A Guide to Interior Design Styles: Urban Modern

Do you love the fusion of contemporary, industrial and minimalist styles? If so, then urban modern interior design may be for you. This always-on-trend style emphasizes comfort with a nod to cosmopolitan living and sophistication. Urban modern design is tailor-made for industrial lofts or modern apartments with sweeping city views. Think airy light spaces that come to life with exceptional furniture and plush decor. You can bring urban modern to your home by following these guidelines.

Soften Up

Urban modern decor blends contemporary and industrial styles, but with a softer side. Rather than incorporate ultra-modern or starkly industrial elements, urban modern makes use of warmer tones, casual soft furnishings, and accessories that focus on comfort. Choose plush and sumptuous fabrics and rugs, natural cozy textiles in earth tones and warm, inviting sofas with cushy throw pillows.

Calming Color

Create a peaceful yet exquisitely decorated home using neutral and warm tones. Add warmth with paint to what may otherwise be a primarily industrial space. Feature walls, recesses or alcoves are great places to bring in a neutral tone. Or, experiment with interesting warm tones like mustard yellow or rich red.

Furniture is another effective way to bring warmth into your home. Choose larger pieces like sofas and side chairs. Warm tones or tans and brown work well here. These colors make a room feel cozy. Foundation pieces in these hues will set an intimate mood and your urban modern home will exude lived-in charm as well as sophistication.

Play With Scale

Introduce interesting elements to your urban modern decor by playing with proportion. This allows you to maintain a minimalist decor. Contrasts are found in the elements’ scale rather than in a variety of notes such as color or pattern. Juxtapose oversized art with petite lighting fixtures. Make use of domineering table lamps to highlight a small vase. Experiment with mixes of sofas, dining tables, headboards, throw rugs, and more to create your exclusively scaled urban modern home.

Create Continuity

Urban modern decor is about subtle continuity. While you don’t want every room in your home to look the same, you do want flow from one room to the other. A great way to do this is to make use of a single color to tie everything together.

This doesn’t mean you will have a monochromatic home. Instead, pick an element. This could be wall color. Or, you can choose furniture in the same color. You can even select complimentary fabrics. Matching colors are not necessary and may feel too contrived, however, think about a matching texture or pattern. All of these will create continuity and finesse in your urban modern home.

Make a Statement

Urban modern style is not complete without statement pieces. Add charisma to each room in your home with a piece of art, bold furniture or spectacular lighting. No need to go over-the-top, simply choose an interesting element that makes each room unique.

Create talking points in your home that can be anything from a one-of-a-kind piece of art, a vintage find with character, or even a large window with beautiful curtains. The only requirements are it has to be eye-catching and special to you. Put your signature on your urban modern home.

A great way to make a design statement in any room is with a sliding barn door. Barn doors are beautiful, space-saving, affordable ways to add value to your home. Have questions about which barn door is right for you? Contact us, we can help.