BHG
Calm Home
With today’s fast pace, many of us long for a calm, peaceful home. But is it possible to create a visually restful space if you love color, pattern, and surrounding yourself with things that bring you joy?
I enjoy decorating with color and pattern and having surfaces that display the things I love. The challenge is reducing visual clutter without losing your personal style.
I’m not talking about everyday mess or excess belongings; that’s a different issue. I’m referring to visual clutter—the crowded feeling our eyes get when every surface, wall, and fabric competes for attention through competing patterns, colors, and collections.
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Picture a room with several surfaces, many colors, and layered patterns. There’s a lot of potential for visual overload. People have different tolerances for that—some prefer minimal surfaces and muted palettes, while others thrive amid color and collected objects.
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The room above feels restful because of a soothing neutral palette, white walls, and limited pattern. The console has only a lamp and a small stack of books. It’s calm, but minimalism isn’t the only way to achieve serenity.
If you prefer color and pattern, you can still create a peaceful home. One effective approach is to designate areas of a room as visual clutter–free zones.
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In the living room above there is plenty of color and pattern, yet it feels ordered and calm. The solution isn’t empty surfaces or a neutral-only palette. Instead, the balance comes from how the vibrant elements relate to plain, restful areas.
The trick is keeping a calming proportion of white space—plain surfaces that give the eye a place to rest. Walls, curtains, and main furniture in simple, unpatterned finishes act as visual clutter–free backdrops. These quieter areas let the colors and patterns shine without overwhelming the room.
TIP: Designate several visual clutter–free areas in a room so you can focus your creative energy on a few lively focal points.
That breathing room makes it possible to enjoy color, pattern, and meaningful objects while still feeling peaceful. I love contrast and pattern, but without places for my eyes to rest I can quickly feel overwhelmed. Balancing lively elements with calm surfaces lets me surround myself with inspiration while maintaining a soothing atmosphere.
This room uses lively patterns and color alongside simple, unadorned windows. Even the bright orange sofa—while bold—is a solid field of color that provides a visual rest from the patterns around it. You don’t need white furniture to achieve calm; you need thoughtful contrast between busy and quiet elements. Baskets or contained storage also help corral visual clutter.
TIP: A few bold, simple statements are more striking and less visually distracting than surfaces crowded with many small items.
Another effective strategy is restraint on secondary surfaces. Many end tables in these rooms hold only a single lamp or one small object. That simple approach balances busier focal points like styled coffee tables.
TIP: If you love decorating a coffee table, balance it with a clear or nearly empty surface elsewhere in the room—a table, a piece of furniture, or an undecorated wall.
You can enjoy both worlds: a home filled with the things you love and a space that feels peaceful and orderly. It takes awareness and a few simple rules—reserve visual resting spaces, choose some solid or plain surfaces, limit small-item displays, and contain collections—to keep the room feeling open and calm.
Do you think it’s possible to have a balance of lively and calm all in one home?
Check out my new book, Love the Home You Have.
