Contemporary Decor Ideas

 Greetings to all!

In my last post I discussed with you all the traits of contemporary designs and the colors that grade them as contemporary. In continuation to that today I shall provide with you some basic yet vital tips to make your home or office look contemporary. If you are new to this kind of a décor, you are in all probability fascinated to a minimalistic and modern look in contrast to overstuffed and old look.

You may incorporate a very trendy yet simple furniture to make your place look modern, clean and organized. That is what a contemporary look or feel is all about. You just have what is functional for you and still you do have some attention-grabbing accents added on. To achieve the touch of contemporary you must have sophisticated products and avoid any kind of ostentation. Try some basic and bold furniture instead of furniture with a lot of details.

For drapes and upholsteries, you may select a solid, geometric, or striped pattern in bold color and this might become your classic signature statement or style.

A classic contemporary palette comprises shades of white, cream, taupe and brown. When used together these should carry the same intensity to boost the contemporary feel. Any color that stands out even a bit will be then used as an accent color and of course to the minimum. Subtle shades of green, blue and purple also give a feeling of understated elegance when used with the palette of same saturation and intensity.

A contemporary look can also be brought about with the use of balanced colors. The only thing to remember is to keep a primary accent color to retain the feel. Supposedly you have an off white and light grey as the low intensity hues, you may combine them with high intensity hues  such as a medium deep grey and a deep blue. The use of medium deep grey would bridge the difference of hues between light grey and deep blue, giving it the required subtle look. If deep blue is used alone without a medium deep grey, it would get too loud and kill the feel of contemporary.

The accent colors enhance the concept when used on well placed accent pieces. And then, every season you may play around with these accent colors while you may still stick to the basic palette that you have used all the while.

Below is an example of how some colors can be employed to accentuate the entire contemporary setting, adding value to otherwise muted colors.

Picture by - www.i43.tinypic.com

Contemporary

CONTEMPORARY DESIGNS

As a designer I love working on trendy design styles and creating wonderful products that possess an impressive existence. Contemporary style is one of my favorite design styles as it simply refers to modern styled designs of today’s era. There are three words that come to my mind when I think of anything that is Contemporary-Trendy, Minimalist and Geometric. Along with these it connects very well with Modern Art, Futurism, Functionalism, and some post modern styles of design trends. Most of the design trends today revolve around this simplistic style while creating themes and color palettes.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN

A contemporary style of design is an absolute reverse of traditional style of design. The style is easy, clean and carries an organized look. It is illustrated by tidy lines and smooth surfaces without convoluted details. Today's well run contemporary look in a design is a blend of comfortable, livable elements that create a sophisticated, fresh feel. In a contemporary style design story, a designer must try basic, bare, bold, and structural motifs to create patterns.

Contemporary designs are less decadent and ostentatious than that of the past and more focused in its use of elements that showcase profound logical charm, because it relies more on novel creativities than on the amplification of styles. Such designs use vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, geometric motifs or patterns in bold color. For anyone who adores tidy looking exclusive designs, this may be the right design style for you. Some people think that contemporary design style is severely stark and unwelcoming while others think high of invigorating simplicity. Most find the uncluttered relaxing vibe of this design style serene and soothing.

CONTEMPORARY COLORS

Primarily, minimalism, understated class and style, texture and clear and clean elements of design describe contemporary style designs. By paying emphasis on color palette or story, background and foreground elements one can create sleek and impressive contemporary designs.

Contemporary design is equalized by neutral or muted color palettes of brown, beige, taupe, banana, cream, pristine white, black, taupe and mauves. In order to bring life to these muted effects small accents of bright, vibrant and bold color should be used. With this in mind, a lot of simple designs can be created with equal impact or statement that is visible in any other design style.

Greys and subdued colors, black, and white are the main colors that are employed in contemporary style of designing. The palette is frequently accentuated with bold and vibrant colors to create an impact.

Below are some examples of contemporary design style.

Picture by www.i40.tinypic.com

Picture by www.outinhome.com

Picture by www.trendir.com

RETRO

RETRO- Nostalgic designs with a trendy flair

Retro is one design style I love for its bold patterns and bright flair which takes my imagination backward to the epoch of 30’s, when the fashion savvy genre of people wore huge prints with not much elaboration. More than any other reason, for me it is one comfort style, when mixed and matched up with solids could become a little less casual and when used as a whole, springs up a feeling of fun and frolic.

