Simply Simplicity

Jan 26, 2017
3 min read

"Don't over-design." Easy enough, right?

In an effort to be completely and utterly honest, I have to admit: simplicity is something I am inherently drawn to, but truly struggle with putting into practice. I tend to get swept up in the clutter of life, be it busyness or in hoarding little mementos throughout the years.

It's pretty safe to say that a touch of minimalism would go a long way in my life... and quite honestly, my closet.

For whatever reason, I have been toying with the idea of simplicity this week. Naturally, I took to my favorite place on the inter-web (*cough* Pinterest) to find simple designs and inspiration for my future dream home.

The designs I'm drawn to are quite classic. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I began to realize there is a reason a rustic wooden table with flowers and dishes appeals to our eye: simplicity. There is a quaintness about it, something that says, "I may not be anything fancy, but I am beautiful." It's not pretentious, nor is it dull. It is just simple and pure.

I love dreaming up and designing spaces. I have learned that when designing rooms, especially smaller ones like my dorm room or my current three-girl room in the sorority house, less is most definitely more.

Funnily enough, my roommates and I set out to keep it simple when we designed Room 9. "Less is more" was our mantra, our war cry against clutter, our rally to be minimalistic.

But as you would expect, here we are in January, our closets bursting at the seams, newly built storage units are tucked into the already cramped corners of our little room and we are wondering how on earth we got here– to this god-forsaken land of meaningless clutter.

We lost touch with simplicity.

This all got me to thinking about how easy it is to lose sight of the simple things in life. For example, I trade simple socialization for sophisticated screens and I sacrifice a clutter-free week for a rigid schedule filled with meetings and busyness and deadlines. Simplicity slips through my fingertips and out of my sight like sand through an hourglass.

On the other hand, simplicity, as an aesthetic, seems to be as easy as subway tile and a pale pastel wall or a blush doorway in an ivory mudroom. These images are easy for me to wrap my brain around and fawn over. They are visually pleasing despite their inherent lack of excess.

But why is it so hard for me to translate this concept from my Pinterest board into practice?

For me, I am a natural "add-er"; I may start in a place of simplicity, but things (both literal and figurative) will eventually creep in and crowd the once "white space" of minimalism. It may be a slow fade from simplicity to chaos, but nevertheless, I tend to exchange simplicity for disorder.

With hopes to continue to grow and learn and draw ever closer to ideals of simplicity, I want to make an addendum to my New Year's Resolutions (which I think is still fair game, given it's still January) and my addendum would be this:

Declutter. Figuratively and literally. Let go of the messiness and embrace the "less" in design and in life. If I can somehow manage to make it once step closer to embracing simplicity, the design of life (and otherwise) will perhaps be more beautiful.

But mostly, I should probably practice what I pin.

Image Sources

Table Image: Spanish Vogue

Kitchen Image: French by Design Blog

Door Image: Blue Bell Bungalow