The Tricks of Mixing Modern and Traditional Furniture
There are various design themes you can take your pick from when we talk about interior design, like — Contemporary, Bohemian, Industrial, Traditional, Eclectic, Victorian and Modern Furniture.
Today the hot topic of discussion is how one can mix two very different types of furniture styles and still make the home look classy.
Before we dive into the tips and tricks of mixing the different furniture styles together — namely Modern and Traditional in this case, let’s try and understand each style in depth-first to get a clear picture of the basis of both décor types.
Modern Décor
In simple terms, modern décor is categorized as transforming modern art into interior design by creating a flow of things and furniture in your homes.
Here are a few dominant characteristics in Modern Décor –
Straight Clean Lines
Modern Design is comprised of a lot of clean and straight lines without much additional details and intricacies in terms of design and style. The lines of furniture in modern design are sharper and crisper and are seen a lot in furniture that is placed outside the house on front porches or backyards. You can easily buy outdoor furniture online which resonates with modern design.
Use of metal
Chrome and stainless steel play a big part in the modern design. Instead of wrought metal, polished metal is used in its place. This metal is incorporated in furniture as the legs of a table, the frame of a chair or the frame of a bed. Chrome is also used extensively throughout the homes for doorknobs, faucets, lamps and railing (if any in the house).
Minimalism
Modern design believes in the notion of ‘less is more’. It avoids excessive use of cabinet trims, mouldings or even bright loud colours.
Colour Palette
The colours used in the modern design are bold, but they shouldn’t be mistaken for loud. It means that the colour palette used ranges from a neutral tone to shades of grey, white and black.
Traditional Decor
There is no strict rulebook for traditional décor because, just as the name suggests, ‘traditional’ décor varies from one country or region to another. Swedish décor is traditional to Sweden, Iranian décor leans towards the Middle East and Indian décor obviously sprouts from India.
In this sense of traditionalism, let’s talk about Indian Traditional Décor and discuss its important elements.
Colour Palette
Our country India is extremely rich in its culture when it comes to celebrating festivals, delicious food, languages etc. In the very same way, bright and bold colours are the perfect representation of what a traditional Indian colour palette would look like. This palette would consist of colours like yellow, orange, red and even green.
Sculptures
Indian decorative items are highly influenced by sculptures and statues made up of stone, clay, brass and steel. These statues represent animals, deities and Buddhas.
Upholstery
The upholstery that is used in Indian décor on beds and sometimes sofas and chairs has tassels on its end, intricate designs and bright colours, living up to the mark of the vibrant culture of our country.
Furniture
The prominent material used for Indian traditional furniture is wood. You can have your bed frames, tables, chairs and even frames of sofas made up of wood. These not only loyal but are also sturdy and stay timeless when it comes to style.
Carpets and Rugs
Handmade rugs and carpets are very common and widely used in this type of traditional décor. A beautifully handcrafted carpet can take the look of your living room up a few notches very easily, without much effort.
Now that you have a clear idea of what both Modern and Traditional furniture are like, let’s dip into the ideas and ways with which we can mix these two different décor styles up and invoke pure magic into our homes.
1. Modern Style — White walls
Traditional Style — Wooden Coffee Table
You can have your living rooms painted with a stark white colour to make space look peaceful and big and to add a touch of traditionalism, add a dark stained wooden coffee table. This easily imbibes a traditional touch in a modern home decor.
2. Modern Style — Dining table with metallic legs and metallic frame for chairs.
Traditional Style — Tealights.
Add a set of floating tea lights in a metal bowl as a centrepiece on the dining table.
3. Modern Style — Black Walls.
Traditional Style — Colourful Folk Paintings.
Paint the walls of your passage of a small area in your house black or ones of its shades and hang up a few bold colourful paintings on them.
4. Modern Style — Bed with Metal frame and White covers.
Traditional Style — Pillows with bright covers with motifs and embroidery.
For your bedroom, you can have a plain simple bed, with a metal frame, covered with white bedspreads and to give it a pop of colour, add pillows with bright coloured motifs and patterns with detailed designs on them.
5. Modern Style — Abstract Paintings
Traditional Style — Deep coloured walls
Hang up abstract minimalistic paintings on walls that are deep yellow, orange or red in colour.
The idea of mixing two very different styles of décor can be very daunting, but once you master and understand each style in and out, the process becomes much easier. These simple tricks should help you to mix things up a little in your homes and add some edge to it.
