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In 2021, I was interviewed on the topic of cluttercore; a trend I hadn’t heard of but apparently was doing 🤔
According to Hunker Home, cluttercore is “a maximalist design style that centers on displays of large collections of items, typically ones that have some sort of emotional or nostalgic value to their owners. Done correctly, cluttercore is not a chaotic mess — rather, it’s organized chaos.”
In 2025, the term cluttercore seems to be substituted with the possibly more descriptive and accessible term ‘intentional clutter’.
🎬 WATCH: Intentional clutter
Just like cluttercore, intentional clutter describes spaces with curated and organised pockets of bric-a-brac, personal items, collections and random decorative objects.
Whatever you want to call it, it’s a look that I love because it allows you to really showcase who you are… in the place where you can be the most you.
Here are my top tips to help you pull off the intentional clutter aesthetic in your home.
Keep it contained
If you try to style every single surface with ‘more is more’ in mind, chances are it will just look messy.
The gallery wall and bookshelf situation in our living room is apparently peak cluttercore and why I was interviewed on the subject.
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However here, the clutter is intentionally contained to one wall, while the furniture and styling in the rest of the space is less bold, less colourful and definitely less extra.
This makes the gallery wall the star of the show, with all the individual bits of “clutter” essentially reading as one. Meanwhile, the eye can relax a little in other parts of the room; the opposite wall features simple white sheer curtains, the lounge area features a minimalist leather sofa on a brown neutral rug and the dining space features a mango wood dining table with white chairs.
So to avoid the risk of things looking messy, be intentional with your clutter in a contained space, like a wall, bookshelf or cabinet. This will give the eye a chance to rest somewhere close by.
Books are your besties
Books are a great place to start… cos what’s a bookshelf without books?
In fact, what’s a home without books? Books just make a home feel warm, lived-in and collected.
Books should always be part of your decor, even if you’re not a big reader… but of course it feels more credible if you are 😉
🎬 WATCH: People with bookshelves
The colourful spines of random books — or the uniform spines of book collections — make for a very visually pleasing vignette. Especially in a bookcase, books are the perfect kind of clutter.
Even if you’re not decorating a bookshelf, a stack of two books, one larger, one smaller, with something on top of it, is a great way to decorate an empty space.
Focus on curated collections
Collectors, rejoice! The intentional clutter trend is your friend.
Whether you collect clocks, mirrors, colourful glassware, vintage typewriters or [insert oddity here] this is your chance to make a beautiful display with them.
🎬 WATCH: Curated maximalism
The blue hutch in our dining space features a collection of mostly brass picture frames, many of which are mini. When I come across a mini brass frame in a secondhand store, I simply cannot resist them!
You could incorporate your collection into a bigger story or you could go all-in and create a vignette focused on just one collection.
Include a variety of items
When you’re styling your shelf or cabinet, make sure there’s variety.
Unless you’re focusing on one collection, try to include a few different types of items, like books, bric-a-brac, photo frames, plants, ceramics, baskets and more.
If you’re styling a full bookshelf, start with the books, but leave space for other items on at least a few of the shelves. This will add variety and interest and break up the monotony.
🎬 WATCH: Bookshelf wealth
But whatever you do, don’t just pop into Kmart and buy all your bits from there. Take your time to tell a story; pick things up at thrift shops, hang on to family heirlooms, collect souvenirs on your travels and buy things you really love.
At its essence, intentional clutter is about filling your home with personality, so make sure the stuff you’re decorating with tells your story.
Include a variety of shapes
Although intentional clutter is inherently maximalist, that doesn’t mean there’s no rhyme or reason to it.
Two important design principles to consider are scale and balance.
Scale refers to the size and proportion of items, while balance refers to how those items are arranged.
When everything is a similar size, it just looks off. The bookshelf we mentioned above; you’ve started with the books and left some space for something else. Instead of filling that space with an item of a similar height to the books, adding something shorter but wider — like a beautiful ceramic bowl — will create asymmetrical balance and movement.
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Decorate in triangles
I’ll let you in on a little interior design secret: the rule of three.
In a nutshell, groups of items tend to look better when there are three of them. That empty space next to the books we talked about? Pop a threesome there!
But you don’t just want any three items. You want three items that you can create a visual triangle with; one large, one medium and one small.
Styling three different items of varying heights and weights creates a sense of harmony. This technique is used across design styles, including minimalist interiors. In minimalist interiors, the visual triangle will typically involve less colour and more blank space around it.
To make your visual triangles a bit more cluttercore, just go a little harder, and don’t be scared of colour!
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