone in my room. See, how we start associating our emotions and moods with space because we know nothing works better than space which makes you comfortable.

Minimalism is away from the chaos; it is that space in your house which brings you solace; empty ceiling, a flower in the vase, neutral walls or light from the window. Everybody has their own definition of ‘peace’ but the ones who find peace in simplicity, remain the happiest. ‘Minimalism’ is an art, in design it is an expression of simplicity and elegance; it is not a new concept but something which has been around as long as design itself.

Today we think that the more we have, the more we look “well off” to the society, but in this run, we forget that we are making room for things which we do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. We are piling things up and cluttering our space with the unwanted. But then every problem has a solution and our solution to this pile of things or clutter is building storage- lots of them to hide all the unnecessary items.

But does that mean just because it’s out of sight, it’s out of your mind?

Well NO!
Your clutter is still there, hanging over your head, lying under your feet, piled under your bed or lurking in some dark corner of your house. But minimalism is a practice, and that too a meaningful one. A journey to find personal freedom and happiness, not defined by material possessions, not by the lamp you bought from a sale or the gorgeous shimmer curtains in the drawing room which lets no light pass through them. You find your freedom, your peace of mind by letting light come in your house, by opening the windows and feeling the fresh air, by removing the extra furniture and letting your body flow freely to every corner of your house.

Pros of having a minimal home are many but let me name a few. In a minimal home everything is clean, visually pleasant and is arranged perfectly; transfer of positivity from the space to the inhabitant is more. Since space is only occupied by the materials which are essential, a minimal home is easy to clean and saves a lot of your energy and time. With a lot of open space, there are less visual distractions making space look more appealing.
To achieve minimal home begin with looking around your house, take all the unnecessary stuff you have and get rid of them or give it to someone. Keep only the utmost essential.

Living Room

• Three seater sofa- preferably gray, beige or black color upholstery.
• One lounge or recline.
• One small coffee table.
• A flat screen TV, no showcase or cabinet required.
• A simple wall clock.

Dining Room

• A dining table with 4-6 chairs (depending on your family size)
• Clear glass top or natural wood finish.

Kitchen

The main aim here is to keep the kitchen as clean as possible, have only the most essential objects out on the counter like microwave, juicer etc.

Bedroom

A wardrobe of glass or mirror door since glass lets you keep the wardrobe clean as the inner arrangement of your belongings are visible and on the other hand mirror makes your space look big.

The design of the bed should be as minimal as possible with or without a very small hood. If you prefer mood lighting, then adding a couple of lamps will be a great idea.

Study Room or Office

• A simple table preferably white or beige in color.
• Properly arranged table with a desk lamp.
• Chairs as per requirement, preferably not more than 3 in the case of an office.
• A bookshelf or stand with natural wood finish.
• Add planters, it helps

Bathroom

They are tricky as the taste varies from person to person and with the size of the bathroom. But few key points to consider are:

• No bathtub.
• Just one cabinet under the washbasin. Don’t get cabinets on the wall as they create visual barriers.
• You can use different materials on the floor and wall but try picking neutral shades.

Natural and Artificial Lights

The key to a healthy body and mind is letting a lot of fresh air and natural light into your house. If you are building a new house, make sure to utilize the maximum potential of nature. If possible, have maximum windows or openings in the north direction. Light from the north direction is of the best quality.

While upgrading the existing house, increasing the amount of natural light is not always possible. So, your goal here is to play very carefully with artificial lights.

Use white or ivory lights, avoid using yellow light.

The key is to make your interiors look brighter all the time.

Surfaces

Paint the walls bright white, so that they reflect the light well and make your home look brighter. But the ceiling must be painted white, you can still experiment with the wall paint by highlighting one wall with a different color but the ceiling is a big NO-NO.

You can choose any lighter colored tiles, but make sure that you use more than two color combination. Pick large size tiles (2’X2’) for fewer joints, as joints gather a lot of dust.

Tiling is an economical option but if your budget permits you can choose neutral colored marbles too.

If you are planning to use wooden colored flooring, you can pick any color just don’t make a combination of more than two colors.

Art

We all love some form of art or the other. You can have meaningful art pieces on the walls. It should not cover more than 20% of the wall area. Keep it simple and elegant; don’t just hang anything to fill up the space.

You can also have objects like vases, lamp shades etc. of optimal size.