Small and Stylish Design Ideas for a Modern House

Making small changes to your home decor to make it look contemporary and stylish has never been easier. Professional interior designers are tirelessly working on developing new creative and stylish interior design ideas.

So, when it comes to inspiration and ideas, there are plenty to choose from. If you are in the market for small yet stylish design ideas for your home, you’re in the right place. We compiled a list of all the best design ideas for your modern house. Let’s dive in!

Wooden floors and Area rugs

Let’s start from the bottom up. In a contemporary home, floors are usually bare without the heavy wall-to-wall carpets. If you have nice wooden flooring in your home, uncover them and let them shine. The whole point of modern design is to keep things clean and simple.

To make the room cozier, you can source smaller ambient rugs with simple patterns. Geometric patterns and shapes on a rug are ideal because they give that contemporary feel to any room.

Natural light and simple lighting choices

Nothing beats light and bright spaces and thankfully, the contemporary design is all about natural light. Where once was popular to place long, heavy drapes on the windows, today, less is more.

No window treatments or at least minimal window treatments are the way to go in a modern home. Don’t stop the natural light from getting into your home.

When it comes to lighting choices, go for simple yet elegant. Pendant lighting can act as a centerpiece and it can bring drama to any room, just be careful that you don’t choose anything too ornate and elaborate – in modern design simple and elegant is the way to go.

You can also add a table or floor lamp where you think more light is needed. Lamps can be a perfect addition to your contemporary home. Just stick to solid colors, minimalistic design, and clean and simple lines.

Paint the Walls

When it comes to making small yet drastic changes to the interior of your house, nothing is better than painting the walls. Just a bit of paint can completely change the feel of a room.

If you want to update your home and make it more modern, start with changing the color of your walls. Now, many think that white is a very modern color and they also end up painting their walls all white, what they don’t know is that every neutral color counts as modern, even the dark ones.

If you aren’t sure about which color to go for, neutral is a great starting point. White, black, gray, greige, and other neutral colors will complement the wooden floors just fine. Plus, with neutral colors as a base, you can easily add pops of color throughout your rooms.

Don’t shy away from dark colors, they too are very much modern colors and can look nice in your home.

Mixed materials pieces

Even though the contemporary design is all about simple and clean lines, about minimalism, it also doesn’t mind unique and interesting pieces – pieces made of mixed materials. Usually, those materials include wood, stone, glass, metal, and acryl.

So, your coffee table can be a mix of glass and stone, or wood and glass. Your chairs can be an acryl and wood mix instead of being the same old boring, wooden ones.

While most of the modern design is based on minimalism, having a conversation piece made of mixed materials is not a bad idea.

Flexible furniture

Modern design is all about functionality and simplicity. This is exactly what kind of furniture you should opt for, simple yet functional and flexible.

Sectionals that can be transformed into beds, an armchair that is both an armchair and a massage chair, a desk that can both be a standing and sitting desk, and so on. All this furniture has that sleek modern look and yet it is very functional, especially if you live in a small place.

When it comes to upholstery, think of neutral colors and natural fabrics such as wool, cotton, silk, jute, and so on. If you’re considering patterns, less is always more in modern design, so make sure that patterns aren’t too loud – geometric shapes and straight lines work best.

Mismatched furniture sets

Traditional furniture always came in sets – a dining table with 4 or 6 same chairs, a sofa with matching armchairs. Today, in modern design, mismatching is the right way to go.

Instead of buying furniture sets, try to look for unique, mismatched pieces. Dining table chairs don’t have to be all the same – you can add a bench with a couple of different chairs.

Create furniture combinations that are unique and interesting. Put your signature on your home.

However, remember that instead of going for eclectic you’re trying to create a modern design. So, when mixing and matching your furniture try to stick with furniture that has clean lines, that isn’t massive and imposing. Once again, functional and comfortable is the way to go.

Pops of color

We already mentioned that modern means neutral and very clean, but that doesn’t mean that modern has to be sterile. If your base colors were neutral, that means that you can add different pops of color throughout your home.

To create a cohesive look all the way throughout your house, you can choose one particular bold color and use it as a color pop. It doesn’t matter what color it is – if it makes you happy then don’t be afraid to use it.

The whole point of this pop of color is to add character to an otherwise very neutral space. Pop of color will also completely change the energy in your home without making it less modern.

A pop of color can be achieved by an accent wall, a piece of furniture, cushions, and blankets on the sofa, a rug, an art piece, a lighting fixture, and so on. The ideas are endless.

