Maximalism in interior design, is the art of intentional abundance. You layer colors, textures, and stories to create deeply personal spaces. Picture your childhood. When you look around your grandmother’s house, chances are it carried that unmistakable scent every grandmother’s home has. It reminds you of something warm, familiar, maybe even something cooking. Every surface told a story. The rooms proudly projected character. When you sat in it, you knew exactly where you were and who she was.
We spent the last two decades running from rooms like that.
Why Minimalism Fell Out of Favor
We painted everything white. We eliminated until our spaces looked like showrooms. We convinced ourselves that emptiness was enlightenment and that the path to knowing yourself was to own nothing that might give you away. Fit in. Conform. Reflect back to the world what the world encourages you to.
Minimalist home design dominated the 2010s, promising clarity, calm, and control. Scandinavian interiors became the gold standard. Every prominent voice in the design world featured the same neutral palettes, clean lines, and sparse surfaces. Where Minimalism shines is in its simplicity and ease of application. But minimalism, for all its aesthetic appeal, left many homeowners feeling cold and disconnected from their spaces.
Then the world stopped, and we were sent to our rooms.
How the Pandemic Transformed Home Design Trends
The pandemic fundamentally changed our relationship with our homes. Suddenly, our living spaces weren't just places to sleep and eat, they became our entire world. The pandemic turned our homes from way stations into everything else. Overnight, your home also became your office, gym, restaurant, theater, and classroom. We spent months staring at the same four walls, and those walls stared back. Somewhere between the sourdough starters, new work from home setups, and the Zoom backgrounds, we realized that these spaces we'd been so careful to make aspirational had become unbearable.
They looked like catalogue pages. They looked like everyone else's house. They looked like no one lived there at all.
Research from the American Psychological Association found that our physical environments significantly impact our mental health and well-being. So when our homes lacked personality and warmth, it’s no wonder we felt it viscerally.
Instinctively, we started filling them back up.
What Is Curated Maximalism?
Curated maximalism isn't about clutter or chaos. It's about intentional abundance, and surrounding yourself with pieces that tell your story. It’s an exercise of personal expression. The key elements of Maximalist Interior Design are simple: Personal storytelling through objects, mixing design eras and styles, rich color palettes, layered textures, and where Residence Supply comes in, statement lighting. You can have the vintage chair from Copenhagen, the unexpected combination of sculptural modern pieces with sentimental finds, and yet the experience will fall short without fixtures that anchor a room and create ambiance like our Zuru Floor To Ceiling Lamp.
This is curated maximalism, and it's a homecoming.
Why Maximalism Is Replacing Minimalism in 2025
The shift from minimalist to maximalist interior design represents a philosophical change about where we locate our authentic selves. For years, we performed our identities in public: through fashion, through how we show up in work spaces, and through carefully curated social media personas. But when self-expression becomes a performance for the sake of acquiring a desired outcome, every post feels hollow, every opinion becomes applicable, and every choice subject to consensus.
As people, we have an innate need for expression. This core function became triggered, almost as an immune response, and encouraged us to move inward to reveal our true selves. The shift has been palpable. In Pinterest’s 2025 annual trend report, maximalism and bold expressions take center stage as everybody’s “inner child” joins in the fun of home decor. Gen Z in particular leads this trend with 38% of the demographic in the U.S. preferring bold colors and eclectic combinations to project their personality on their living spaces.
The home has become the last honest space, especially for multicultural, multi-hyphenated professionals navigating complex identities. Your walls can hold your heritage and your present, your roots and your reach, and all without explanation. You can honor tradition and court experimentation. You can mix eras, styles, cultures, and moods. Curated maximalism gives you room to live with juxtapositions that more honestly reflect the imperfections of the human experience. We’re naturally full of contradictions and yet, when we zoom out to see the mosaic of our experiences, we realize how it’s all connected harmoniously.
What Maximalist Design Offers Your Home
Maximalism delivers what minimalism promised but couldn't. Maximalist spaces allow you to interweave your identity into your living spaces in various dimensions. Texturally, you can have the smooth alabaster of our Cecelia Alabaster Wall Lamp accenting the furniture set covered with rough linen throws or cold metal resting beside the warm wood of our Adira Wall Panel. Maximalism also introduces colors unapologetically. Rich saturated hues that can reflect mood and personality whether sunburst oranges, revitalizing blues, or the most soothing of violet hues.
This new paradigm is the emotional release valve that the stark white box or beige linens never allowed on their own. Those empty rooms paraded themselves as simplicity, but time revealed it was much more about safety. They were about creating spaces so generic that no one could judge them, so tasteful that taste itself disappeared.
But what’s the point of designing a home you can never see yourself in?
Statement Lighting in Maximalist Interior Design
At Residence Supply, we've watched this transformation firsthand. The inquiries have changed dramatically over the past few years. People no longer ask for fixtures that "go with everything." They want lighting that makes a statement, that catches the eye, that starts conversations. They want pieces that feel like they have history, that feel collected and layered and intentional. Homeowners now want their spaces to feel like them.
