Home sweet home… Midcentury Modern Edition

Midcentury modern… this is one of my favourite interior design styles, but it’s often hard to define. It was started by Bauhaus architects and designers that moved to the U.S. after the Second World War. Due to economic and technological changes, many new materials emerged.

How would you describe midcentury modern?

If you wanted to describe it, Midcentury Modern would be ‘simplistic, functional and often warm’. You see many straight lines, minimal ornamentation and warm wood tones, just like bold colors and the use of black and white. Contrasting textures and colors are very common in this style. In my opinion, this makes Midcentury Modern a very interesting style that gives you plenty of room to play around.

Materials

Another thing I like about this style is that it enables you to show off some special items in your home, whilst keeping the other furniture pieces more simplistic. This not only helps you to guide attention through the room, but it also helps with keeping costs down. Since plastic came into style during this time, it’s okay to use the now widely used Eames Molded plastic/fiberglass chair or a tulip chair. These designs are often cheaper and by matching them wisely, they’ll give your house a modern, sophisticated look.

However, plastic is of course not the most sustainable option. Therefore, you might also want to check out the wooden furniture pieces that are famous in the Midcentury Modern style. Dark woods, like in the Eames lounge chair, or more light woods, for instance in rattan style, are often key in this style. This makes the house feel very natural and warm in my opinion. It also makes it feel robust and expensive, so your home will look like a million bucks!

My midcentury modern home

I definitely incorporated some elements of this style in my own home. As you might have noticed, I’m a big fan of the midcentury style chairs, so I have the Eames molded plastic chairs at my dining table and I have a velvet desk chair in the midcentury style in my home office. If I’d have a choice, I’d decorate my entire office in this style, since I think it looks sophisticated, luxurious and comfortable all at once. My current media unit is also very much in the midcentury style with a dark wood. For a pop of color in the kitchen, I also have a mustard yellow garbage bin in midcentury style.

This way midcentury is sprinkled throughout my house a lot, without it feeling too much like one style. I often like to mix it up when designing a room, so that everyone can pick out elements that person prefers. It also keeps a room playful in my opinion. I love midcentury modern, but it can sometimes feel a bit ‘serious’ to me, which is not something I’d like my house to feel like too much. This is why I do prefer it for my office instead.

I hope you liked this post! Do you think midcentury modern would fit your style? If you want more content like this, please subscribe and get my free e-book to help you save money to buy new furniture. You can also find me on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, so you’ll never have to miss a new post.

Lots of love,

Lisa

Pin it!