Knowing More about Different Interior Design Styles

Knowing More about Different Interior Design Styles

If you’re starting an interior design project, one of the first questions that you need to ask yourself is, “what style should I choose?” It doesn’t matter if you’re decorating a condominium unit, or a 3 bedroomed house, picking out a specific style can make decorating a lot easier.

If you want to be able to put together a well-designed room, you need to consider 3 things before picking out a specific style. First, it should look well with the rest of the house, second, it should be appropriate for the space, and third, it should reflect your personality and taste. Don’t be afraid to mix and match different styles if you’re going for a unique and vibrant feel. To get started, here are just a few interior design styles that you can draw inspiration from.

Modern
The modern style is great for smaller homes like apartments because it’s functional and maximizes space. Colors are kept in the neutral color palette, with maybe one bold color as an accent. Function always comes before form so you’ll see a lot of asymmetrical balance in the room.
You can tell that a room is done in the modern style when you see a lot of clean lines and minimal use of textures. This style provides a simple and calming feel to a room. This kind of style is suited to any room at all but if you use modern design, remember that you can still have features or focal points within a room and that won’t take away from the modern look.

Look how the modern lines are used in this bathroom. The bathroom is still very functional but not fussy or busy. That means that decorative elements are kept to a minimum and that the overall look is a clean one. Towels can be blended in with the color of tiling if that’s something you want to incorporate and the style of faucets used is simple and unfussy.

Contemporary
The contemporary aesthetic gives off a trendy welcoming feel, making it perfect for people who like to be in style. Colors and furnishings are basic and bare, but bold at the same time. Open space is an important element to this style, so clutter and extra details are absolute no-nos. Geometric patterns and unique furniture pieces are used to add interest to this style.

This kind of styling is popular today for living spaces because it affords individuality and it doesn’t cost the earth to create a space that is contemporary in style.

For example, you can have individual artwork items that give it boldness and these don’t have to be expensive. It’s where you place things and the colors that you choose that help to pull this style off.
You could hunt out contemporary items in an antique or second-hand store and you may even possess contemporary seating but have not really been able to see it because the room was too busy with other things. Look how the single chair in this picture stands out because the background is minimalistic and the contrasting colors used are plain.

Urban
Urban interiors are perfect for those who want to combine living and working spaces together. This is a style that is often seen in converted buildings like renovated warehouses or studio apartments. Making use of open wide spaces, the urban style showcases creative use for exposed structural materials. You’ll also see a lot of industrial materials like steel pipes and refurbished pallets used as furnishings. Creativity is key if you want to pull off that urban feel for your multifunctional space.
This kind of style is usually divided into separate living areas, not by walls but by clever placement of furnishings and by the decorative elements that are used so that those different areas can be distinguished, one from another. For example, a dining space within an urban interior may be colored in a different way and have different lighting to the general living space. This adds focal interest to an area within a large space and makes it feel more intimate.


Classical
Classical design is based on symmetry and balance and is heavily influenced by classic Greek and Roman design. One thing that really defines the classical style is the use of a focal point in the room such as a fireplace or a large piece of furniture like a piano. Furniture and decor are then arranged around the focal point to highlight it. Natural colors and textures are preferred in this style to give it a warm feel. Fabrics used are more traditional, adding to the room’s overall elegance.
Classical styling may also be that style of decoration which is in character with the era in which the building was constructed. Many people like to bring a home back to how it would have been originally presented, as fashions have changed over the years. Stripping back the layers of superficial decoration can often give very pleasing results because many of the classic features have been hidden because of changes in fashion. However, truly classic style will never really go out of vogue.

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The tradition of fireplaces and shelving actually can look very smart indeed and you may have alcoves that you can use to add all that extra storage space without having to buy expensive furniture but instead, using built-in items.


Art Deco
Art deco is generally sleek, with touches of drama in furniture and decor pieces. The feel is very glamorous with lots of industrial metals and lacquered wood accents. To add to its dramatic feel, black or a darker shade of purple is used as the main color. In order to counteract the dark feel of the color palette, table lamps with frosted shades can be used. This design is known for being intentionally overly decorated with bold colorful wall art, bronze accessories, and etched glass vases.
If you like Art deco, then think angles because it’s usually the angles that give away this styling. Think dramatic. Think theatrical.

You may even be able to find pieces that are suitable to this style in second-hand stores and they may just be the pieces that make the difference between bland styling and definitive Art deco.



