13 Best Interior Design Blogs for Minimalist & Slow Living (2025 Edit)
Instagram is great for quick ideas, but a good design blog goes deeper. It explains why certain kitchen layouts work, how people handle renovations over time, or why a material fits in a home. These insights help readers make smart choices for their own spaces. When you understand the reasons behind design decisions, you can create rooms that feel personal and work well for you.
At D’Atelier No.5059, our clients care more about how their spaces feel every day than about creating “Pinterest-perfect” moments. This list reflects that focus. We chose blogs that:
- Show real homes rather than sets.
- Demonstrate a consistent commitment to simplicity, quality, and longevity.
- Share content that is still active and relevant in 2024 and 2025.
Rather than chasing trends or following sites full of ads, we look for blogs that value authenticity, creativity, and timeless design. These picks offer real insights and helpful ideas to inspire lasting choices for your home.
How We Chose These Blogs
We didn’t want to make just another list of blogs everyone already knows. Instead, we used four main filters:
- First-hand experience and credibility
Authors are either practising designers, stylists, architects, or long-standing writers in the field, with work, books, or collaborations that extend beyond their own blog. - Clear minimalist / slow-living lean
These blogs don’t only show all-white or empty homes, but they do focus on:- edited possessions
- enduring materials
- slower, more thoughtful consumption
- Recent, meaningful content
We looked for blogs or journals that are still active, with new updates, tours, or series that will be helpful in 2025—not just old posts. - Distinct viewpoint
Each blog on this list earned its place. If two blogs covered the same ground for the same audience, we only kept one.
1. These Four Walls (UK)
Created by Abi Dare
Abi Dare’s These Four Walls has quietly become one of the UK’s most credible voices on relaxed, Scandinavian-influenced interiors. A recent post on 3 Days of Design 2024 in Copenhagen, including an interview with lighting designer Sofie Refer of Nuura, is a good example: instead of simply recycling press imagery, Abi explains what actually stood out in person and why those ideas translate to small British homes.
Abi’s strength is practical minimalism. Her home tours, renovation stories, and trade-fair coverage all highlight calm spaces, soft colors, and realistic budgets. If you like bold colors or lots of layers, this blog might not be your style. But if you want a quieter, more unified home, her advice is useful—she even shares what she would do differently next time.
2. The Design Chaser (New Zealand)
Created by Michelle Halford
Michelle Halford’s The Design Chaser is one of the few blogs that clearly connects Scandinavian and Southern Hemisphere styles. Her 2024 posts about Nordiska Kök’s new wood kitchen and Ashley Botten Design’s update of a historic Toronto home show her style: she looks closely at proportion, materials, and light, rather than just giving compliments.
Over time, the site has shifted from just blogging to more curated projects, like styling Baya’s 2024 collection in a Raglan home. The focus is still on thoughtful, often neutral interiors where texture is more important than color. If you’re looking for rental tips or cheap DIYs, there’s less of that here. But if you want to invest in lasting pieces and design a room around them, this blog is a great place to start.
3. Cate St Hill (UK)
Created by Cate St Hill
Cate St Hill’s work combines architecture, wellbeing, and interiors. Her recent guide to modular wall shelving systems sums up her blog: rather than just listing products, she explains why modular systems matter in small homes and how to keep walls from looking overdone.
Cate writes from real experience, having gone through messy renovations and slow upgrades to a Victorian terrace. Her posts about simple living, color psychology, and renovation planning feel personal and honest, like a chat at the kitchen table. The tone is gentle, but her advice is clear—she explains, for example, why you should plan your electrics and lighting before picking paint colors.
4. Curate & Display (UK)
Created by Tiffany Grant-Riley
Tiffany Grant-Riley doesn’t post as often as some others, but her posts are always thoughtful. Her ongoing renovation of an Edwardian home is central to Curate & Display: rooms take years, not weeks, to come together. She talks openly about “slow decorating” and living with temporary pieces and unfinished spaces while waiting for the right items.
Tiffany’s background in styling and DIY comes through in her other work too, like kokedama tutorials in Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants and paper garland projects. This hands-on approach keeps the blog down-to-earth. You won’t find new posts every day, but you will get a real look at what it takes to shape a home without stress or overspending.
5. Coco Lapine Design (Germany/Belgium)
Created by Sarah Van Peteghem
Coco Lapine Design started as Sarah Van Peteghem’s personal inspiration archive in 2011. Today, it’s a curated collection of monochrome interiors, small-space layouts, and product picks with a Belgian-Scandi feel. Her posts usually focus on one project, like a Munich rental with a black-framed fireplace or a small dining area with standout art, and she explains why the setup works instead of just showing it off.
The value here is in the details: Sarah is very selective. There are fewer posts than in a big magazine, but more ideas you can actually use. It’s a great resource if you like calm, graphic spaces and want to know the difference between “empty” and “intentional.”
6. My Scandinavian Home (Sweden)
Created by Niki Brantmark
Niki Brantmark’s My Scandinavian Home is still one of the best everyday resources for practical Nordic design. The blog covers everything from a Swedish family home full of books to a dated Danish house turned into a bright, useful space. Niki always explains why these spaces work, like how narrow desks fit a laptop, slim bookcases balance storage and openness, and small-space tips that really last.
There are some sponsored posts and occasional ad issues, which Niki has talked about openly. The comments are often more interesting than the photos—readers ask about things like wallpaper and desk sizes, and Niki answers in detail. This back-and-forth makes the blog feel more like a real conversation about living in small, mostly white homes.
