Curated clutter: Why 'new maximalism' is replacing minimalist interiors

What trending, elevated maximalism is all about

Indicate curated maximalism with just one wall and minimal invasion of your floorspace; Eden II Floral wallpaper, from €49 per square metre, Wallsauce.

There’s a trend putting its head up this year, likely to define next year. Steered, considered, curated, elevated. The introductory adjectives may vary, but it’s all a slightly more defined version of let-it-all-fly maximalism. 

True maximalism gives a two-finger salute to minimalist interiors. With this statement, set dressing stuff is about to return to our indoor spaces, but this time around, it’s more carefully considered, wrangled stuff, selected mindfully. 

We are about to finally relax into those formerly skeletal echo chambers that have defined the first quarter of the 21st century, daring to show more of our real skin. For new maximalism to really work, we need to find some visual balance, locate where unworthy clutter is creeping in, and embrace the bravery needed to make more-is-more sing.

Clutter

Let’s start with clutter. Clutter, when intentional, is termed intentional clutter. This sounds a little fluffed and silly, but intentional clutter doesn’t have the same haphazard quality of having copious, random things strewn around. 

Used intentionally, a busy look is a decorating device, and if you love ornaments and swirls of pattern, lines and colours all grooving together — yes, you can have it all. What we do need to do is to corral these beloved bits and bobs together into families, and to ensure it’s not getting in the way of crossing the room or delivering a massive amount of extra dusting.

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Untidy homes are not maximalist palaces — they are soul-sucking messes. Piles of unopened mail, laundry baskets in the hallway — this is backstage, nasty clutter. It’s chaotic, and you deserve better. 

It’s in the world — maximalist. Maximising colour, line, interest. Shelves full of your Murano glass, antique collections, layered rugs, a group of pretty umbrellas making a bouquet in a massive vase in the hall, and star pieces holding a group of objects together in a handsome display — this is intentional clutter. 

Patterns

Using a lot of patterns can also leave a spacious room reading as cluttered when you put anything else into it — test, test, and test again. Use online visualisers to place decorative surfacing into the actual room.

Mixing patterns can be a recipe for an interior design disaster if you don’t enjoy blood pressure so low that you shouldn’t be able to stand unaided. Use the pattern books at the wallpaper/fabric house and draw on the staff members at the best haberdashery in town. 

These collections are stirred together by the talented eyes of a team of experts who know exactly how to pull a space together, unafraid of wry elements like raucous Timorous Beasties Toile. Discover how ditsy floral prints can waltz with formal stripes and even checks. 

Pink and green never seen? Tonal grey, pink and green mark out a sumptuous colour-drenched room devoid of clutter. Bertie pendant in feather and crystal by Lottie Davis, €944, Coldharbour Lights. 

Exploding carnival colour can be tamed by grounding fresh tones, and (most importantly) solid colours can be strategically deployed to keep all those circus high-flyers safely bouncing into the net of great taste.

Yes, some of us can stir pattern, colour, and scale together without help. We all have that curiously fashion-forward friend with the fabulous eye. 

Still, for most of us? If you’re wading into lush drapery or urgent for clashing colour, take what is often free advice and dive into the past projects of Instagram and Pinterest to collage your ideas in a virtual scrap-book. 

Layering up colour and pattern in a mood board — even “never-never” combinations can work in the right tones — delivering surprisingly soothing surroundings. 

The latest trend is to put the brake on anything that ruins an eye-line, trips up your travel or is awkwardly staged.

The march of cool beige, white, and grey has dimmed the energetic, playful drama we expected right through from the 1950s to the 1990s. It’s little wonder that sumptuous decorating teased from the mid-century right up to late 20th-century excess is having a huge comeback. 

American designer Jonathan Adler goes wild in a corner that includes super-sized resin tusk sculptures. Maximalism eschews eras and mixes them magnificently.

If you’re collecting vintage furnishings, you’re likely to have noticed the return of the 1980s in particular, with voluptuous, fat, upholstered sofas, and dolly-mixture colourways in textiles and wallpapers being rolled out all over the market. 

If you’re wondering, do you dare — start in a small room like a downstairs bathroom. Get that rich, whimsical wallpaper you’re secretly dying to try out, and lift a scheme from the colours within it (use a paper that lifts easily in case we really go astray).

Set it over faux-beadboard or wainscot panelling if you want to keep one toe safely in a classic style. Add some flash with glass and metal accents, and try some theatrical feature lighting or wireless USB luminaries.

Taking maximalist theory up the walls is a fantastic way to enjoy some joyful abandon without littering up the floor of a smaller house. If you can’t handle a giant acrylic Jonathan Adler rabbit, look to artwork to stir some safely curated aesthetic expression into your life. 

Surrealist themes are blowing up the market in inexpensive, commercial prints, and even using a length of sampled wallpaper, a beautiful old frame can come alive for a few euros more. 

Accessories

This leads us into accessories, the versatile, instant, add-water-and-stir for creative maximalism that can change with a picture placement, a scatter of cushions and tablescaping. 

I’m favouring big sculpture going forward, and with the rise of resin pretenders, you really can go straight over the top with winged gods, animal heads and a happy mash-up of eras from Deco to Euro-pop.

Look for surfaces from the planes of your sofa to the top of your coffee table, and generous shelving to host your favourite objects, arranging and re-arranging them. Romantic and optimistic, you can signal curated maximalist magic in one open cabinet stuffed with lovely things. 

Add a plant to a group of decorative pieces, lean some pictures along a shelf behind your lowest sofa, stack books flat down and top them with a sculpture rather than placing them all spine out. 

Above all, reach for colour to dial up the dopamine, surrounded by objects you love. Circulate your collections where you don’t have room for everything — a seasonal pleasure.

Art

If you prefer your home less crowded and eclectic, then scaling back our maximalist styling even further, you can just use a wall treatment or your flooring as a busy, visual comforter. 

Fabulous murals from Rococo blossoms to Gothic landscapes straight out of a Victorian fantasy romance are lighting up online collections and all the big wallpaper houses. Where single colour feature walls are out for 2026, story-book walls are taking over. 

Where your walls are white, you really can throw as much colour at art, soft furnishing, and accessories as you like. It’s cooled so beautifully by the grounding icy support. 

Vintage rugs and new abstract acid-washed beauties can anchor the room and offer shades to bounce off onto walls, shelves and more. Every gorgeous old family home is made up of collected, accrued stuff that rode in on love and sentiment. 

Take your time to find that cohesive scheme — elevated maximalism takes time, so enjoy the journey, because it could be an emotional one.