Review of Cozy Minimalist Home

Are you looking for a method to cozy up your home without a lot of stuff?  If so, this is the book for you.  I recently heard several people that I follow talking about a book called the “Cozy Minimalist Home” by Myquillyn Smith.  Since I just moved, I decided to check it out and see what people were talking about.

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What I Loved About This Book

1.  The Order In Which to Redecorate – What attracted me to the book was this talk of a method for decorating your space.  If you are like me and you are focusing on what to change by prioritizing what you dislike the most, this book suggest a new approach.  Rather than just approaching each room haphazardly when you want to redecorate, she has a very detailed order she insists you much follow.  She also suggests tackling one room at a time.
2. Her Focus on Having Less – She makes it clear in the book that you don’t have to have a lot of “stuff” to have a beautiful room.  In fact, she suggests moving all the stuff out in the very first step to see what the room needs.  This sounds a bit out there to me, but I agree with the basic theory.
3. Her Emphasis on Scale –   Myquillyn gives pretty exact guidance on what size things should be in a way that really helped me. She guides you on rugs, curtains, art, lighting and more.  For example, she says the art above something should be 2/3 the size of the object.  So the art above your sofa should be 2/3 as big as the sofa.  That kind of advice is so helpful.
4. Imperfection is A Good Thing – When you see all of the beautiful photos on Pinterest and in magazines it can make you feel bad about your own space.  Her tag-line is that “it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”.  The book carries this theme through and gives you permission to put something in your house that isn’t perfect, but it’s practical for your family.

What I Didn’t Like About This Book

1.  The first section of the book is all about how you shouldn’t manage all of the stuff you’ve accumulated to decorate your home over the years.  Maybe I’m not the right audience for this part.  I don’t have a ton of candles, pillows, vases, etc.  I definitely don’t feel like I have spent time “managing my stuff”.  Pretty much everything I have is used.  I’m too cheap to have a closet full of seasonal pillows and candles.

2.  It’s extreme – She wants you to move everything out of a room and then put things back in slowly. You are supposed to put the furniture back in a specific order and move it all around to be sure you come up with the best arrangement.   I decided to try this with my living room, which is the room I started with.  When I moved in I put the sofa in the same place as the previous owner, with the TV also in the same place.  After reading this I though, maybe that isn’t the best setup.  However, it’s not easy to move all of your furniture around and take everything out of a room.

3.  Minimal photos – I love design books partly because you get a peak at the people’s homes.  This book is very light on photos.  I think a photo is worth a thousand words.  When you buy a design book you expect lots of photos to ogle over.

Have you read the book?  What did you like about it or not like?

If you liked this post you might enjoy My Favorite Interior Design Books.