Negative space is the secret to a nicer looking home

Sometimes less is more when it comes to design, as I reflected while styling the bookshelves in my home office. When I tried to cram in my full collection of vintage metal bakeware, the look was more junk shop than serene studio. But once I removed some objects, the backdrop for my desk became cool, calm and collected.

That’s the magic behind negative space, the empty areas around objects like furniture, art and accessories. It sounds counterintuitive, but including areas of blankness lets focal points shine, adds interest and allows spaces to breathe, New York potter and designer Jonathan Adler explains. It’s no wonder he calls negative space a decorator’s secret weapon. Here are his and other pros’ strategies for cutting visual clutter and adding drama — sometimes at the same time.

Edit, then edit some more

“Just because you have spare wall or empty floor space doesn’t mean you have to fill it,” New York designer Ksenya Malina says. To avoid visual overload, choose a focal point in each room — a fireplace, work of art, dramatic staircase, piece of furniture — and remove distracting elements around it. That’s the approach Atlanta designer Olivia Westbrooks took when designing a home office. To highlight an eight-foot-tall artwork, she kept the walls around it bare, allowing the piece to pop. California designer Kerrie Kelly applied the same strategy in a minimalist bathroom. Thanks to ample negative space, all eyes are on the beautifully veined marble tiles.

Limit wall color

Restricting your paint palette helps keep the focus where you want it — and it also creates “the sensation of spaciousness,” Malina says. “Try painting a room with just one color, where the walls, trim, ceiling and doors are all the same,” she says. “This enhances the perception of height, allowing the eye to travel uninterrupted throughout the space.”

Space out vignettes

As I experienced while curating my office bookshelves, there’s a fine line between cluttered and composed. “Negative space helps keep tabletop clutter in check,” Malina says. That’s why she’ll group together objects with one theme (say, vintage glass vessels or antique candlesticks). Then, she’ll leave blank space around that arrangement before adding another one.

The same method applies when arranging groupings of furniture, Adler says. “Think of your home as a series of islands with a little moat of clean, blank space around each one,” he says. “Then, decorate the hell out of those islands with pieces that spark joy and conversation and — best of all — intrigue.”

Choose airy furniture

In my bedroom, I struggled to lighten up a seating area with two dark-legged wing chairs featuring traditional upholstery. Then, presto change-o: By harnessing the magical powers of negative space via a Lucite ottoman, I was able to air out the room.

If glass or Lucite aren’t your style, consider “floating” furniture, like wall-mounted consoles and nightstands. “When furniture or the placement of items feels heavy, floating pieces keep a room feeling balanced and light,” Adler says.

Deliver dimension

Include surfaces with positive and negative space to provide a little drama. To embellish a client’s ceiling, Westbrooks designed a three-dimensional millwork detail. Against a flat wood surface, some pieces jut out, creating an irregular crisscross pattern. The resulting contrasts in depth within the woodwork intrigue the eye and lend a sense of movement to the room.

Not inclined to shell out for custom millwork? Try purchasing a fluted headboard or installing fluted wall paneling to designate an accent wall instead. Or take a cue from Paris architect and designer Hugo Toro and give the illusion of dimensionality with graphic, high-contrast flooring.

Include sculptural elements

Remember the famous optical illusion Rubin’s vase? If you look only at the positive space, you see a vase. But if you isolate the negative space, you perceive two faces in profile — a visually compelling reminder that what’s absent can tell as much of a story as what’s present. With this concept in mind, look for furniture with silhouettes that yield interesting anti-shapes, like Jonathan Adler’s Riviera Waterfall Console. Or incorporate similarly intriguing accessories or plants, like a puddle-shaped mirror, fiddle-leaf fig tree or prickly pear cactuses.

Try an unexpected layout

Add an element of surprise by disrupting symmetry in your room’s negative space, Adler suggests. Place a focal point to the side or hang art at different levels, as he did at the Parker Palm Springs. “Many forget the placement of everything in your home is just as important as the items that fill it,” he says. “If selecting glamorous pieces is the golden child of decorating, then negative space is its overlooked middle sibling — and I’m here to tell you, don’t overlook it!

Paper the walls

How can you add pattern, color and interest to a room without visual overload? Wallpaper, Toro says. A repeating pattern in wallpaper can appear to recede, so the walls effectively become negative space, he explains. In fact, a pattern with plenty of white space can be downright serene, Pittsburgh designer Colleen Simonds says.

For a child’s bedroom, she chose black-and-white wallpaper to soften the room and give the eyes a place to rest. For wall coverings with bold patterns and color, though, restraint is probably in order.

In a dining room, Simonds only covered one area with wallpaper, leaving the surrounding walls blank. “Wallpapering all four walls would have felt like too much, but we still wanted a bold dose of color and pattern,” she explains. In other words, the room needed enough negative space.