Tag: minimalist style

Scandinavian and urban minimalist interior style

In the previous article, I discussed minimalist interiors with two popular designs (Japanese and Industrial styles). And, at this time, I would like to share with you about two minimalist styles that are also popular all over the world. That is Scandinavian and Urban styles

Read more: Minimalist interior design with Industrial and Japanese Styles

Scandinavian Minimalist Interior Design

Image Credit: Carl Friedrik

Overview of Scandinavian minimalist style 

The Scandinavian style is also a common style for minimalist interior design because of its connection with the natural world. This style started at the beginning of the 20th century in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland). Then, it spread to all of Europe and finally to the whole world. People can easily recognize this style by its simplicity, functionality, and calmness. It is also sunk in natural sunlight and light color palettes. As a Japanese minimalist design, the Scandinavian style also focuses on wood furniture and indoor trees to make your home more friendly to the natural environment. 

Who suits this style? 

This style is a good choice for those who love nature and want to connect it to their house with large windows and some indoor trees. It will especially be perfect for those who live in the countryside or outskirts where you can easily own land surrounded by natural landscapes. Or, if you are a calm person, the Scandinavian minimalist design will fit you so well. It will bring a cozy and inviting space into your house.

Advantages and disadvantages 

If you want to build your home following the Scandinavian style, you should have a look at its pros and cons before you implement it.

Pros

  • Timeless Aesthetic: The age of this style is more than 100 years, and it is still popular in the modern world, especially in Europe. This is a proof that demonstrates the timelessness of this style 
  • Connection to Nature: Your home connects to nature through large windows and trees that will help you enhance your health.  
  • Environmental Benefits: this interior design will focus on eco-friendly materials and designs, that will help limit plastic trash in the environment 

Cons

  • Higher Initial Costs: the cost will mainly come from furniture and decorative elements. Almost all furniture is made of wood and decor pieces usually are designed items made by artists which are quite expensive. 
  • Personalization Challenges: The Scandinavian minimalist design is popular and has existed for a long time. Therefore, if you want to make your home more unique and personal, it will not be easy. 
  • Maintenance: In this design, light colors will be the main palette of the house. Therefore, it will be easy to get dirty and make the maintenance work more difficult.

Tips and ideas for a design of Scandinavian minimalist

  • Light color palettes: This style is extraordinary with light hues, they will make the space look larger and minimalist. Besides light hues, you can also try colors such as cool neutrals and warm beiges.
  • Natural Materials: To have a beautiful Scandinavian design, natural material is a must. You can consider natural stone or wood floors, furniture with light woods like pine, birch, or oak, and textile-based items made of hemp, sisal, or wool
  • Natural Light: This is an essential element when you build your house following Scandinavian style, let’s ensure that your home has enough natural light by large windows and light curtains. Sometimes, if you want to block all the light you can consider two-layer curtains
  • Houseplants: Indoor trees play an important role in this design, they will help your house look more friendly and diving in  “Mother Nature”

Urban Minimalist Interior Design

Image credit: Dezeen

Overview of Urban minimalist style 

Urban minimalist style is created by a combination of modern, industrial, and contemporary. This style has a softer, more inviting, and comfortable look compared with the industrial style. It also evokes the feeling of modern and contemporary through smart devices and up-to-date equipment such as smart home hubs, modern TVs, Air Purifier, the vacuum robot cleaner

Who suits this style? 

This style is a good match for city dwellers, because it will help a small space become more functional and practical, even look wider. Or, If the homeowner is always curious about the latest technology and follows modernism, he can choose the urban minimalist style to suit his lifestyle.

Advantages and disadvantages

Every style has its pros and cons and Urban minimalist style is not an exception, let’s have a look and see if this style suits your home or not.

Pros

  • Maximized Space Efficiency: In this style, Furniture is usually a modern type with multiple functions that help you utilize available space as much as possible. 
  • Modern and Stylish: Urban design will blow a new wind with modernness and stylishness
  • Create a productivity feeling: A combination of minimalist design and modernness also helps you increase focus and productivity. 

Cons

  • Increase electric bill: There are a lot of smart devices and equipment in the urban minimalist design. They will increase the power consumption of your entire house. 
  • Fire risk from the battery: Some smart devices use batteries instead of direct power, which will put your home at high risk of fire
  • Uncomfortable for elderly men: Because of the modernness, some elderly people will meet difficulty in usage without any guideline 

Tips and ideas for a design of Urban minimalist

  • Modern Lighting: Besides the natural light, let’s try some modern lighting fixtures. There are a variety of stylish and functional designs that help your home look more stunning and attractive.
  • Multi-functional Furniture: In Urban minimalist interior design, multi-functional furniture plays an important role, it not only brings convenience and modernness to your home but also utilizes space effectively 
  • Incorporate Industrial Elements: If you want to make your home look sharper and stronger.  You can consider the combination with some industrial elements such as shelves, fixtures, and other decorative accessories.

