minimalism or nothingness?  

A good thread to explore! ...
A good thread to explore! Thanks for starting this. I too tend to find minimalism starkness off putting. I'm making slow strides towards appreciating. accepting and incorporating it into my life (to an extent). My reasoning as followed.
Lets start with color. White being seemingly the color of choice, representing purity and cleanliness. Some neutrals, but ultimately white. A clean canvas if one would look at it as such. Essential living...like simple foods and water. No need for dark chocolate covered butter biscuits.
Translating that into psychology, I begin to see it as uplifting, a contrast against material grounding. Being free of any frivolous distractions enables one to live clearly with unbridled focus and determination. A private recharging dock. Minimalism is here and now, into tomorrow. A transitional point in daily living, no need for excesses. Moving?...a graceful exit...
I have yet to know anyone fully immersed in an extremely minimalist lifestyle. I have met and know a few minimalist, but none are truly cold, uptight or haughty..but casual warm and inviting. Would like to understand more about their perspective as well.

KDC
perhaps you forgot to...
KDC
perhaps you forgot to upload a photo?

My wife and I had a...
My wife and I had a minimalish white box 3 houses ago and they dont work if you have pets and suffer from anal retention.Our house had dog hairs that blew through it like tumbleweed and it needed sweeping and hovering daily and sometimes a few times as everything showed up easily.The upside is it looks great when clean but after living with it once i wouldnt do it again.

I try to practice a minimalist aesthetic with varying degrees of success.
Is my space stark white like the Kanye space, absolutely not, although I did cover all of my books in white book covers to make a monolithic wall of books. We have books out the wahzoo and have always collected them. All of the various colored dust covers though made for a fair amount of visual "noise" and thus the shift to a monochromatic display. It's the first thing people notice when they walk in and it was for us also when we first did it, but over time, they've just disappeared into the wall.
We also have used color in various parts of the house, like the wall that travels the whole depth of the house, right down the center is painted in Behr's "Corn Husk Green, all the other surrounding walls are a cool white. Does this make us minimalists in the strictest sense of the word? Probably not. But we are constantly striving to eliminate clutter and let architectural details or furniture details stand on their own with out a lot of visual distractions.
The kitchen is another place we try to achieve this, instead of having the granite countertops covered in all manner of gadgetry that may be used once or twice a week, we try to keep the countertops absolute clear with all gear stored in cupboards so that we can enjoy the rich pattern in the granite, while allowing the eye to sweep across the open expanse. We also have polished concrete floors throughout, and a little white dog, so our Roomba and our twice weekly housekeeper is kept busy, but what we've eliminated in clutter to dust seems to balance the maintenance issues out quite nicely.
We constantly fight off the pack rat urges, and sometimes it's a struggle, but it does clarify the mind a bit.

White book covers?
Do you print the titles onto the white covers? How do you locate the books you're looking for?

The books are first all grouped on the shelves relative to topic
and then we got sheets of the clear Avery labels that one would use for 1/3 cut manila file folders, picked an interesting font, sized the font slightly larger for the book title then the font size for the author. Justified the text to the right side of the label and then placed the label on the spine approximately 3/4 of inch up from the bottom.
We also printed the labels in a dove gray ink color so they are visible when one peruses the book spines from a normal reading distance, but they are quite subtle, in fact completely unseen, from anywhere else in the room. It was a rather time consuming project effected over several weeks, an hour or two a day, but worth it.

I have asked myself this very...
I have asked myself this very question before. I like minimalism as an idea, but not as an execution for living. For many, the idea seems to be one of freedom from things, but for others the reality creates an uncomfortable, sterile living environment that is a prison in and of itself.
I believe moderation is key to everything. Minimalism can be taken too far.
That being said, most anyone could benefit from a little dose of it. Getting rid of things you don't need, not acquiring new things you don't need is a great way to reduce stress in your life that can otherwise be ignored.
On a personal note, minimalism is just too damn serious for me. I prefer a bit of childlike curiosity a la Girard. Little punches of color and little gadgets and kick-knacks with a personal meaning can really improve your mood. While minimalist interiors can be a blank slate for your human emotions, I would rather the blankness to be filled in - preferably with something that is uplifting. But then again, this is perhaps a defense against my tortured artist, sad bastard tendencies.
Just a matter of taste and psychology really.

I totally agree Whitespike
I sometimes (in my more obsessive moments) crave a minimalist lifestyle
But in reality, I think it's a case of fads n fancies.
Emporers New Clothes.
It is the extreme of an aspiration, and I doubt whether people *actually* live like that
I could be wrong of course..........
I have the 'collector gene' .. so it doesn't suit me.
I kinda understand that people who buy into it think it is calming..

