Livin’ It Up: Modern Design Ideas To Inspire Your Living Space

What should a modern living space look like? Ideally, it’d be a reflection of you and your passions. After all, living rooms are usually what sets the tone for the rest of your home. Here are some modern design ideas to help inspire your living areas.

Play With Patterns

Some designers insist that the only way to get a truly modern feeling in your living room is to mix patterns. And with so many different patterns to choose from  – everything from florals to trellis to ikats – it’s never been more exciting.

Flickr

The trick to making pattern combinations work is to choose a consistent color palette. For instance, if you mix florals with trellis, make sure that both patterns share two or three colors for maximum effect. You can also use furniture, like sofas and ottomans to complement your color scheme with block shades.

Make It Light And Airy

Unless you want to recreate Count Dracula’s mansion with all its mahogany wall panels, there’s a good chance you’ll want your modern living space to be light and airy. One way to do this is through neutral colors and contrasting textures. You could pair lucite dining chairs and melamine faced plywood wall panels with an open-weave coffee table to add multiple textures to a light and airy room. Make sure to bring your furniture into the room so that windows remain unobstructed.Use White On White

Flickr

Modern living spaces are more often than not, white-fests, with white everywhere: on the curtains, the sofas, the walls and the ceilings. To prevent your modern living space from looking like a hospital theater, try mixing up the textures. For instance, a rough-hewn linen sofa will pair well with monochromatic items on the wall and a heavy tog rug.

Build A Reading Nook

People are seeing their living spaces increasingly as areas which they can break up into smaller zones for different activities. As a result, reading nooks are growing in popularity. Reading nooks are essentially little areas where people can escape and read a book quietly on their own. Sometimes creating a space like this can be as simple as dragging a cozy chair and putting it up next to a window. If the days are short, bring a lamp over to the chair so that you’ve got reading light in the evenings too.

Include An Oversized Coffee Table

Living spaces are meant for living, and so they need to be practical. Modern coffee tables might be stylish, but they’re also annoyingly small, meaning that they can’t be used for much other than for drinks.

Now, though, some designers are experimenting with oversized coffee tables: tables that are roughly double the size of their regular sized brethren. The idea here is to have coffee tables that are functional and that people can use for things like board games, turning the living room into a play area.

Include Trendy Accessories

Finally, add a few pops of colour to your living space by adding trending accessories. Things like aubergine throws and zebra pillows can make a dull room come to life.