Hiding technology in a stylish way

We are talking about modern design, and even though technology is very much a part of the modern world, seeing it on display isn’t very appealing or stylish. This is why finding ways to stylishly hide technology has become a part of modern design.

You have all the advantages of technology but without it being on display. Shelves, cupboards, decorative baskets, and other similar furniture can be a good way to hide away electronics.

You can still use them, but they won’t be interfering with the design of your home.

Modern décor pieces

Yes, modern design is all about minimalism but that shouldn’t stop you from accessorizing and decorating your place. Create a perfect balance in your home – if your furnishings are minimal and clean-lined, you can be creative and intentional with your décor.

Decorate your home with quirky-looking vases, interesting artwork, add mirrors to your walls, simply put on display accessories, and decor that can serve as conversation pieces.

Mostly every modern-looking décor piece will be geometrically shaped, it will be made of natural materials such as wood, stone, or glass. This is because modern spaces are supposed to look structured, organized, and clean.

Plants in a modern space

If you thought that plants aren’t part of modern design, you are very wrong. In addition to being air purifiers, plants are also great decorative pieces. They add color, warmth, and life to any room. In a room with a modern design, plants add softness and character. They are ideal for those corners you’ve got no idea what to do with.

You can go for bigger plants such as palms or fiddle leaves or you can opt for smaller, and easier to maintain plants such as succulents or air plants.

Open concept spaces

If you’re not opposed to taking down some walls in your home, you can create a modern open-concept space. Now, this isn’t really a small design idea, but it can make a small space look way bigger and more spacious.

Open concept spaces usually combine kitchen, dining, and living room into one, creating a visually large space. You can be in all these places at once, but still, you can make these places seem like separate rooms with furnishings.

However, even though you’re creating separate functional spaces, they still need to maintain design continuity – the same flooring and lighting throughout the whole space, colors should complement each other, and so on.

Open concept spaces are brighter and more convenient for multitasking. Small apartments with a windowless kitchen can only benefit from open concept spaces.

Tiles

Entryways, bathrooms, and even kitchens can be very stylish and modern with different types of tiles. Tiles come in many sizes, shapes, colors, and patterns.

This year, according to interior design experts patterns, colors and geometrics are here to stay. Large-format tiles are also very popular for both floors and walls, especially in bathrooms.

Another recent and unexpected trend is patterned tiles. Mosaic, scallops, chevron, hexagon patterned tiles, to name a few, are very popular this year and ideal for your modern home.

Hand-made and unique tiles are also very on-trend and if you like a custom design, these kinds of tiles are ideal for you.

Modern kitchen

Dated kitchens are a thing of the past. If you’ve had it with your kitchen looking so outdated and out of place, it’s time to change that. You can easily spruce up your kitchen with a couple of simple and inexpensive tips.

Start by painting your cabinet doors into something more modern, then change all the hardware with something modern and more appropriate, use peel and stick tiles to cover the outdated ones.

When decorating a modern kitchen, don’t be afraid to mix materials – wood or marble countertops with brass hardware, modern lighting fixtures, and so on.

Also, don’t be afraid to add color to your kitchen. Most people think that modern kitchens need to be white on white. This is not the case, you can easily use color in your modern kitchen.

Open shelving

Yet another element of modern design are open shelves. The open shelve trend is not only reserved for the living room but the whole house including the kitchen.

Open shelving is supposed to eliminate clutter and give the feel of simplicity and airiness in a space. That’s why open shelving has become so popular, not to mention that shelves are easy to install and they are pretty cost-effective.

Open kitchen shelving has seen its rise in the last couple of years. Probably because it’s an easy and inexpensive way to update your kitchen and make it more modern. If you’re looking for simple ways to modernize your kitchen, now you know exactly how to do it.

Asymmetry

In modern design, asymmetry is used as a type of balance. This balance is achieved by the repetition of lines, similar forms, and colors but without mirroring or duplicating the design.

For example, asymmetry is when you add a sofa and a coffee table on one side of the living room and a lamp and a chair on the other. With this, you are creating a simple look and adding visual interest.

An asymmetrical element can be a focal point of your room and then you’ll build the rest around it. Asymmetry can be in small things like arranging décor pieces in uneven numbers – usually threes. Asymmetry is also when you repeat certain colors in your design, repeated shapes, and lines.

Home design is something that changes constantly, every day new trends are introduced, new ways to make your home more modern. Hopefully, we managed to give you some ideas on how to add modern design to your home.

And remember, you don’t have to change everything in your home to make it more modern. Just a couple of simple changes can be extremely effective – like paint or swapping that huge carpet for a smaller, more modern rug.