ORIGIN OF RETRO

The word ‘Retro’ comes from Latin prefix ‘retro’ which means ‘a fashion reminiscent of the past’, and ‘retrospective’, referring to ‘a nostalgic insight towards the past’. Culturally aged trends from the post modern past symbolize the popular design element of Retro.

It speaks of a cynical resurgence of older but relatively recent fashions. Some refer to it as timeless and classic, but mostly it portrays designs and patterns from the past that no longer seem modern. Some say it takes us back to the era of fifties, but many say it belongs to the period of thirties.

Retro Fashion may consist of fashion products that picked magnitude during the 50’s and 60’s and the style now called “retro art” is a species of pop art which came into existence sometime in 50’s and 60’s with bold, eye catching patterned graphics that were easy to generate and also to create impact.

RETRO DESIGNS

Retro designs describe facets of modern culture which are a conscious derivative of those style and trends of the recent past which had come to be seen as unfashionable. The mood in these designs is usually playful and ironic and the classics created with such patterns have a superfluous emotional punch, and a completely distinctive realm. These nostalgic designs arouse feelings and better manage to evolve more and more number of designers and users as it can look cool and offer a lot more unexpected.

With robust and dynamic elements in design, Retro is becoming increasingly popular these days in a variety of contexts as these creative and appealing patterns never turn unexciting, rather stand out and look really different. Below are some examples of the same.

Retro Leaves- Picture by www.images.teamsugar.com



Retro Print - Picture by www.byhand.me


Retro Prints- Picture by www.janefosterblog.blogspot.com

RETRO COLORS

Retro colors play a terrific role in producing an older and nostalgic stroke to designs. They can accentuate any design with something relatively different from the modern point of view of design. Colors play a very significant role in creating a look of a long gone epoch. In the most successful retro designs, an appropriate color palette acts in amalgamation with the other elements to give the feel of a retro design. With colors, a designer could hint that these colors may have been more vibrant in the past but with time they have lost their vibrancy and are now old. Mostly designers use muted colors to induce age in their designs.

The best thing I like about Retro colors and designs is that it generates an irrefutable sense of class and uniqueness, something that can be well linked with the gone by times and not seen as frequently these days. To add to this, it produces a feel of acquaintance and comfort level that can be exciting and hospitable.

Retro colors induce a deep nostalgic remembrance of simpler times that the present society has lived. The feeling is priceless and every designer has at least a decade worth of reference to draw inspiration from. We can merge these bygone elements with some fresh colors to use in present, however, the overall theme or design story and mood should be zeroed to one precise type of retro art.

Retro color palettes are generally limited. I think the reason behind it to keep it simple and moreover it also indicates lack of colors obtainable for printing in the past. In fact one can create something really remarkable in retro style of designs by employing a old looking texture that gives an impression and appearance of ‘worn out’. Worn out textures or wrinkled surfaces in the background can also create a retro look that can be instantly acknowledged as Retro.

These days Retro brings with it an essence of folklore that is both nostalgic and fresh. Nostalgic because it is old fashioned and fresh because it is being used at present. Hence a suitable color palette is essential to bring forth a feel of a specific era.

In my retro Gallery, I have tried to combine the old fashion patterns and colors with the taste of new. The colors are strictly old in most of them but to keep pace with the current trends I have tried to use some trendy colors too. The result is graceful. I have tried to play with some real retro colors to bring the feeling alive. Below are some examples of retro colors.

Introduction

Hello All,

Trends play a very significant role in defining any sort of style in fashion. Designers around the globe depend on trends that come into being at one specific time of the year and then base their inspirations on them only to create mesmerizing design and color stories for home and fashion.

There is no pleasure in possessing anything unshared. The main facet of this blog is to furnish the requirements of trend conscious individuals and construct an enormous online resource for information about design styles, trends, patterns, both old and new in the field of Textile Design.

I hope this blog will inspire and influence a designer’s arena of creativity by building an understanding of various design styles.

Nidhi