How Statement Lighting Completes Maximalist Spaces
Our handcrafted lighting fixtures are designed for exactly this moment. Each piece is made to anchor a room, to add that sculptural element, to provide the kind of ambient warmth that turns a house into a home. Whether it's the ornate nature of our Pink Dreams Cottage Collection or the decadent geometry of our Art Deco inspired pieces, these aren't lights that disappear into the background. They're jewelry that adorns your room and doubles as conversation starters.
Key considerations for maximalist lighting:
- In abundant spaces, don’t be afraid of bold and expansive fixtures. Scale matters.
- You have the freedom to choose metals, glass, and natural materials for your finishes.
- For the best setup, combine ambient, task, and accent lighting
- Most important, choose fixtures that function as art pieces
Lighting in a maximalist interior does the work of transforming it. The right fixture casts shadows that add depth, creates pools of warmth that define spaces, and serves as the punctuation mark in your design sentence.
Maximalism vs. Clutter: Understanding the Difference
The most common concern about maximalist interior design: "Won't it just look messy?" This is where the curation factor comes into play. Maximalism is curated abundance, not random accumulation. Every piece should earn its place through personal meaning, beauty, or function, ideally all three.
- Clutter is unintentional and overwhelming. Maximalism is intentional and energizing.
- Clutter makes you feel anxious. Maximalism makes you feel at home.
- Clutter lacks cohesion. Maximalism tells a coherent story, even when mixing styles.
Remember, this isn't excess for excess's sake. It's curation in its truest sense. Where minimalism forces you to go without, maximalism encourages you to choose what matters and display what means something, surrounding yourself with objects that carry weight.
Its memory made visible and identity made tangible.
So Why Now?
Remember the memory of grandmother’s living room from the beginning? It wasn't loud because it was full. It was loud because it was honest. Every object had been chosen, earned, inherited, or loved into existence. The room told you who she was and validated who she said she was. In an era when everything we say in public can be used against us, that kind of unmediated self-expression feels like oxygen.
Maximalism sits at the intersection of several cultural shifts:
- People want homes that feel real, not Instagram-ready studios
- Homeowners are investing in meaningful pieces rather than disposable decor
- Multicultural households are now able to claim space for all their influences
- Designers are focusing on handmade, artisanal objects with visible human touch
- People are pushing back against algorithm-driven, homogeneous design
The maximalist movement insists that your space reflect the fullness of your unique identity rather than a simplified, marketable version of yourself.
Is Maximalism Right for You?
Maximalist interior design isn't for everyone, and that's perfectly fine. The goal isn't to follow another trend, it's to create spaces that genuinely feel like home.
Questions to Ask Yourself:
- Do you feel stifled by minimalism? If your space feels sparse, cold rather than calm, maximalism might resonate.
- Do you have meaningful objects in storage? If you've been hiding things you love because they "don't fit the aesthetic," it's time to reconsider.
- Do you feel most yourself surrounded by your things? Some people find peace in emptiness. Others find it in abundance. Neither is wrong.
- Are you ready to reject safe choices? Maximalism requires confidence to make bold decisions that might not please everyone.
The right design philosophy is the one that makes you feel most at home in your own life.
Coming Home to Yourself
So we're filling our homes back up. With things that make us remember. With pieces that make us feel. With colors that make us brave. With textures that ground us. With light that transforms the ordinary into the personal.
We're building rooms that feel like us. And maybe, in doing that, we're finding ourselves again. The minimalists will call it clutter. Let them. They're still arranging their three objects on their empty shelf, hoping that emptiness might finally mean something.
Meanwhile, we're home. Really home. Surrounded by everything that makes us who we are.
And we're turning on all the lights.
Frequently Asked Questions About Maximalist Interior Design
- What's the difference between maximalism and bohemian style? While both embrace abundance, maximalism tends to be more curated and intentional, mixing high-end sculptural pieces with sentimental objects. Boho style often emphasizes natural materials, global textiles, and a more relaxed aesthetic.
- How do I start decorating in a maximalist style on a budget? Begin with what you already own, shop vintage, and add pieces gradually. Maximalism values meaning over anything else. Our Giada Table Lamp can be as impactful as our ornate Kybos Alabaster Chandelier Light if it tells your story.
- Can small spaces be maximalist? Absolutely. Maximalism in small spaces requires thoughtful curation, but rich colors, layered textiles, and statement pieces like our Skiastro Floor Lamp work beautifully in compact rooms. The key is maintaining intentionality.
- How do I keep maximalist spaces from feeling cluttered? Create visual anchors, maintain some negative space, group similar items together, and ensure everything has a designated place. Regular editing keeps maximalism from sliding into chaos.
Ready to light up your maximalist space? Explore our collections of handcrafted, sculptural lighting fixtures designed to anchor your most personal rooms. Shop our latest Alabaster Collection or schedule a design consultation to find the perfect pieces for your story.
