If you adore interior design, you probably enjoy decorating your home with a variety of items to give it a fresh, eclectic look.

It’s easy to elevate your space when mixing modern and traditional decor, as long as you know how to do it the right way.

Read on for some tips and tricks that will help your home look amazing while blending a variety of old and new designs for a fabulous home.

Get to Know Your Home

Before you start mixing modern and traditional decor, it’s a good idea to understand what type of home you have. This will serve as the base or blank canvas to work from, and it will help you determine which style should be the more dominant of the two.

Look at the architectural elements of your home closely to decide whether it’s more on the modern side, or if leans more toward traditional. High ceilings, decorative trim and molding, and ornate details usually mean that your space is traditional.

If you have a home with clean lines and an open floor plan without a lot of extra details, it’s likely a modern home. Determining which way your home leans is a good way to start decorating the space. It doesn’t mean you have to stick with just all modern or all traditional designs, it simply gives you a solid foundation to build on.

Mixing Modern and Traditional Decor: Colors and Patterns

The color scheme in your home will set the tone for everything else, so choose your hues carefully. Try to keep wall colors subtle and as neutral as possible so that the color scheme doesn’t become too distracting.

Your colors don’t have to be exactly the same for floors and walls, but everything should be in a similar color family. This will keep the eye focused on the furniture and decor and will give your home a unified, seamless look.

When it comes to patterns, choose a design or motif that will bring everything together. For example, an abstract patterned area rug is great for a modern home, while a floral rug is ideal if you’re focusing more on traditional designs.

Your main patterns should be as consistent as possible so that everything meshes nicely. A cohesive home will look beautiful and tranquil regardless of how many different pieces of furniture and decor you bring into the space.

Try a Bold Focal Point

Perhaps you have an oversized painting that doesn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the items in your home. You can still use this piece as the main focal point to give your home a nice mix of modern and traditional decor.

Whether it’s a sleek and modern mirror or a classic piece of taxidermy, don’t be afraid to choose a dramatic standout piece. It’s a great way to spark conversations and give any room a daring aesthetic.

Decide which item you want to highlight as the focal point. You can use this as a jumping point to add more pieces based around it or highlight it as the main item in a room that stands out. 

Furniture Choices are Key

When mixing modern and antique furniture, it’s important to try and get the colors as similar as possible. Certain wood stains will be dark, while others will be extremely light, creating a visual contrast that could clash if you aren’t careful.

Try to choose furniture that features the same or a very similar finish. If you score a gorgeous piece of antique furniture to go next to your mid-century modern chair, you can simply stain it in a color to match.

Mismatched wood pieces will cause the differences in style to stand out too much. Keeping them as close together as possible helps create a cohesive look and feel in your home.

Don’t be afraid to choose a few stock pieces that give your home an anchor. For example, an upholstered sofa or sectional in a solid gray will help tone down the rest of the room and give it a clean, fresh aesthetic. A few basic pieces can anchor the room and they won’t compete with the more ornate items you choose to add to the room.

Have Fun Developing Your Style

Remember to have fun when you’re learning how to mix traditional and modern decor. Visit thrift stores, go antiquing, and shop online to find a range of unusual pieces that will add a pop of personality to your home.

Feel free to play around with different themes like mixing primitive decor with something from the mid-century era. The key is to find the right balance between a mixture of sleek and modern items and those from eras gone by.

Look for inspirational photos online that will help to spark your creativity. You can start by designing a gallery wall in one room, then move different pieces around until you find the perfect mix.

Make Your Home Unique

By mixing modern and traditional decor, you’ll have a unique home that’s unlike any other. Learning how to blend these two styles in a seamless way will make it easy for you to design the ultimate space that you can be proud of.

Remember to start with a clean slate, choose subtle colors, and know the architectural style of your home so that you have a good foundation to work from.

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