Home design/decorating blogs that AREN'T minimalist

April 18, 2014 8:54 PM

My sweetie and I are doing some big redesign stuff in our house, and I am trying to find design/furniture/decorating inspiration. I am looking specifically for blog that go beyond the minimalist look.

I've searched here for non-Apartment Therapy blogs, but I feel like just about every blog leans heavily on minimalist design, which neither of us are big fans of. I'm probably misusing the term, but by minimalist, I mean: clean lines, slickness, little ornamentation, Bauhaus-y, Danish (which is weird, because we lived in Denmark, and nothing really looked the way American design blogs seem to think Denmark looks).

Any recommendations?

posted by Ideal Impulse to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

Can you provide some details about what you think you do want?
posted by lovableiago at 9:03 PM on April 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I want to live in every single house this blog features - minimalist only in the "this old cider mill we converted in to a house is too big, and a modern kitchen table won't fit in with the 900 year old limestone, let's wait"

http://decordeprovence.blogspot.com/
posted by BlerpityBloop at 9:14 PM on April 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You might like Covet Garden (based in Toronto, Canada).
posted by wdenton at 9:20 PM on April 18, 2014

Desire To Inspire has a thoughful mix of everything and is searchable.
posted by ninazer0 at 9:20 PM on April 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I don't know enough about design to name a term, but I like: visible wooden features, subtle detail and texture, interesting combinations of shapes and lines (e.g., not just geometric).
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:22 PM on April 18, 2014

It's counterintuitive, but you might have a look at Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table.
posted by asterix at 9:28 PM on April 18, 2014 [10 favorites]

Best answer: Nthing Desire to Inspire has lots to look thru.

Design*Sponge does 2 to 3 "sneak peeks" every Monday, house tours that feature a mix of styles. I'd check the archives there. 

Also Erin over at Design Crisis has a very not-modern esthetic. Totally not my taste in decor, but I love her writing.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 9:53 PM on April 18, 2014

Start a pin board on Pinterest and pin things that catch your eye for whatever reason. That might help you know what you're after or find some unified style elements. Looking through some internet guides of historic rooms and furniture will also help you get ideas and name to put with the styles you like.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:59 PM on April 18, 2014

Best answer: Can you name some design magazines you really like?

I found the UK home design magazines brilliant for non-modernist homes, especially for some reason about 40% of Country Living - the other 60% left me cold, but there was consistantly 40% that would have me drooling over the page going "YES THAT IS THE CONVERTED SHEEPSHED OF MY DREAMS" because they did houses people lived in and often had had to adapt around old fittings and council regulations, so they were comfortable and interesting.

Frankie and Molly Makes (they have a home spin off) magazines feature artisanal houses that are pretty good at being lived in and not minimalist.

On Apartment Therapy, if you look for houses that feature older children, you are more likely to get actual living spaces because children destroy everything pristine. Babies can be confined to their hand-whittled cribs but older kids force crazy design choices.

Houzz lets you filter by style. It is huge and so much of it is hideous, but I found great bathroom and kitchen ideas there.

IMO, magazines beat blogs hands-down for home design ideas. Apartment Therapy comes close with the walk-throughs, but magazines have the photography and staging skills to create inspiring ideas. Your local library probably had a bunch of back issues.

I went to blogs and pinterest for specifics (what plant will not die in this shady corner, what kind of towel rack will fit this area), but design came from magazines.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:12 PM on April 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

Agree that Pinterest is a very good tool for this kind of thing (here's mine if you're curious--it's been a lot of fun to 'cultivate'). You may want to look around in the home/decor-type categories, see what you like, and click through to see where the image came from. I've found quite a few blogs i now frequent that way. As far as other sources I like Elle Decor and Architectural Digest. They both skew high-end and have their fair share of the sleek/modern stuff but there's a lot of diverse eye-candy as well.
posted by lovableiago at 10:15 PM on April 18, 2014

I just came across this extenstive Pinterest board and thought of this question. It's decidedly not minimalist but still has lots of ideas that feel fresh and modern.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:19 PM on April 18, 2014

Best answer: You might (or might not) like Abigail Ahern´s or Sibella Court´s style.

Pinterest accounts:

- Abigail Ahern
- Sibella Court

And their blogs:

- Abigail Ahern´s blog
- The Society Inc
posted by lux at 12:57 AM on April 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I really like Moon to Moon, which focuses more on "bohemian" design (whatever that means).
posted by lollymccatburglar at 2:00 AM on April 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It's not a design blog in quite the way you mean, but there is an interesting blog by a historic house historian you might check out (note that I kinda I hate her blog title, but like her blog posts). Recently she has been doing some posts on rooms featuring specific colors: green, blue, red and white (includes some rooms in the mix), etc.. There are also posts on things like bathrooms. She features some interesting things, design wise, and you never know what may spark your imagination.
posted by gudrun at 2:51 AM on April 19, 2014

Don't know what you are looking for exactly, but I love these guys over at Young House Love.
posted by MayNicholas at 5:10 AM on April 19, 2014

Best answer: This quiz might help you identify some style search terms.
posted by EvaDestruction at 5:14 AM on April 19, 2014

Best answer: You might try the decor section of A Beautiful Mess.
posted by ephemerista at 6:26 AM on April 19, 2014

Pinterest is vast, but once you find people with interesting taste to follow, there's a lot of great pictures of furniture, rooms, colors, patterns, name it.
posted by theora55 at 5:17 PM on April 19, 2014

I just want to say that I have had the same problem finding non minimalist design blogs.

I was unsuccessful, I'm excited to hear what you find.
posted by bbqturtle at 7:49 AM on April 21, 2014

I have been restoring a 1931 Hollywood Hills home now for almost eight months, and in the planning stages for a year before that. I have quite the collection of non-minimalistic blogs, as you say. If you feel you need more resources in addition to what has already been posted, I would be more than happy to share my titles with you. (I wanted to chime in when I saw this post on my iPad, but unfortunately my laptop was away for repair at the time, and all my blog resources were on it.)
posted by zagyzebra at 10:11 PM on April 26, 2014