The design trend that celebrates the things you love.
Story by Tracy Dickinson
Featured in Winter 2026
For the past several years, a grassroots trend has grown into a design movement known as cluttercore. In part a revolt against extreme minimalism, the trend is less about clutter and more about surrounding yourself with the things you love.
Designers have gradually begun to embrace what many homeowners celebrated immediately. Using a few basic principles, you can embrace the cluttercore trend without going overboard.
Focus
Cluttercore is all about showing off your collection, whether that’s vintage dishes, shelves of books, or pop art prints. Remember, though, that even a collection needs a focal point.
If you own a hundred classic movie posters, displaying all of them in one room would probably be overwhelming. Selecting a variety of key items to display allows those pieces to stand out more effectively. This also provides the opportunity to keep your decor fresh. Much like some of the displays in an art museum, you can rotate the items on display and create a new look every few months.
Creating mini displays within your space is another way to help your collection shine. Rather than one massive display that might otherwise overpower the design, displaying groups of smaller collections, each with its own focal point, provides a path for your gaze to follow and a place for your eyes to rest.
Balance
One of the trickiest elements to achieve in a cluttercore design is balance because the items on display are often very similar in size and proportion. In this situation, balance can be created from the display itself rather than from the items within the actual collection.
For example, those vintage dishes can be displayed on shelves with plates and bowls stacked to give height in the background and a single cup and saucer given center stage. Or stand plates on edge as a backdrop behind serving pieces and glassware.
Cluttercore is not about hoarding or accumulating
for the sake of accumulation.
When displaying artwork on the wall, start with a single focal piece and balance the display around that to avoid a chaotic feel. Alternatively, use shelves and stand your artwork in overlapping layers.
This technique not only makes it possible to display more items but adds texture as well.
If books are your love language, you can add floor-to-ceiling shelves and fill every square inch with them. But you can also let the books be part of the decor. Shelve them by color or shelve them in groups, leaving some areas open or breaking up the lines of books with a piece of artwork or other item.
Consider the size of the individual pieces, the size of the display, and the size of the room as well when seeking to balance your design. Although cluttercore is intended to pay tribute to the things you love, you want the space to feel inviting instead of intimidating. That means making sure the collection serves as background without crowding you out.
Harmony
Any avid collector will tell you more is more, and that is certainly true in cluttercore as well. But more is not just more. Displaying more is also the source for the harmony your collection creates in your home. To accomplish this, start small and allow inspiration to lead you to the more that works best in your home.
Begin with a corner display or a single wall of old family photos. Start with a single piece of artwork and gradually add pieces that speak to you. Get that box of vintage jewelry from the back of the closet and find a way to show off your pieces.
The collection you choose should not only bring you joy, but it should create in your home what harmony brings to a good song, a complementary element that completes the theme.
Your displays should not distract from the rest of your decor. They should reflect the style you have put into your home. Those bold pops of color that you’ve incorporated with throw pillows and accent chairs are the same ones you’ve always loved in vintage travel posters. If you have the weathered tones of old leather and brushed metals in a room, they make the setting for your collection of spaghetti western movie posters.
Cluttercore is not about hoarding or accumulating for the sake of accumulation. It’s about creating a home that reflects who you are and makes you feel comfortable.
While most home decor trends are dictated by fashion or a design fad that might not suit the average home, cluttercore is a direct result of real homeowners embracing the things they love. This design movement is a bit of a revolution. •
