Our homes are perhaps the most important investments we’ll ever make. So, it stands to reason we should always prioritise keeping them looking their best. This doesn’t just mean keeping on top of the cleaning but ensuring our homes are keeping up to date with modern trends. Otherwise, you could end up with outdated designs like avocado bathrooms.
So, if you feel like your home is looking a bit past its best or a bit dated, then it could be a good time to look into modernising your home, giving it a new lease of life. Of course, designs come in and out of style, but if you have any designs from the 80’s-90’s in your home, it’s likely that these styles won’t have stood the test of time too well. They were, after all, ages notorious for decadence and over-the-top design whereas the 21st century is all about minimalism and structure. This is where you can shake things up and get things looking modern again.
Colour
The colour of your home is a key aspect when it comes to making your space look more modern and inviting. Subtle, neutral colours are always going to be a safe bet, but modern trends have also skewed towards feature walls and other bolder colourful touches. Your colour scheme is not just related to the paints you use or the wallpaper either, but the decorations and furnishings you choose too. In a modern home, everything should feel like it belongs in the same general aesthetic space and colour plays a major role there.
Consider the Hamptons style home as a prime example. Named after a popular coastal home design scheme in the Hamptons region of Long Island, New York, it’s definitely on the older side of architectural schemes. However, its look holds up to this day thanks to its simple colouring choices: a soft shade of white (and adjacent hues) mixed in with a few touches of earthy or wooden blacks and browns.
Ultimately, your updated home’s palette depends on your tastes. But you can take cues from popular styles like these.
Wall art
Wall art is one of the best ways to modernize your home’s interior without having to make any significant changes. Depending on the style you want to achieve, you can choose either calm and minimalistic wall art or a colorful statement piece. Either way, wall art is an easy way to add personality to your home and make it feel more like your own. Plus, it’s a great way to express your unique style and taste. So if you’re looking for a simple way to update your home’s interior, wall art is definitely the way to go.
It’s not enough to get the coolest pieces you can find, of course. You also need to consider how you put them up to maximize their display factor while aligning them with your home’s aesthetic. Here are some tips to help you balance the two in arranging wall art:
- Use a grid pattern: This is a classic but efficient way to arrange wall art in a modern style. Simply measure the space and divide it into equal squares or rectangles. Then, hang your artwork in each square or rectangle.
- Create a focal point: If you have one large piece of artwork, make a focal point by hanging it in the centre of the wall. You can then add smaller artwork around it for a balanced and visually appealing arrangement.
- Utilise emptiness: In a modern style, it’s essential to leave some negative space around your artwork so that it can breathe. It will make your artwork stand out and make the overall space feel open.
Appliances
If you have a range of old and outdated appliances throughout your home, this will signify that the house is older. Similarly, the older devices will likely be less energy efficient too. Of course, there’s always something to be said for the retro aesthetic but if you’re wasting energy on it then it’s probably not worth the hassle. You can install modern vertical radiators in place of older ones, for example, to give not only a sleeker design but way more efficiency. If you have an older television with a gigantic rear footprint, meanwhile, consider upgrading it to something thinner that blends into the room rather than dominating it.
Lighting
If your home is too dimly lit, this can make it feel cramped and less spacious. One key element of a modern home is brightness and being well-lit. Install some new and brighter light fixtures to liven up your home. You can also swap old bulbs for more efficient and brighter LED bulbs that will last for longer too. Then there’s smart lighting to consider. Speaking of which…
Check out these pergola lighting ideas.
Using smart devices
By integrating a range of smart devices into your home, you can modernise your home on a budget by effectively turning it into a smart home of the future. This will allow you to turn on lights, play streaming music, turn on appliances and more, all with voice activation. Given that most homes already have a device like an Amazon Echo (Alexa), you’re probably already halfway there. All that’s left is to invest in the rest.
