Modernize Your Home With a Contemporary Look

If you’re the type of person who enjoys modern looking art pieces and lives for the current home interior trends, contemporary furniture is the furniture style that best suits you. Here are some tips to harmoniously creating the perfect contemporary look in your home.

The contemporary look focuses on openness yet still keeping the room inviting. Although many contemporary interiors are somewhat severe, unlike the warmer traditional look, the right furniture placement can transform the room from sober to welcoming. Neutral furniture is the best, with beige couches adding lighter colors into the room and darker wood furniture like dining tables and coffee tables bringing the contemporary look together. The furniture should have clean lines, without extra details. Glass is commonly found, such as on coffee tables with glass tabletops. Natural fabrics like cotton and jute work well in a contemporary setting, as do engineered woods such as medium density fiberboard or particleboard. These manmade wood furniture pieces help save trees and provide long lasting quality at a less costly rate than solid hardwoods.

The contemporary palette is bold and basic, with neutrals like black and white as the anchor colors. Splashes of other bright colors are also used. The brighter colors pop due to the bare background, producing dramatic highlighting. The most extreme contemporary styled room features only one boldly colored wall, with the rest of the room in black and white. Keep the walls white, the furniture in darker hues, and add accent colors where you like for a less austere look. Remember that the contemporary look emphasizes less is more; don’t go overboard with color. For instance, keep any area rugs in a solid color and show off décor that picks up the color of the rug to unify the room.

Tracked lighting or recessed lighting is used as a minimalist approach to lighting. Play with shadows and depth in different parts of the room with different lights, including basics like floor lamps and table lamps. Keep any other décor to a minimum. Airy spaces make the contemporary look sleek, so avoid cluttering the room with knickknacks, no matter how precious to you. Minimalist styling is what contemporary furniture and lighting is all about—stay away from busy patterns and stick with solid colors.