A little bit goes a long way
I think it would be nice to have one room, at least, done in a minimalist manner just for those times when you want to unclutter your mind and relax. Maybe the master bath/spa room?
Doing the whole house that way, on the other hand, and here I agree with Killian, would contribute to my stress level because it would have to be kept so friggin' neat or else it loses its' aesthetic. I have to admit, though, that when I see beautiful minimalist homes in magazines or books, they have great appeal to me.
In my mind, there's a real dichotomy in living minimalist. The decor that encourages a minimalist world view and lifestyle that is typically meant to decrease stress would, in fact, actually increase stress, in my case, because I think I would feel the need to be hyperdiligent in my housekeeping in order not to spoil the look. And, god forbid, one of my grown kids came home to visit and left his usual detritus around, I'd go crazy.
Wasn't there a thread on designs for senior living arrangements? Perhaps a minimalist senior center where the residents just get to finally relax and enjoy the serenity and somebody else has to keep it uberclean? I'd sign up for that one!

nothingness for me...
i generally find minimalism stark, even combative these days. the whole idea seems to me an elitist approach to design and i can't help but admit that 'contrived' is the first thought that enters my mind upon observation of most minimalist interiors. but my main problem with it is inaccessability. trite maybe, but i'll not pretend that the comfort of my family/friends who may not appreciate MCM as much as other genres doesn't linger in the back of my mind. again, maybe selfish. but good design can be arranged to appeal to all.

moderately minimal
very good feedback, and much appreciated. it's at least nice to know that so many others with similar design interests and sensibilities are also evaluating the proclaimed benefits and [im]practicalities of such a lifestyle.
whitespike, i'm completely with you on the childlike curiosity touch. for instance, sitting atop my swedish dala horse is a little plastic 50s-era cowboy figurine aiming his rifle at something in the distance. for me it's a bit of whimsy, a way of saying relax and have fun.
it just seems as though "pure" minimalism is way too strict and legalistic. and as riki aptly points out, it is not at all accommodating to the human condition. life is often messy, and though that fact does not necessarily grant a license to live in an undisciplined and irresponsible manner, it does mean that perfection is unrealistic and its futile pursuit extremely costly.
the big tv guy sounds like his steps toward simplicity have been effective and sound very attractive to me--though i can't even fathom for me how camouflaging my entire library would make it anywhere near the top of my leg-long to-do list!
as noted by many, the pursuit of reducing or eliminating visual clutter is certainly noble aspiration. to a large extent the abundance is a reflection of our consumerist culture in general, so minimizing the home environment can serve as a tutorial for those young, formative minds growing up around our feet.
just more musings...

Much of that super reductive...
Much of that super reductive looks seductive in photographs at times.Storing objects keeps the objects fresh, you do cease to "see"things you have out constantly.Change the small objects...keeps your eye fresh.Just think how a vase of peonies would look on Pawsons table...sing like they could not under a massive light fixture or surrounded by vibrant wallpaper...

I made the books into a monolith as they are the first thing you see
when you come into the living room from the foyer. As to the time it took to accomplish, time is something I am happy to say I have the luxury of. No kids, and no 9 to 5 time grinder.

It remains very difficult for many to grasp evolution...
Human beings and the universe itself are evolving.
Evolution is not preordained in how it will go.
There is NO ultimately correct way of doing things, because life keeps evolving; this is the hardest idea for persons accept with any profundity. Even the idea of evolution itself is neither perfect, nor complete.
We are constantly being borne into a new world. This world has many things that do not change, but it has many others that do change.
Hence, there can be no ultimately correct way of designing, nor an ultimately correct dictum for design in evolving world.
Evolution keeps happening, and life keeps reorganizing itself to the changes. So do salesmen. So do plumbers. So do designers.
Every human activity solves some problems and creates others.
Design is no different.
Perfection is not an option in this world.
Miminalism is a good fit for some problems.
Minimalism is a misfit for others.
Minimalism maybe right one time and not another.
Designers should only use dicta as tools for solving problems.
Designers who begin to use dicta as laws, or things to be believed, or worse, believed in, are in a drift toward ideology, or religion, or both, and not design.
The only worth any designer, or scientist, or doctor, or plumber, or soldier, or politician has for fellow humans is in solving problems with tolerable trade-offs. The problems you solve must give more utility (which includes beauty, function and price)than it causes problems, at least in the short term.
I don't want a designer to believe in minimalism. I want him to use minimalism, or whatever, as a tool to make me a really good widget that I need.
I don't need, or want, a secular designer priest.
I need an an effective designer.
A designer can have a design philosophy without believing in it as one might the creed of a religion.
A designer can (and should) change a design philosophy any time doing so allows him/her to be more effective in designing something.
Often consistency can be a good thing, because repetition allows one to get better at something. But consistency that leads to sub-par design is silly.
Don't feel bad about getting disillusioned with minimalism, if it isn't solving your design problems.
But also don't grown disillusioned with minimalism, as if it were a religion you just saw through.
It's just suddenly a 10mm wrench, when you need a 12mm one.