Have you ever found yourself in a truly well-appointed hotel or Airbnb? You have everything you need, and nothing you don’t. Things feel simpler and more expansive, even in a smaller space.
But something’s missing.
Actually, not a thing exactly, more a feeling. Like the presence of some memento, picture, or that favorite old chair.
Then you go home. And home is rich with all the things you missed, but it also feels cluttered. And instead of everything having a place, nothing seems to have a place.
There’s a middle ground: midimamlism.
It’s this sweet spot where the calm serenity of minimalism meets the warmth and personality of maximalism — and they get along great!
And, you guessed it, here at the largest online furniture upholstery fabric store, we’re thrilled to share that upholstery fabric is one of the easiest tools to find that perfect middle ground in your home. (Or is that midi-mal ground?)
First, Midimalism Has A Strong Point Of View — Yours
Midimalism is not an indecisive style in purgatory between minimalism and maximalism. It’s more like maximalism with a really good editor.
It starts with an uncluttered foundation that pleases you — yes, you. Then you add to that foundation, turning up the personality you want without landing in chaos, through colors, textures, and objects that feel collected, but not crowded.
Put another way, you know when music is too loud or soft for a mood you’re setting, right? It’s that, setting the design elements in your space to the unique volume that suits your vibe.
So a living room offers calming vibes with warm cream walls and a sectional in a small-scale dobby texture oatmeal and greige cotton blend, and has ample room for the energy of a lounge chair in Harriet Clover plush green velvet.
An otherwise subdued bedroom with a changing bench in pale, earthy meadow green tweed finds its romantic, fanciful side with a headboard in a muted blue, red, beige and green floral pattern.
How Fabric Texture Does More, So Midimalism Can Use Less
How do you get the warmth and richness of maximalism, and keep the simplicity and clutter-free experience of minimalism?
Answer: Less stuff, more texture.
In midimalism, it’s not that there’s no other decor, it’s that the furniture fabrics contribute more proactively to the design vibe, too.
Like, instead of another collection of random objects on a shelf, you dial-up the appeal of a piece of furniture itself. That clean-lined sofa that’s served you so well is reupholstered in a pecan gold textured chenille or a walnut brown bouclé. Dining chairs are reimagined in nubby batik blue woven jacquard, Café Au Lait basketweave, or jute beige houndstooth basketweave.
You can even mix together solids to create layers of textures, like a sectional in parchment white Crypton woven velvet and linen mix, with throw pillows (or cushions, if you’re feeling sassy) in rust bouclé and Prussian blue shearling tweed.
The intentional use of texture and colors lets a room’s contents stay simple, while the room’s presence deepens and softens.
How One Bold Fabric Adds Personality Without Adding Visual Clutter
There’s a remarkable thing that happens in a space that’s otherwise simple when a piece or two is given permission to be bold. (Same for people, btw.)
Such deliberate pops of focal interest have an unexpected impact. Rather than busying a space, they give the eye a place to focus, a place to rest.
Translation: One piece can show-off without throwing off your vibe.
- Like a predominantly neutral living room with a wingback armchair in a painterly floral cotton fabric with purple, pink, red, yellow, and muted greens singing visual harmonies.
- Or a primary bedroom bench in an olive green geometric ikat-style medallion pattern nubby chenille offering a design moment.
- Or simply a small ottoman in the living room adding pop of berry red plush textured Crypton velvet.
In midimalism, adding a bold piece or two gives you the opportunity to make a statement and add personality, but it also gives the mind a visual rest stop, encouraging a mood or feeling.
How Color Brings A Midimalist Space Together – Your Way
For many, minimalism feels too flat, but maximalism feels like everything’s competing for attention. Midimalism’s middle path emerges in a fundamentally restrained, conscious use of color.
Sometimes that’s leaning on a color wheel, picking a color you’d love to be central and then embracing fabric and paint colors around it. Other times it’s choosing your fabrics based on the colors in a specific print or pattern you love.
The result is colors that have a cohesive simplicity and a playfulness and creative depth, just by building with intention and purpose.
Like building your palette around an accent chair dressed up in a tapestry fabric patterned with blossoms and foliage in rust, terracotta, sage green, and peach for a vintage look. So, nearby, dining chairs wear sage green, a sectional dons a natural cream chenille jacquard, and an ottoman or upholstered coffee table wears mushroom beige breathable faux leather.
Instead of matchy-matchy, it’s a collection of aligned pieces. Different personalities finding the perfect mix.
How Midimalism Makes Room For The Things You Truly Love
Midimalism suggests that instead of keeping all the things you’ve collected, you keep the things you truly treasure.
For furniture, that’s just a process of looking at what you’ve collected or had handed down to you and asking what pieces you genuinely relish having. And then, almost regardless of their condition, you get to lovingly reimagine and reinvent them.
There’s the old armchair that’s been in the family for generations, now right at home again in your home in paprika plush red velvet. That footstool you’ve loved since you first saw it in your grandma’s home can kick back in yours now in a cobalt blue and cream stripe fabric. And a vintage dining set is remade yet still timeless in a two-tone floral damask in a soft teal green linen blend.
In midiminalism, design isn’t a passing trend, it’s a story that means something to you, it’s a story worth telling — and retelling. Reupholstering gets you there.
The Magic Of Midimalism Is Making Your Home More Yours
Let’s get back to that hotel room or Airbnb. Remember the cleansing breath from the simplicity of it all. Everything you need is there, with no clutter or chaos.
Now, imagine adding one, two, or eight things that, for you, create a greater sense of warmth, softness, or whatever the experience that would be most like yours — but just those things.
That’s midimalism.
It still includes some objects and decor that serve no purpose except bringing you joy. But it’s simpler and easier thanks to the use of colors, textures, and patterns that deepen and expand the experience of you without the visual noise of clutter getting in the way.
We have all of those fabric patterns, textures, and colors for you. And we’d love nothing more than to help you find your own also very happy middle in your homes. Design style five. Give us a call today.
Links:
largest
uncluttered
dobby
Clover
meadow
muted
pecan
bouclé
batik
basketweave
houndstooth
parchment
pillows
rust
shearling
deliberate
painterly
medallion
berry
Crypton
conscious
dressed
patterned
sage
cream
breathable
paprika
cobalt
remade
two-tone
just those
all of those
help