Whether it’s in your small bedroom, kitchen, or entryway, some visual clutter is inevitable. But living room visual clutter removal might just top the list; when your home’s casual hangout and gathering space becomes an unintentional eyesore, it’s time to streamline.
The good news is that the furnishings and accents you choose to fill your space, and how you arrange them, can combat those messy pockets of your home. But visual clutter isn’t always about having too much stuff; sometimes there are too many things begging to be the center of attention, and some reorganizing is in order. Below, we’ve rounded up the best decorative tips from designers to help with living room visual clutter removal.
Disguise exposed cords
Even when they don’t take up much space, power strips and other exposed cords can easily draw attention for all the wrong reasons. So if you’re not up for hard-wiring your wall sconces, the resulting exposed cords can look a bit scraggly running down the walls or behind a console. “The most basic and effective way to hide them,” says Laurel & Wolf designer James Tabb, “is to buy cord covers and paint them the same color as your wall. You won’t even know they are there.”
Float some furniture
No matter whether you’ve got glorious wide-plank wood or pink linoleum that your landlord refuses to swap out, the more you see of your flooring, the less cramped your space will feel. So float any furniture you can: a pair of nightstands or even a series of shelves that make up a bookshelf. “Wall-mounted nightstands or floating shelves have a cleaner, more streamlined feel,” the Laurel & Wolf team says, “They make your space look less cluttered if you do keep a few items on the floor.”
Simplify your palette
Go light and bright (white walls are never a bad idea; the Laurel & Wolf team says they will “almost always make a space look bigger”) or go dark and moody (you rebel!)—just stick to a limited color palette. The color of your bedding, for example, should be near the color of your walls on the color wheel. Yes, a color wheel. The less jarring contrast in your overall color scheme, the more serene and uncluttered it will feel.
Let pieces breathe
What furniture you don’t float, you’ll want to keep spare and spread out. If your dresser is crammed next to an accent chair crammed next to a laundry hamper, nix the chair (unless you can find a way to live without one of the other two). The more room between furnishings, the less cluttered the space. Fair warning: If you have lots of stuff and the room is really small, you might have to offload some of your darlings.
Embrace asymmetry
In a small room, you might not have room to put two matching nightstands on either side of the bed—and even if you do have room, it might not be the most efficient use of space. Nix both, slide your bed over so one side is against a wall, and add a desk—the Laurel & Wolf designers suggest you “let [the desk] do double duty by placing it beside your bed and using it as a nightstand.” The added sliver of floor space you'll gain with the asymmetrical layout will open up the space.
Give your eye somewhere to rest—and don’t knock negative space
“Not every surface needs to be styled,” says Val Nehez, principal designer at Studio IQL. “We like to leave some countertops, tabletops, and even walls intentionally open so the pieces that are there have room to breathe.”
This trickles down to knickknacks and other decorative items that wind up on the coffee table when thet could easily be stored in the side table drawer. When there’s negative space, there’s an instant sense of calm that helps the room feel more intentional, even if the overall design is more layered and eclectic.
Quiet the everyday packaging
Objects don’t always clutter a room; sometimes the packaging is at fault. Having labels with various fonts, colors, and patterns can look loud, from your body wash and hand soap in the bathroom to the labels on your cooking essentials, candles, and other decorative items throughout the house.
“In kitchens and bathrooms, decanting frequently used products into simple vessels or keeping small appliances behind cabinetry can make an enormous difference. The goal isn’t to hide daily life, but to let the room’s materials, objects, and architecture be what you notice first.”
Make storage part of the design
The essential items you reach for every day deserve a spot other than your dining room table, junk drawer, or coffee table to live when not in use. This is where storage that serves as decor you’re proud of comes into play.
“Instead of adding utilitarian storage as an afterthought, choose pieces you’d want in the room anyway,” Nehez says. This could look like a basket for your most-used blankets, a vintage cabinet for the kids’ toys, or a unique box to house your remote control and other miscellaneous essentials.
Don’t overdo the wall art
If decluttering your space is the goal, don’t overlook the artwork you’ve hung on your wall. At a time when gallery walls are popular, your art curation can sometimes look overdone if there are a few too many pieces in the mix.
Take down the pieces you don’t think pair well and place them in a spot of the house that may be a better fit. Sometimes all it takes is removing one thing to make a world of difference.