Retro
When old trends make a comeback, it’s often with a modern twist. This style may be difficult to recognize at first look, but if you see classic pieces and colors that remind you of a specific era, then you’ll know it’s retro. Whether you’re going for 50s Americana or 70s disco, make sure to use materials and artwork that are reminiscent of the time. To keep the look modern and up to date, try not to saturate the space with too many nostalgia pieces.The retro look brings back old type styling in cookers or refrigerators and colors that are pastel blended with other colors such as used in the tiling in this image.



This kind of style can be something from your past or from TV shows that are in the retro style. If you think of the television series of the Fonz, this is the type of dateline that you are aiming for with furniture in the style used at that time and light fittings which are retro as well.


Country
If there were two words to describe the country style, those two words would be cozy and homey. Think cottage living in the countryside. Rich in nature inspired and floral patterns, this style gives off that warm, comfortable feel, with the tendency to become cluttered with all the bulky wood furniture. But even though it may look and feel dated, the textured walls and the unfinished wooden pieces give this style that rustic feel.

Country styling is quite easy to reproduce without having to spend too much. For example, the colors that you choose for your painting can make all of the difference to the way the room is presented. A rustic country style would typically use colors that are warm, earth tones so that the overall impression that people get when they look at the interior of the house is warmth and comfort.


Minimalist
The minimalist style originated from the concept of Zen philosophy. It simplifies living spaces so that you end up with an open organized area. The sense of order adds to the visual interest of this style. Cool colors are used with white to give it that clean feel. The minimalist style is often used in large spaces and uses only a few essential furniture pieces. Natural light in this setting is used as a feature and is highlighted in the choice of minimal decor.
One of the features of this style of interior is that there isn’t any clutter. Things have their place and everything is put away so that the overall look is uniform and neat. Minimalistic styling is easy to keep clean because the style positively encourages tidiness. If you like this style, it’s unlikely that you would be someone who likes clutter anyway. Essential to this style is good storage so that you can have as many possessions, but don’t need to be constantly surrounded by them.


Victorian
If there was a style that was the complete opposite of minimalism, it would be Victorian. This style is flamboyant, luxurious and excessive with the decorations. But even though it might feel like there’s a lot going on, it doesn’t look cluttered. The Victorian style color palette mixes deep hues with pastels and neutrals, serving as the perfect backdrop for the heavy wood furniture. Walls and floors are kept bare as much as possible in order to contrast the decorative features of the style.
The Victorian era was one when decoration was beginning to flourish in the interior of a home. Pictures were extravagant in presentation. There was also an elegance about the furnishings which were used and you can recreate this style using second hand furniture which can be used to dictate the color scheme used. Window seats were a popular theme in Victorian houses since many had bay windows and cushions were certainly popular.


Georgian
The Georgian style is characterized by elaborately carved furniture and luxurious fabrics. The color palette of this style may be particularly pale, but the rich mahogany furniture makes up for it. Patterns and colors of the drapes are subtle with hints of Chinese designs in the prints. You’ll also find Chinese porcelain lamps and cabriole legs as pleasant decorative surprises. The fireplace is often the heart of the room so more often than not, furniture is arranged to achieve radial balance.
In the Georgian era, people were a little more extravagant with their interiors, but these days you can reproduce that look relatively cheaply. Cornices, for example, were in vogue and so were chair rails. These can be installed these days relatively cheaply since the cornices are made of polystyrene rather than plaster, and a homeowner can easily install them without a great deal of expertise. Chair rails were useful not only for the function of protecting the wall from the chairs being rubbed against them, but also as a decorative element since you can decorate above and below chair rail level with different colors to get even more visual interest or to make a tall room look more in proportion.


Rococo

This interior design aesthetic features a lot of intricate and ornate details found in its decor and furniture pieces. Rococo is rich and flamboyant and isn’t apologetic about it. You’ll also see a lot of gold-painted furnishings contrast with the subtle pastel walls. Curves and spirals are dominant design elements, giving rococo style a hint of playfulness. You’ll find multiple large mirrors on the walls, as well as expensive ornately framed paintings of people or landscapes.

Rococo is easy to imitate because there are so many variations of this style and you can pick up a lot of items that fit into the style of your room from reclamation yards or from second-hand stores.
By now, you probably already have a good idea on how you can decorate your home in the style you want. But before you get started, don’t forget to read up on the last chapter on interior design tips, especially written for beginners as well as familiarizing yourself with techniques which are shown in the chapters that lie ahead.

Creating a style means getting the room ready for that style and then creating a design clipboard, collecting all the ideas that you can, ready to use to create the style you have chosen.