Stay up-to-speed with all things home-related with our Insight Reports, which bring you long-form analysis on the trends we’re seeing in design, architecture, interiors and more. Here, we’re looking at the shift away from bare-walled, neutral-hued and decoratively simple interiors, which have been the style du jour ever since the financial crisis of 2008 rendered flamboyance at home a gauche indulgence, to something more expressive. Now, as maximalist interiors have well and truly made a comeback, we’re asking why and how the style has captured the zeitgeist.

Regular readers of our Journal will have noticed our recent ‘My Modern House’ visits, in which we profile interesting people with design-led spaces, featuring a few more painted walls, pieces of antique furniture, and, dare we say, clutter – albeit of the studied variety – than they have perhaps come to expect. ‘But, I thought you were The Modern House,’ we hear you say. How does the eclectic, Victorian-inspired interior of famed maximalist designer Martin Brundnizki represent modernity? Well, in Brudnizki’s own words, modern living is about understanding that, “we’re at the stage now where we can pick and choose parts from each epoch to suit our way of living.

“Whether we choose the monumentality of classical design, the clean lines of modernity or the simple textures of mid-century – we are free to make up our own mind.” Brudnizki’s definition of modernity is one that emphasises the liberation that comes with operating outside the confines of a particular style or movement, and points to one of the core tenets of maximalism: that an eclectic, magpie approach to what you fill your house with will make it more interesting, expressive and reflective of who you are. In this way, then, it is perhaps better not to consider maximalism as an aesthetic sensibility, but rather a way of approaching your interior, one in which your home environment becomes a patchwork of found objects, souvenirs, investment furniture and family heirlooms.

Brudnizki’s fellow Swede and designer associated with today’s cohort of new maximalists, Beata Heuman, agrees. “I think mixing things from different eras, and from all over the world, makes things more interesting and livelier. It makes me excited to look at a room and see a mix of lots of different things. That’s what human nature is: a great big mix,” she says, echoing Brudnizki’s sentiment that the ability of maximalism to look outwards, across cultures, ages and styles is what makes it alluring. But it’s also a statement that naturally begs the question, ‘More interesting and livelier than what?’, with minimalism being the most obvious answer.

The last decade or so has seen a more pared-back aesthetic prevailing not only in interior design, but in the worlds of fashion and architecture too, where function, utility and clean lines have been driving forces for a brand of understated Modernism 2.0. But, as with any aesthetic that reigns supreme, there comes a natural backlash, and the ascendant maximalists are quick to point out minimalism’s limitations. “Personally, when I enter a white space I feel like I’m being deprived of something!”, says Brudnizki, adding “I don’t understand people who have empty houses.”

Brudnizki’s friend and poster boy for the new maximalists, Luke Edward Hall, shared this feeling, saying, “I think it’s important to have all of your stuff around you. Our ceramics and objects we’ve collected over time all have their own story to them. I can’t imagine living in a white box,” when we visited him at his Camden home. “You sometimes have a dream of living in a John Pawson house where everything’s a push drawer and there are no handles, but that’s not how we live. It’s not about being materialistic, it’s about things that remind you of a personal time, or the way that you acquired them. It’s more about the memories they evoke, I suppose,” added his partner Duncan Campbell. The lesson? Be free, embrace the clutter and paraphernalia of life, and cherish significant objects.

But why this shift, and what about today’s world has allowed maximalist interiors to take hold? Well, fashion and interiors have always had a symbiotic relationship, and cultural forces bear heavy on both – just look at how women’s clothing, for example, became less constrictive in the early 20^th century, the formative years of Modernism. In recent years, fashion week runways the world over have seen extravagance make a headline-grabbing comeback, with creative directors like Gucci’s maximalist figurehead Alessandro Michele promoting a trend for freer silhouettes, mismatched prints, out-and-out detailing, outré colour schemes and historical design cues.

It’s a shift that accords almost exactly with maximalist interiors, where it’s the architecture of a home, not a body, that is treated with an eclectic mash-up of colour, furniture, textiles and art. “Interiors have gone through what happened to fashion, in that people are choosing to express themselves through it even though they don’t work in the industry,” says Heuman, adding that, “People are slightly braver than they were, even though it’s still the case that it’s easier to wear a pair of bright pink trousers than it is to paint your walls red.”

