As a way to add texture and design to normally flat surfaces or more uninteresting areas of the house, geometric shapes have taken over as one of 2020’s biggest interior design trends.
Once thought to be a leftover from the 80s De Stijil/Memphis school of design thought, the simple act of adding shapes bolder than a rectangle to your home is seeing a resurgence in popularity in modern homes. By combining unique patterns and bolder shapes, you can create tangible areas of texture between areas of normally flat color to add a more ‘three-dimensional’ look to your rooms.
Of course, as with any new design trend, a lingering question remains in most people’s minds: “sure it’s cute, but is it practical?”
Luckily, as opposed to many interior design trends we’ve seen come and go over the years (remember when everyone was obsessed with using newspapers for flooring?), you can actually use this new trend towards geometric design to add storage to your home in a slightly more stylish fashion.
Geometric shelving, for example, combines the practicality of wall shelves with more fun designs. You don’t even need them to be a fancy shape – by arranging your shelves in a bolder look (zig-zagging lines, for example, or in a pyramid) you can add a touch of geometry and design to your walls that still gives you usable surface area for the storage of goods.
By using geometric shelves to create storage, you may actually be able to save space in other areas as well. Metal wall shelves forged into bolder shapes can serve as open shelving in areas like kitchens or bathrooms that may not have cabinet space but still need to store a large number of items.
Commonly-seen home goods like bookcases and end tables have been recently seen in more bold, geometric shapes as well. The trick to decorating with these shapes is to try and design a space around them – by using stronger shapes for your tables and shelves, you can define the room better with careful placement of couches. Try to keep like with like; for example, if you have a more squared-off sofa (as is the style these days) you can line it with more cuboid tables or standing shelves to keep with the geometric look, and not clash with the softer lines of your favorite overstuffed rocking chair.
The trick with adding geometric shapes is simple: just make sure you have the room, and try to make sure it doesn’t clash too hard with anything you already have in there. Once you see how handy storage becomes even with a bolder look on your walls, you might just like it too much to switch back.