How to Mix Traditional and Modern Furniture Styles

When you mix traditional and modern furniture styles you are doing away with labels to create an individualized, multi-layered living space. As it is, furnishing your home should be more about developing your own personal style rather than adhering to any single one unless you are truly passionate about it.

That said, combining modern furniture and accessories with traditional ones can often result in chaos if not planned in advance. To simplify the process, there are major considerations that might make it easier to combine the two very different styles together.

Modern or Traditional?

To create a really great balance, decide whether you want your space to be primarily modern or primarily traditional. Letting one style dominate is crucial because you don’t want to create a space where everything is fighting for equal attention.

Once you figure out the dominating style, you will either have a modern space with antique accents or a traditional space with contemporary accents.

Basically, you are furnishing in one style while choosing the other one for accent.

Why Do You Love It?

Once you’ve figured out where your loyalties lie, find out why that style appeals to you. Look at the visual attributes of a piece of furniture. When you find yourself attracted to a piece is it because of its shape and lines, or do you admire it for its color and texture?

There is no wrong answer here, and spend as much time as you need to come up with one that makes you happy. Whenever you see some furniture you like, make a note of what you like about it. Also, notice how you describe it to someone else. Do you talk about its sleek lines or rich texture? Is color what matters to you? If you collect pictures of furniture you like, you will begin to see a pattern.

This allows you to tie in pieces of different styles through their shapes, or material or color and texture, depending on which aspect appeals to you.

Harmony or Contrast?

After figuring out what you like and why you like it, it is time to settle another important question. What kind of a look are you going for, harmony or contrast?

If you want to create harmony for a more restful look, select furniture pieces that are more alike, or just a few degrees apart. For instance, for a harmonized look you may want to pair Hans Wegner chairs with a more traditional wood table. Although these chairs have a very modern sensibility, they are made of wood, which can harmonize with the table.

To create contrast and excitement, juxtapose colors and textures, such as Eames molded plywood chairs in different colorful stains, or the Tolix chaise in steel or colored metal with your traditional table.

Mix It Up

Now that you’ve figured out which elements are important to you, go ahead and start mixing it up.

• Let one style dominate, and use the other one for accents.
• Tie different styles together with the same color, texture, or shape.
• Get different nuances by creating harmony or contrast when you mix different styles.

Any questions please feel free to ask me through Andrew@sinotxj.com