Minimalist interior design with Industrial and Japanese Styles

Minimalist interior design In General 

Minimalism refers to having all things that add value and removing the rest that is not necessary. We can see minimalism everywhere in modern life from fashion, art, lifestyle, and especially in interior design. Minimalist interiors designs usually focus on simplicity, light, open space, clean lines as well as functional furniture and removing unnecessary things, clutter, and some of the walls.

Common styles of minimalist interior design

According to a study by Rentcafe in 2022, around 59% of survey participants said that they love minimal interior design. It looks like the popularity of this style stands still in the publish time of this article (2024). I strongly believe that minimalism will keep its popularity rate at the moment or even sharply increase in the future. Therefore, in this article, I would like to discuss 4 common styles of minimalism including Industrial, Japanese, Scandinavian, and Urban minimalism styles, and hope that you can choose the right style for your home. 

Industrial Minimalist style

Image credit: Decoist

Overview of Industrial Minimalist Design 

The industrial minimalist style was born in 1950s America, it was inspired by factories and industrial buildings with brick, pipe, metal, and concrete. This style is outstanding with open space with large windows and natural light. Furthermore, another element that makes the industrial style easy to recognize with other ones is color. The common colors that are used in this style are white, black, gray, and orange from bricks. However, black and gray sometimes evoke the feeling of darkness in your house. 

Read more: Grey and white kitchen ideas

Who suits this style? 

This minimalist style is suitable with people who love neutral colors or men with practical and calm characters. If you love simplicity and power in your lifestyle, you should consider this style because its dominant colors usually are black and gray which symbolize power and domination. 

Advantage and disadvantage 

Before you decide to choose the industrial minimalist style for your home. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of this style. It will help you make the decision more carefully and avoid regrets in the future.

Pros

  • Durability: This design has long durability because components for building the space are from factories, warehouses, industrial buildings
  • Unique aesthetic: It will bring industrial aesthetics into your house and will be different from normal houses, so your house will be more attractive to visitors.  

Cons

  • Cold atmosphere: Elements and colors of this style will evoke feelings of sadness, cold, and loneliness. 
  • Expensive Cost: Almost all components of this style are from industrial properties. Sometimes, you can not easily buy your desired elements from normal furniture stores because some components are not popular. 
  • Maintenance work: this minimalist style usually creates a huge problem in maintenance and cleaning because the surface of materials such as concrete and brick is lumpy as well as steel pipes and sticks are easily rusty. 

Tips and ideas for the Industrial Minimalist design

  • Visit industrial properties: This design comes from industrial properties. So, there is an effective way to illuminate your ideas is to visit some industrial warehouses or factories. If you don’t have time or permission for going into a industrial properties, you can try an other method by having a look from photos and videos from the Internet
  • Consider industrial elements: There is a basic thing you have to do for creating an industrial space, that is to leave structural elements such as pipe, brick, beams, pipes, and ductwork exposed.
  • Choose the right colors: For the color theme, let’s consider industrial colors such as gray, brick, or black
  • Improve natural light: You should ensure your house will have some large windows for natural light because those colors above will make your home look darker. 

Japanese Minimalist style

Image credit: Yellowtrace

Overview of Japanese minimalist design

Japanese minimalist style is inspired by Japanese culture and people who love neatness and cleanness. The minimalist style from the Land of the Rising Sun will bring a calm and cozy atmosphere with natural light. This style is also popular with some indoor trees, bonsai, and wood furniture. 

Who suits this style?

The Japanese style is really a good choice for those who love wood furniture and planting trees. Or people who have a passion for Japanese culture and lifestyle. If you are an urban resident and need some space to escape from your busy life in cities, this style is also a recommended option. 

Advantages and disadvantages

Like other styles, the Japanese minimalist style also has pros and cons that you need to consider before applying to your home. 

Pros

  • Enhanced Focus: The Japanese minimalist style will create a calm and quiet atmosphere in your house, which will help to improve your focus capability. 
  • Connection to Nature: the style will create a connection to nature with some indoor trees and bonsais in its design 
  • Timeless design: the love for this style in modern life, even though it was born around the 12th century, is a demonstration of its timelessness. 

Cons

  • Cost: The Japanese minimalist style usually comes with a high cost. Because you have to pay a lot of money if you want to have high-quality wood furniture and beautiful bonsai. 
  • Maintenance Challenges: In this style, discipline is a big challenge in maintenance. Homeowners have to be disciplined in house cleaning to protect the space from clutter
  • Issue relating to culture: Sometimes, Japanese culture is placed in the Japanese minimalist design. Thus, you should understand Japanese culture, if you don’t want to accidentally do something disrespectful to Japanese culture. 

Tips and ideas for a design of Japanese minimalist style

  • Study Japanese culture: As I discussed above, you should spend your time learning about Japan. It not only helps you avoid problems relating to Japanese culture but also provides you with some effective ideas for your minimalist design. 
  • Learn about indoor trees: You also need to study indoor trees that the Japanese usually plant in their home and learn how to take care of them. Especially with bonsai, this type of tree is really expensive, so it has to receive good attention if you don’t want to lose a lot of money.  
  • Set up the right lighting: Japanese minimalist furniture is usually made of wood. Therefore, your home will look warmer and cozier if there is a combination of natural light or yellow light with the furniture.   
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