How 'intentional clutter' can bring joy to our homes
No one does luxury like Jonathan Adler and here less is more in a light-drenched space filled with personality pieces to look at and enjoy; accessories suppliers include House of Fraser Ireland.
The festive season is the perfect time to experiment with the fascinating winter fashion for “intentional clutter”. In late November, the aesthetic guard-rails come down, as we layer on sumptuous, childlike joy in predetermined staging, all over the house.
I’m not a fan of cooked-up trending, but this one — well, I’m very curious about this one. It’s shot through with commonsense and a kindly dare to change. So, what does intentional clutter imply, and how can we stir this Instagram sensation into our everyday spaces year-round?
The easiest way to understand just what interior designers and influencers are getting at, is to think about the dopamine hit of maximalism (a heavier application of stuff). Imagine these busy confections, edited down, teased open and corralled into feature areas using greater consideration.
The “clutter” (random things landing accidentally all over the home) is actually what we’re desperately trying to avoid. That said, life is not a magazine cover. We’re living in a time of social media snobbery. The slightest slip in whatever the fortnightly interior decorating “rules” are, can descend into sneery, comment-heavy judgement. Give yourself full permission to make these rooms your own.
On closer inspection, this playful aesthetic is intelligent but easy. Intentional clutter is carefully composed to be calming, charming and above all, easy to live with (and even dust). You could be a greige adherent, who loves their tonal schemes, or deliciously fashion-forward.
Many of us are drawn to the Downton Abbey look — that accumulation of generational, gorgeous objects from gilded frames writhing in cabbage roses, to touchable objets d’art, nestled in just the right place. What makes this top-tier jumble sale work? It’s scale. Those rooms are the size of airport lounges. That gentile ballast has lots of room to breathe visually. Intentional clutter floats, it includes and celebrates space.
Just as you would mindfully put out your favourite decorations, Intentional clutter is not chaotic, it’s not even spontaneous. We’re curating areas of open display that add a sense of originality and comfortable personality.
It works best in groupings of objects that relate to each other, in whatever way pleases you. It can be relatively spare and deployed vertically just using the walls. It could be complex — a theatrical display set over multiple surfaces and layers of texture and colour.
That said, the show will not physically dominate the room, it won’t compromise your use of the room, and it certainly will not be confusing and cramped. This aesthetic will emerge slowly, deliberately, with purpose, and considering the personal value and visual impact of everything we sit out on view. It’s delicate organisation — evaluating, choosing, placing, mixing up.
How does intentional clutter differ from unashamed maximalism? There’s a lot to be said for delightful cluttercore, but intentional clutter is a very different look. It delivers a greater ratio of clean open space to stuff. Intentional clutter will allow more floor space, more wall on show, some clean surfaces around every cluster of things and individual ornaments and furnishings.
It will protect generous areas of traffic flow, views and light washing across the room. It will never read like a museum of crowded, vintage circus memorabilia, but it can lead into just about every other enduring and trending style, bar skeletal minimalism. Here are just a few quick ways to conjure this polite, adult and elegant vibe that doesn’t just bring method to the madness, it takes the madness out of the equation altogether.
Grouping pictures within a defined architectural area like a flight of stairs, or within a master “frame” of a single shape, offers endless possibilities. Use both matching and disparate framed artwork, photographs and any objects suitable for hanging up.
If you can handle a small drill and pick out the right wall plug, it’s an easy and satisfying way to assemble and enjoy a highly personal collection that won’t intrude on the footprint of the room. You can use a gallery area to perform as a backdrop for an area of furnishings or draw attention to an otherwise jaded forgotten corner.
Be a little braver about what you invite to the party. Small demi-lune shelves can carry light sculptures. Don’t restrict your imaginings, and check out Houzz, Instagram and Pinterest for thousands of inspiring up-the-wall adventures.
Table-scaping may sound pretentious (and it can be), but it’s quiet, regular, meditation once you start to enjoy it. Chances are you harbour latent talent. Just find any stable small table with room for a nice lamp, and experiment with placing lovely little objects (otherwise abandoned, ignored or even stored away) in a unique, decorative family. Think about things that invite touching, picking up or closer examination. Use the lamp to pool light down around the things, enhancing their colour, texture, reflectivity and line.
If the tabletop is timber with beautiful figures, give it a dab of beeswax for a mild shine and subtle scent. With a lower table, pose it by a chair, window seat or sofa, where someone can sit and be close to an illustrated book and other lovely pieces.
Change is unsettling if you’ve lost your confidence. Don’t be too quick to judge the results. Breathe. Avoid using windowsills.
It could be a hefty antique bookcase, shadow boxes, or a spiny set of modern shelving, but the framework of a unit of furniture is an invitation to deftly decorate. A pile of larger hard-back books in a large box shelf can sit flat down, crowned by a paperweight. If there’s a little light, leave room for a trailing plant to break up those hard surfaces. Ensure taller objects are not blocking your enjoyment of smaller pieces set by their side.
Let yourself relax and play — this is not something to be rushed. Try mixing up the kitsch with more serious, tasteful objects. Remember that breathing room. If hordes of knick-knacks start melting together, take even one piece away, have tea and come back to it in ten minutes.
Some of us are just too entrenched in the safety of crisp, clean decor, that the prospect of a single framed photograph is stressful and confronting. I’ve noticed this sort of creative paralysis largely in younger homeowners in brand-new properties. If you are stuck in a room set of add-water-and-stir sophistication and struggling with allowing a little more “you” into your social spaces — start small. Putting your more whimsical, intimate taste on show is intimidating.
Find or buy an attractive large tray, with handsome handles and a gallery to stop things falling off it. Do the table-scaping on the tray (obviously without a lamp, but you could use a small battery/USB model for fun). You can move the tray around the room, it might even end up on a console in the hall or in the bathroom.
While you’re in the bathroom, add a couple of plants or have some fun with a wild towel colour. Just take your time. Not wanting real, life-interrupting, irritating clutter to accumulate is a strength, not a weakness, but empty, echoing rooms studded with off-the-rack buys are charmless. Lean into intelligent restraint, but softly and determinedly just push back those self-inflicted boundaries.
