Maximalism - The Interior Design Trend We Need Right Now

We are told that color trends work in 20 year cycles, and black and brown change places constantly as the go-to base shade. The same might be true of minimalism and maximalism. 

For about a decade, pared back, stark interiors were king. Think of your favorite coffee shop or restaurant: likely done in neutrals where furniture and surfaces and shapes all spoke for themselves. Less meant more upscale, somehow restraint was synonymous with value or good taste. Maybe it has something to do with feeling clean, or not needing to feel lived in. Many, myself included, had homes that looked the same. I cherished a blank white wall with a single print hung on it, a counter empty save for a bowl of fruit, a wall of perfectly arranged bookshelves without too many tchotchkes. 

Cut to 2020, when every space we frequent, especially our homes, went through a total upheaval. Not just in how we use them, but in how we want them to look. It’s logical that renovation projects skyrocketed in 2020--Houzz reported a 58% increase in requests since the start of the pandemic. Less obvious but also not so surprising is a renewed interest in home decorating, and in the maximalist style. 

Colorful walls filled with art, shelves full of cherished objects, furniture of distinct styles and colors all in the same room, tables full of mismatched and loud dinnerware that’s anything but white. Interior design magazine pages explode with bright tiles, patterned curtains, patterned everything to be honest, next to which the all-white styles of the previous decade feel a little sad. 

Maximalism looks different from person to person--maybe that’s the point, actually. We need to express ourselves somehow, and the canvases we had prior to 2020 are all but gone. Fashion has no forum, we’re stuck at home and begin to nest, even in places we thought perhaps were already nested. And they were, but for a different reality. 

The home is more personal now, needs to reflect us more, needs to also be the place we’re happy to occupy 24/7, for who knows how long. Perhaps we also need a design trend that is cheery, welcoming, bright, and forgiving when the rest of the world is less so.