Why Modern Matters
Owning a traditional house is great, but modernizing it a bit and adjusting it to some of the latest trends is even better, especially if you’re planning to put your property on the market soon.
The good news is that you don’t need to do a complete renovation – upgrading your traditional furniture, rearranging, or making a few smart additions to your overall design will be just enough to make your old home look like new. Here are 5 insightful and affordable ways to modernize a traditional home:
- Reupholster your furniture
- Mix & match design styles
- Minimalize & declutter
- Add efficient technology
- Accentuate with art & color
When in doubt – reupholster
…your traditional sofa can be easily renewed by reupholstering it with modern prints and colors.
Purchasing new furniture is expensive, especially if you wish to change it all, but there’s one nifty trick you can do – reupholstering. Your traditional armchair or sofa with that outdated print can be easily renewed by reupholstering it with modern prints and colors.
As for the colors, Pantone’s pick for the year 2017 is bold grass-green shade called Greenery. There are plenty of trendy ways to incorporate it into your interior design and upholstery can be one of them. Think about introducing it through a print or make a pop of color with green cushions or, even bolder, the entire sofa.
Matching furniture sets are a thing of past, so if you happen to have one in your home – don’t hesitate to break it up. You can do it by reupholstering parts of it, putting some pieces in different rooms, or simply ditching some of the elements.
Mismatched furniture is one of the main characteristics of modern interior design and a good way to develop a trendy yet streamlined and cohesive look in your home. The most important thing about decorating with mismatched furniture is to create a focal point to connect all the elements – think statement lighting fixtures.
Remove the unnecessary
For most interior designers, contemporary design means minimalist design, so you can try going towards it in your traditional home as well. Of course, good minimalist design can’t be achieved by simply ditching stuff.
What you should do is take all the furniture out of your room, and bring it back in piece by piece. This way, you can see if the furniture you have is making the entire room look messy.
Follow the first principle of minimalism – less is more – and only keep things that make a good addition to your home.
For example, there’s no need to have accessories on every horizontal surface, so unburden your bookshelves and kitchen cabinets. Follow the golden rule of decluttering: up to five items per shelf is more than enough.
Tech it up
What’s the one thing that a traditional home never had, but modern homes can’t exist without? That’s right – technology. One of the easiest ways to modernize your home and make it more functional at the same time is to tech it up.
Whether you decided to have a separate multimedia room or you want to tech up your living room, the first step is to invest in a good audio and visual system. If you are looking to make optimal use of your space and give your interior an utterly sleek look, proper TV wall mount installation will definitely facilitate your efforts.
If you’re searching for a new house, another thing that I’d recommend is looking for something that has black marble floors – as you probably know, black-colored surfaces absorb more infrared light than any other, which can be very nice on cold but sunny winter days, and will cost you absolutely nothing.
Accentuate With Art
Contemporary art makes a lovely addition to traditional homes and can be a wonderful way to modernize your bedroom or living room a bit. Look for artworks that complement your existing furnishing and make sure you don’t hang it too high – eye level (or just a bit below it) is the perfect height.
If you’re on a budget, you can use the artworks you already have – just switch the traditional ornate frames with simple, modern ones – et voilà – you gave it a modern twist.
Key Takeaway
As you can see, there are many ways you can make your Edwardian apartment or Colonial house more enjoyable. Make a few smart updates and watch your home shift to present almost effortlessly and, what’s even more important – quite inexpensively.
Blog Contributor: Lillian Connors
Lillian Connors can’t resist the urge to embark on a myriad of home improvement projects and spread the word about them. She cherishes the notion that sustainable housing and gardening will not only make us far less dependent on others regarding the dwellings we inhabit, but also contribute to our planet being a better place to live on. You can check her out on LinkedIn.
