Modern vs Traditional Interior Design
When it comes to the interior designing, most of the people get caught up in confusion between modern vs traditional interior design. We are not sure which one we should go for.
You might have heard this term modern and traditional a lot of time in your life. They are just different types of styles. You should remember that it is not like one is good and others are wrong. The right style for each person is determined by the personal taste and requirements.
Traditional style is great for those who love antiques and want to have the nostalgia of the old days. This style may not be good for small apartments of villas because the architecture is different. Traditional style is better for for lone houses with above average sizes.
Remember, traditional and modern are not the only two styles out there. There are a number of styles in interior designing but information on all of them would be overwhelming to you if you had never thought about styles before. Therefore, in this article, we discuss only modern and traditional interior design styles.
Traditional Interior Design
The traditional interior design of each region is different. The traditional architecture of Tamil Nadu is different from that of Kerala or Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, you can differentiate between South Indian and North Indian style. Traditional style is highly regional specific. However, there are some common features of all traditional style. These features can help us to distinguish traditional and non-traditional style.
Characteristics of Traditional Interior Design
All the accessories and furniture items are made of solid wood because the wood was the only available material to make those things. We don’t use plastic, glass, and steel in traditional interior design. However, metals like iron and bronze are used in traditional style.
All the decorative and other small elements like bowls, vases, and candle stands have an antique style. Those things have a highly complex design.
The inviting warm color scheme is the most important feature of the traditional design.
1. Dark and rich colors are commonly used colors in traditional style.
2. Red, brown and jewel colors are used for accent elements.
3. The color of the wall is lighter to get better contrast against the dark elements in the room.
Fabrics like curtains and drapes feature strong floral patterns. The strong patterns mute or understate the fabric colors.
The flooring is generally done using wood in dark shaded. Only large palaces and the royal building used stones like marbles for flooring. Most of the common buildings and houses used only wood.
In traditional design, we can see lots of symmetrical shapes. These symmetries make the design looks elegant. You can also see smooth curves in the furniture items and other elements inside the house.
The furniture and other elements in a room are bulky and the room has a high visual weight. Moreover, they are highly ornate and rich with details.
Modern Design
Modern design is a departure from the traditional design. Many people confuse this term with the latest or contemporary style. They are different.
We call the current and latest design style as contemporary style. Technically, modern interior designing is referred to as the style existed between the World War 1 and 1960s. After the 1960s, new design styles emerged and became popular. Therefore, modern is actually not new.
Urbanization and changes in the family structure after the 19th century had a huge role in shaping modern interior design style. This was the case of the western world but when it comes to India, it took time to reach the changes in the interior design trends.
Characteristics of Modern Interior Design
The modern interior design emphasizes functionality over the form. The incorporation of additional storage spaces is another feature of the modern design.
The first difference we notice is the use types of materials used for the construction. Apart from wood, we also use plastic, glass, and steel widely in a modern interior.
The use of metals like iron and bronze and wood is very low.
Woods in the lighter shades are used in modern design whereas traditional style mostly used woods in dark shades.
We can use pretty much any colors in the modern design. We use warm colors like red, orange and yellow and as well as cool colors like green and blue.
We can see better use of colors in the modern interiors. The colors are used based on the perceived impact of each color.
Modern interiors have less visual weight due to the use of the glass, steel and lighter shades of the wood.
The modern interior design is optimized for the urban lifestyle. We see a clever space management in modern style because space is a huge concern in the urban area. The modern furnishings don’t take too much space and it makes the room appear bigger.
In India, the rise of single family and nuclear families also impacted the modern interior design style.
Furniture items and other elements of modern interiors are less detailed and ornate. These elements have less visual weights than their counterparts in the traditional interior and therefore, the modern interiors have less visual weight. The finishing of different accessories, furniture items and materials are simple.
Light shades wood and stone materials are used in modern design. This makes space look much brighter.
Minimalism is another feature of the modern design. In the patterns and decoration, we don’t see rich details. When it comes to the curtains or drapes, we don’t see strong patterns in the modern interior. They have a very clean and simple design. If there are any patterns they are very subtle.
The modern interior design makes kitchens more productive. The convenience is given more preference. The objects and accessories used in the modern interior design of a kitchen are made of a variety of materials. The trendy modular kitchen is a product of modern interior design.
We see that traditional and modern interior design styles are two styles existed in different periods. Although they were popular in certain periods, these styles can be used anytime. The style of the interior design you choose for your house gives a character to your house.
If you have a taste for traditional style and love for antique and classic style, you can choose the traditional design. Modern style is for those who prefer simplicity and functionality. These are two extremes and if you want something in the middle you got the transitional interior design. This is a mixture of traditional and modern design.
