This weekend I read ‘Cozy Minimalist Home’ by Myquillyn Smith (affiliate link) and found it to be very insightful. Myquillyn runs The Nesting Place, a blog I was unfamiliar with before reading the book, but definitely plan to follow now.

I would not call myself a minimalist by any means, but I am most definitely not a fan of clutter. Nor do I feel that every inch of a wall or surface needs to have something on it. This is just my personal opinion for my home, I have seen many homes with quite a bit of decor on the walls and surfaces, and it completely works.

In her book, Myquillyn shares the step by step process she uses for creating a feeling of warmth and style without a lot of stuff. One piece of advice, in particular, stuck out to me. She recommends using Pinterest to “pin with passion.” In other words, find rooms that you find inspiring as a whole (even if you don’t like every single aspect of them or maybe they include projects or items you can’t accomplish or purchase now) and then look through to find similar elements among these images.

This is not how I usually go about finding interior inspiration. I typically think of different elements I want to add to the room and look for those items instead of thinking of the room as a whole and looking at it.

Currently, I’m thinking of ideas for my living room, which is a pretty blank canvas for the most part. But I took a cue from the book and searched Pinterest for some living rooms I felt fit my style, then stepped back and took a look.

My living room inspiration photos:

Source: Studio McGee

Source: Anita Yokota

Source: Chris Loves Julia

Source: Sita Montgomery Interiors

When I looked through the photos, a few things stuck out at me:

• Most of the rooms have white walls. This isn’t too surprising to me, considering I love the bathroom I just painted white. The rest of my downstairs walls are currently a greige color I painted them a few years ago. This might give me the push I need to repaint the walls white.
• I like contrast. While the walls are light, many of the rooms include elements that provide contrast, like black window panes, black cabinets or black light fixtures.
• Most of the rooms include a piece of furniture that is a medium brown leather. This wasn’t too much of a surprise to me, as I have been looking for chairs in this color.
• I like neutral colors. The majority of the rooms have predominantly neutral tones but include a lot of texture, natural elements, and plants. Some color is added in through throw pillows.
• I should get a light rug. I’ve been going back and forth on my rug choice, but I have a dark couch, and most of the images of dark couches I like include a light rug. This plays into the contrast.

Some of these things I knew, some were a little bit of a surprise. It’s nice to get confirmation on the directions I want to go by using this process. There’s a lot of other great advice in the book, but this tip for looking at overall cohesiveness in rooms is timely for me as I gear up to start on my living room. Check out my Living Room Board on Pinterest to see the rest of my inspiration photos.

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