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How to Build Your Own Minimalist Home

Minimalist homes are known for their clean lines, lack of clutter and open spaces. A minimalist lifestyle encourages you to own only the essentials in order to rid your home and life of unnecessary objects. Living in a minimalist home is sure to bring a sense of calm to your life. Minimalist homes are also easier to maintain and clean and are generally more attractive because of their simplicity. When building your own minimalist home, continually look for ways to simplify your design and to emphasize an open and clean aesthetic.

Instructions

    • 1

      Design your home. Concentrate on a design that follows the hallmarks of minimalist design, like allowing in lots of sunlight and creating an open feeling to the house. The architecture of the house should feature clean lines. Many minimalist houses have a box-like shape, with flat roofs. Minimalist homes typically have many large windows, sometimes taking up the entire wall of a room. This brings in large amounts of natural light. These homes also merge several common rooms together into one great room, which includes the living room, kitchen and dining room. This creates a large open space for socializing and living.

    • 2

      Use building materials that evoke simplicity. Cover the entire outside of the home with the same material. You may use a different material for the trim around the windows and doors. Use only simple patterns and plain treatments for the exterior. Popular minimalist exteriors include wood, stone and stucco because of their attractive and uncluttered look. No matter what material you use, it is important to stick with the same color and variety of the material, so that the home has a uniform exterior.

    • 3

      Create a simple interior. Use quality building materials for longevity and because they will be showcased in the simplicity of a minimalist house. Focus on using light colored floors, walls and ceilings. This will help open up the home even more and make it seem larger. Minimalist homes typically feature wood or concrete floors and use traditional drywall for the walls and ceilings.

    • 4

      Decorate the interior. Fill each room with only the essentials. Place any items that could potentially create clutter in drawers so that they are out of sight. In each room, choose one item as the focus. This can be a piece of furniture, art or other decoration like a vase. The other items in the room should be much simpler and have a more plain color scheme. Creating a single focal point for each room draws the room together and highlights its simplicity.