7. Remodelista (USA)
Founded by Julie Carlson
Remodelista is more of a reference library than a regular blog. Its house-tour archive is a favorite for homeowners and architects who want quiet, functional spaces that still feel personal. For example, a 2024 tour of Lena Corwin’s San Francisco home and a 2025 look at a small Mojave Desert Airbnb kitchen show the blog’s style: straightforward, detailed, and honest about what works and what doesn’t.
The site also posts “Current Obsessions” roundups and practical guides on hardware, lighting, and storage, all with a clear focus: fewer, better choices, and less chasing after trends. It’s aimed at homeowners with some renovation budget, but if you’re planning a big project, it’s one of the few places where the advice is as thoughtful as the photos.
8. Yatzer (International)
Founded by Costas Voyatzis
Yatzer mixes design journalism with cultural reporting. You won’t find step-by-step room makeovers, but you will see in-depth stories about how design, art, and architecture shape daily life—from kinetic lighting at Milan Design Week 2024 to a 2025 Paris show about sustainability and materials.
Here, interiors are part of a bigger story, not just “pretty homes.” Yatzer is less hands-on than Remodelista, but it’s more thought-provoking. It’s a good choice if you’re tired of the same old “minimalist” looks and want to learn about the ideas behind the next wave of slow, material-focused design.
9. The Design Files (Australia)
Founded by Lucy Feagins
The Design Files is run like a full magazine, with regular home tours, themed roundups, and how-to articles, all from an Australian point of view. Their 2024 features—like the Top 10 homes of the year, hardworking rental homes, and coastal houses built with recycled materials—show their approach: they care as much about how people live in a space as how it looks in photos.
This isn’t a “strict minimalism” blog—you’ll see lots of color and pattern. But the main idea fits slow living: careful sourcing, long-lasting materials, and practical layouts that work for kids, pets, and Australian weather. If your version of minimalism includes big art, a worn surfboard, and vintage rugs, you’ll enjoy this blog.
10. Design Hunter (UK)
Created by Helen Powell
Helen Powell’s Design Hunter is at its best when it looks at specific design choices. Her early 2024 series about buying and renovating a new home is a good example: you see unfinished plaster, awkward rooms, compromises, and the beautiful finished spaces.
Helen is known in the UK design world for her skill with neutral colors, and you see that in her work—from kitchen surface case studies to calm, low-contrast rooms. She doesn’t post as often as a big magazine, but when she does, the content is relevant and based on her own projects or work she knows well.
11. EyeSwoon (USA)
Created by Athena Calderone
Athena Calderone’s EyeSwoon is one of the more high-end blogs here, but it earns its place. Her Brooklyn brownstone and Amagansett home have been featured in many design magazines, but the blog still offers new perspectives: detailed looks at her kitchen renovation choices, material pairings that work in real life, and entertaining features that show the spaces in use.
Athena is open about her influences, from Italian modernism to sculptural antiques, and she talks honestly about her mistakes and changes. The main criticism is that EyeSwoon is more aspirational than easy to copy. But even if you never buy a slab of Calacatta Viola, her way of mixing form, function, and atmosphere is a great example of “slow luxury” and worth learning from.
12. All Sorts Of (USA)
Created by Amber Lewis
Amber Lewis created a well-known California style through her studio, Amber Interiors: relaxed, layered, and comfortable. All Sorts Of is where she shares that world. It features project recaps—often from high-profile homes—plus interviews and business talks. As the Pinterest description says, it’s about “laid-back living and entrepreneurship” instead of quick decor tips.
Amber is open about budgets and logistics, more than most designers. Her posts often read like detailed answers to client questions: how many fabrics are too many, which white paint goes with oak, where to save and where to spend. Most photos are from full-service projects, so renters or DIY readers might need to adapt the ideas instead of copying them exactly.
13. Reading My Tea Leaves (USA)
Created by Erin Boyle
Erin Boyle’s Reading My Tea Leaves isn’t a typical interiors blog, and that’s why it belongs here. It always focuses on slow, simple, sustainable living, with the home in the background. Series like “my week in objects (mostly)” and the Simple Matters essays look closely at the small, everyday things that shape a life: a mesh grocery bag, a reused jam jar, or the one good lamp in a rental.
The design lessons are clear, even if not said outright: bring in less, fix what you can, and let your space be a little imperfect and truly lived in. Visually, it’s quieter than other blogs here, but if you want your home to reflect environmental or ethical values, Erin is one of the few writers who talks about that honestly and without showing off. Erin’s blog moved to Substack in 2024, where you can follow on the site and also see the wonderful articles from before 2024.
In Reflection
Minimalist and slow-living homes don’t come from copying one Pinterest board. They are built through many small decisions over time, with a clear sense of what matters. The blogs above are helpful because they show this process openly—including successes, compromises, mistakes, and changes along the way.
Use these blogs like a good reference shelf: browse, take notes, and then look at your own space with fresh eyes. If a post only makes you want to buy something new, skip it. If it helps you better understand your home, keep it. Share what you learn from these blogs with your designer to refine your vision and turn inspiration into real design steps for your space.
At D’Atelier No.5059, we believe a room is finished when it feels honest, not just when it looks done. The same goes for your reading list. Choose writers who make you think, not just scroll.
If you have a favorite blog we missed, let us know in the comments, and we’ll check it out!