So, while it might be easier to indulge your maximalist urges with a ruffled frock or an outfit with clashing colours, what’s clear is that, whether it be your home or wardrobe going through a maximalist update, chances are you’re going to turn a few more heads by doing so. And turning heads, as Heuman explains, is what today’s digital world is all about. “I think another reason why people have become more interested in this look is social media”, she says. “Instagram is all about the image, and making an impact, which is easy to do if you’re capturing strong colours, clear silhouettes and something quite graphic and unusual.” Could, maximalism, then, be the style of our new Instagram-centric world, in which to be noticed is to be loud and bold?

If it is, then it is also the style of a world that is looking for respite from reality. “This is a bit political,” says Heuman, “but I do think the fact that people are quite worried about what’s going on in the world means home becomes a form of escapism. People seem to want to create little worlds where they can forget about what’s going on outside.” With a tumultuous geopolitical landscape and the ever-impending possibility that we might have irreparably destroyed the planet, perhaps it’s no wonder a sense of fun has returned to the spaces we do have control over: our homes.

Fun and enjoyment are concomitant parts of the maximalist approach, with supporters emphasising the need for interiors to excite, surprise and, ultimately, not to be taken so seriously. “I think the mix is so important: not having too much good taste,” says Campbell; “We like a bit of kitsch”. Not having too much taste is the antithesis of minimalism’s doctrine, which preaches that objects should be considered and distilled down to their most elemental forms and that one only needs a few, high-quality things to live comfortably.

Maximalism, with its ability to incorporate the awkward, ugly and passé into varied celebrations of miscellany, preaches a different school of thought, one that allows for and encourages the acumination of objects. “I’m always amazed when I see these homes that come together in an instant because I wonder how much they express their owner’s style,” said Catherine Lock, creative director of The New Craftsmen, when we visited her at home, adding that, for her, “Homemaking is done bit-by-bit in a process that you form and layer with your own aesthetic over time.”

But, if you thought going maximal meant injudiciously filling up your home with a hodgepodge of car-boot antiques and vintage pieces from eBay, you’d be wrong. “The trick is to never do a pastiche of the past. You need to be inspired by it, but then reinterpret it for a contemporary context,” says Brudnizki, emphasising the need for maximalist interiors to have relevance today, in which they are configured to the demands of modern living and aren’t just a random assortment of things you’ve found in your local charity shop. “That’s another important consideration if you go for this, well, I don’t really like the word ‘maximalist’ but, if you go for it, it’s really important that it’s not cluttered,” advises Heuman, pointing to the need for order, storage and shelf space if you’re ready to max it up.

But what if you’re not ready to go all-out maximal? Or, perhaps you don’t have a house-worth of objects and furniture to suddenly unleash on your home. What’s the best way to inject some personality into your interior? Well, as our ‘Living with Colour’ film series with heritage paint brand Farrow & Ball explored, a lick of paint can drastically impact your experience of a space. Just take Ian James and Nick Selby, who turned their apartment in Hackney, which was “effectively a white box”, according to Selby, into a boldly-decorated space that has a distinct, graphic character.

And, if you’re ready to turn it up even further, just look to artist John Booth’s Hackney home, which features yellow walls, vibrant prints, a pink Sottsass vase and his own playful ceramics. “I love colour, and I think I always have,” says Booth. “In my head colour is linked to childhood memories, a lot of which are based on logos and motifs of clothes I liked”, again emphasising the emotional resonance interiors can have, with a maximalist style able to accommodate nostalgia-inducing heirlooms, family treasures and design flourishes that express one’s character.

“To me, human nature is about evolution and change,” says Heuman, “and that applies to the things you gather throughout your life. I think the home should be a backdrop where things can evolve and the things you add don’t look out of place.” And this, ultimately, is where maximalism’s relevance to modern life is at its most alluring – outgoes the need for impossibly tidy kitchens and barren living rooms, and instead comes the ability to continually layer, arrange and curate the things that matter most to you. “More”, in the words of Booth, “is always more.”

Further reading
‘Long Live Eccentric English Design’ declared a recent New York Times Style Magazine article, in which Brudnizki, Heuman and Hall were profiled as a new generation of new maximalists working in a long tradition of eclectic English interior design.

We also enjoyed How to Spend It’s report on how a new classicism is hitting homes, with Greek and Roman-inspired design having a moment. At the end of August, Hall’s first book, ‘Greco Disco: The Art & Design of Luke Edward Hall’ promises a comprehensive look into the designer’s work, which he refers to as conveying “happiness and optimism”. Amen.