Say goodbye to your white walls, Maximalism is back in all of its bold glory

Say goodbye to your white walls and tasteful Scandi furniture and make way for animal-print wallpaper and purple couches because Maximalism is back in all of its bold, opulent glory.

At least, according to all the cool people on Instagram, like Texas interior creative Judy Aldridge and English home and garden designer Lissi Walker, whose focus is not so much on the most expensive armoire, but rather on re-purposing op-shop finds and collecting vintage treasure.

You know how these things start. You buy your mum a miniature clock one year and six months later she has a cupboard full of them. But that’s just one mum, and this, dear dwellers, is a bona fide trend.

The swing from clean, beige furnishings to a hoarder’s paradise is reportedly down to – hold on to your low-level sideboards – the current political climate, with the maximalists claiming they can no longer stand what’s going on with Trump, Brexit, etc., so they’ve made their home their sanctuary. But that theory doesn’t really hold up, when one considers that the more chaotic the outdoors, the more serene and calm you like your home to be.

Instead, let’s put the blame where it belongs: on Gucci. The Italian fashion house has enjoyed a gloriously maximalist comeback in the last few years, thanks to the appointment of Alessandro Michele as creative director in 2015. The man who thinks nothing of layering leopard print over orange polka dots, and calling it a dress released a homewares line last year.

With candy-pink velvet cushions, baroque-style dining chairs and candle holders straight outta the Renaissance, it’s very much in keeping with the overall Gucci aesthetic, which might be summed up as “The Royal Tenenbaums go to Florence – on acid”.

Overstimulating? Exactly. And, it seems, everybody’s followed suit. Case in point: IKEA, once the cool king of minimalism, and furniture so basic you could build it yourself, collaborated with Swedish artist Per B Sundberg last month to produce such decorative delights as silver poodle candlesticks, kitschy ceramic pots and cartoonish figurines. In summary: they’ve gone maximalist.

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Sundberg, who describes his style as “rough” and “burlesque” would fit right in with Australian artist Minna Gilligan, a self-identifying maximalist married to a minimalist, living in a two-bedroom apartment in Melbourne. Gilligan, who admits if it wasn’t for her husband, she’d be in danger of hoarding, says “I love a house with lots of things to dust, and heaps of plants and fresh flowers and stuff on the walls.”

Yes, being a maximalist is a full-time job, what with all the collecting and the layering and the power-clashing, and definitely not for the faint of heart. And this is reportedly the point, with one maximalist, a UK photographer by the name of Pati Robins, who has over 50,000 followers on Instagram, explaining that the trend is due to people “getting sick and tired of living like everybody else” she told UK newspaper The Guardian. “I think we just want to be seen as individuals.”

Robins has a point. Because while the current conservatism from Trump, et al, might stress uniformity, culturally speaking we’re all less conformist than ever, with statistics reflecting that our stance on a wide range of social issues has become more progressive over the last decade. Politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so, what are you waiting for? It’s time to start painting your bathroom bright orange and layering some zebra-print wallpaper over the top.

Renting? Not a problem – because, you see, renting is on the increase. Which means more people – like Gilligan, who also rents – are choosing to live the bulk of their lives as tenants rather than owners. The knock-on effect is that people are now taking up permanent residence in apartments, so there’s no need to keep that flat safe and bland for the next person. And this is one reason – perhaps more convincing than the political one – that maximalism is back.

Where once you had home owners saving for a mortgage and then saving for good furniture, these days, with more people choosing to rent, they’re getting their kicks from the little things – like that lime green mosquito net draped over your vintage collection of porcelain cats.

So the next time your flatmate or partner or parent tells you to clean out your closet, you can explain to them that you’re not messy, you’re simply a maximalist and you believe that more is more.