Love simple, uncomplicated spaces? Neutral or natural hues? Lots of light and organic materials? Then today’s modern style is sure to speak to your mind, body, and soul.
With a traceable timeline rooted in the early to mid-20th century, this straight-forward style was born in answer to the desire for architecture and furniture with simplistic form and high function. Today’s modern style still possesses the same nonsensical lines, uncomplicated shapes, and soul-soothing spaces, but can be interpreted to suit one’s lifestyle and personal taste.
Modern interiors offer a world of possibilities for streamlining your life and living spaces without sacrificing your individuality and sense of style. Below, we’ve shared our favorite elements of this inviting design style to help you create a modern home all your own.
Make Function Priority
A cornerstone of modern style is high function in both layout and furniture. When choosing furnishings for any room, make sure to consider how each piece will be used and where it will be placed. Ask yourself if it adds or detracts from your overall ease of living. Pride yourself on choosing fewer pieces with greater purpose.
Curate Your Collections
While many of us have amassed a collection of some sort, a prolific group of things often adds more clutter and less value to our spaces. Choose the items you display with care and consider if they give you great joy daily or add stress and mess to your surroundings.
For instance, a book collection neatly displayed on a soaring bookcase can add amazing aesthetic and intellectual value to your room, while 25 porcelain figurines on a display shelf are likely to gather dust and look cluttered.
Minimalize Your Belongings
Like the popular organization guru and cleaning consultant Marie Kondo, we suggest making magic by minimalizing your possessions for clutter-free living. Honing your home’s contents and your possessions down, then smartly organizing those well-deserved pieces can be life-changing and soul-freeing and a great way to start your modern style journey.
Think Simple Shapes & Clean Lines
From a slender silhouetted sofa to a minimalist console table, each piece of modern furniture, art, and décor will lend itself to geometric shapes, clean lines, and non-ornamental detail. Think rectangular or square occasional tables, a luxe leather sofa with tufted tuxedo style, or a pair of boxy lounge chairs. Keep it simple and clean for a truly modern aesthetic.
Uncomplicate Your Color Palettes
White or light grey walls and ceilings paired with natural wood or stone floors provide a wonderful versatile canvas for a modern style home. Upholstered furnishings in neutral shades of beige, grey, white, black, or navy add another layer of versatility to your room. Wood or metal tables, chairs, and benches meld beautifully with a neutral palette to further carry the uncomplicated modern style.
For those who yearn for a bit of color, add pops of brilliant hues in small amounts with patterned rugs, toss pillows, art, and simple decorative items.
Play with Pattern
To add visual interest to a modern room, consider a hand-knotted or woven rug in an expressive pattern or motif. Tone-on-tone patterns add movement while staying true to simplicity of style. Throw pillows or artwork can also offer terrific sources of pattern to play with.
Texturize with Textiles
Tactile surfaces and luxurious textures can add pure pleasure to your surroundings. From a fluffy sheepskin rug to a handknitted throw to a concrete floor, every surface, accessory, and piece of furniture can be a source of wonderful texture in the modern home. Every layer of texture catches the eye and begs to be touched, making your room enliven the senses.
Light it Up
Airy interiors with lots of light are a tenant of true modern style. Keep windows free of fussy window treatments instead choose those that let light in during the day and offer privacy at night, such as simple shades or shutters. Place floor lamps in dark corners, lamps atop tables, and modern pendant fixtures above the kitchen island and in the entry for extra light when natural sources are lacking.
Use Natural Elements
There are endless ways to bring nature indoors in a modern room. Create an indoor herb garden with a modern metal shelf perched in front of a sunlit window. Choose bamboo accessories for the kitchen and baths. Place jute or bamboo floor coverings underfoot in natural finishes.
Meld Materials
Modern style is known for its melding of materials. From warm, weathered woods to sleek metallic finishes to concrete floors, you can’t go wrong mixing materials on furnishings, flooring, fixtures, and surfaces.
Mix Your Modern Style
Today’s modern style is less purist and more diverse. There are so many exciting ways to mix modern elements with other design styles. Popular ones you’ll discover are Modern Lodge, Rustic Modern, Luxe Modern, Glam Modern, Coastal Modern, and more.
If you find yourself leaning towards modern and another style, don’t be afraid to mix it up to suit your personality and decorative style! Just remember to apply the elements above for a simplistic modern space then put a spin on it with a rustic, glam, or coastal touch.
With today’s hectic lifestyles and digital overload, there’s never been a better time to adopt a modern style for your own home.
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