The art of interior design comes in many different forms, each distinct yet so familiar. Each style brings something on its own, its own experience, finish, and flavor that render a space in distinct and unique chapters of creative endeavor, history, and inspiration.

Any process of designing and decorating the interior of a building or room is defined as interior design. It includes a set of stringent guidelines and rules. However, the concept of interior design is much more subjective and fluid.

If you don’t have a common frame of reference, you may find it hard to perceive different design styles. Designers must clearly articulate their visions for decorating a commercial or residential interior to effectively communicate with clients and others who aren’t that familiar with the concept.

There are many different types of interior design to take into consideration. A significant challenge that many designers face is trying to communicate with clients who lack proper understanding and vocabulary to define and describe their personal interior design preferences and style.

Since there are so many unique design styles, it can be quite challenging to distinguish which style will suit the client’s needs. Sometimes, the best solution is to combine elements of several styles to create something unique of your own.

With all this in mind, let’s delve deeper into why understanding different interior design styles matters and the most popular styles you should be aware of in 2021.

Why is understanding styles essential?

From the designer’s perspective, the understanding of different styles matters because it makes communication with clients much easier and more effective.

If a designer has a thorough understanding of how different styles differ from one another, as well as what makes them unique, they have bigger chances of getting on the same page with clients’ requirements.

The more a designer knows about different styles, the more they can help their clients communicate their ideas. Understanding different styles can help both designers and clients:

• Understand each other in a comprehensive way;
• Learn about features of different styles;
• Help clients visualize how different styles create a personalized interior theme;
• Blend different styles to create something unique;

Each style has its own unique features and knowing how these features set different interior design styles apart allows both clients and designers to choose the perfect approach for realizing what they have in mind. Essentially, the more clients and designers know about different styles, the more they can help each other achieve visual perfection without any unnecessary hassle.

With such effective communication in place, both clients and artists can save time, effort, and valuable resources, which is one of the most important things to think about. Now, the art of interior design has a very long history.

The interior design alone has been around for many centuries, and it’s only fair to say there are countless styles out there. However, since we live in the era of the internet and modern technology, we’re going to stick to the most popular interior design styles that have left the mark in 2021.

Modern design professionals have top visualization tools and the most powerful technology that allows them to produce animations and photorealistic images so that their clients can better understand their ideas. These technologies and tools brought new styles to the table of modern interior design. Let’s see what the most popular styles are in 2021.

Style: Traditional

The Traditional style is doused in the indulgences and comforts of classic European decor, which is why it’s also known as the classic style. The traditional style draws inspiration and ideas from the past to create something new and unique for the future.

The traditional approach allows a design professional to either remain true to source or try to create something different with a slight retake on classical suggestions. The main purpose is to bring time-tested proportions, motifs, and elements to match the needs of a modern lifestyle.

What makes the traditional style so unique is the focus on silhouettes. They set apart traditional style interiors. Right next to them are clawfoot tables, elaborate furniture pieces, black-winged chairs, and many other very distinct features that have their origins in 18th century Colonial, French Country, Neoclassical, and English style.

Traditional backdrops are commonly simple and pale, rich in profiles, lines, and colors that introduce classical influences to the interior space. This particular style emphasizes architectural embellishments and sophisticated wood furniture with unique decoration.

Style: Transitional

The Transitional interior design style is the product of a fusion of contemporary modern and classic traditional. Although someone may think that these two styles don’t mix due to being too different and far apart, the two managed to find an anchor in the transitional style that brings the best of the two worlds.

What sets the transitional style from the rest are its unique features like focus on comfort, curved lines, and solid and large furniture pieces of robust structure. There’s also the clear restriction in number, the arrangement of straight lines, and the lack of ornamentation give away the minimalist feel of the contemporary style.

However, the result is magnificent – luxurious and elaborate sophistication displayed with modest but meaningful simplicity. The traditional style also includes a unique color palette that is predominantly monochromatic and neutral, mostly featured on upholstery, flooring, ceilings, and walls.

Colors range from vanilla and warm tan to deep taupe, adding balance and cozy depth to the concept, allowing professionals to introduce different color accents for different design elements.

Style: Minimalism

Minimalism was inspired by traditional Japanese Zen philosophy and design, while its roots came from the Minimalist art movement that sparked in the 60s and 70s. This particular style is meant to express the driving approach of modernism in the most comprehensible and almost puritanical way.

Essentially, the minimalist style comes down to stripping a design to its bare basics to emphasize the very aesthetic and efficiency of the concept. The main goal is to devoid any interior of any clutter or distractions and allow some space to “breathe.”

Minimalist interior design allows professionals to streamline interiors to maximize the underlying use of space and bold visual impacts. Aside from minimal motifs and elements, minimalism also includes careful detailing and concealed storage, both playing their due part in the bigger picture.

Style: Modern

Modern interior design and architecture feature a range of design styles that are all gathered around a common goal – to put efficiency, transparency, and authenticity together by celebrating composition, technology, and material.

Modern design is the product of the 20th century, and the Modernist art movement inspired it. The style is leaning on reinventing how to comprehend aesthetics and space around us to bring us closer to these concepts.

While aesthetics are still in the first plan, modern interiors are also meant to support a modern way of life. Because of that, modernist interiors are designed to emphasize the functionality of space, complexly overlapping geometry, clearly articulated lines, and delicate compositions into a single, unique interior design.

The most integral parts of the modernist design are functional and visual simplicity and the inherent materiality of a form.

Style: Contemporary

While we can safely say that every interior design style is evolving at its own pace, no other style evolves as rapidly as the contemporary style. As its name suggests, this style is made to be contemporary, regardless of the time it finds itself in.

It relies on the most prevalent trends of the current times to evolve. Each new trend adds something new to the ever-evolving contemporary palette. Because of its continually changing nature, it’s quite hard to characterize this style as a set of given traits, intentions, and ideas.

In terms of interior design, the contemporary style is known for presenting a more rounded and balanced approach. Contemporary interior design mostly resembles its modern counterpart, as it borrows heavily from it. However, the borrowed elements are laid out in more sophisticated compositions, focusing on functional efficiency and visual indulgence.

Style: Eclectic

Eclectic interiors are all about the unexpected and the surprising. Eclectic designers are usually not afraid to break the rules and step into uncharted territories, without any intentions or guidelines that could keep them from expressing artistic freedom and personifying individuality.

Eclectic designers are known for borrowing freely from others but adding something of their own with each borrow. These professionals are masters of creating a real harmony of inspirations and ideas to suit both purpose and space.

The style heavily relies on layering and variation and core design sensibilities, striking harmony through the unification of materiality, balance, composition, and color. The style is also more focused on texture and fabric to introduce variations to aesthetics and space.

Style: Modern Farmhouse

Modern farmhouse interior style is most popular in North America and Europe, and other regions under European cultural influence. It’s one of the most popular contemporary interior design trends at the moment.

This style’s key features are mainly based on the nostalgic, familiar, and warm coziness of the traditional farmhouses in Northern and Western Europe’s idyllic country landscape.

Natural materials, furniture, practical items, traditional decor, and the soothing feeling of the past are among the most dominant features of this style, all working together to contribute to the interior’s rustic and vintage looks.

Modern farmhouse style emphasizes high levels of coziness and functionality and neutral and soft elements, balancing rustic, vintage, traditional, classical, and contemporary elements into a beautiful and artistic ballet of life and nature.

Style: Art Deco

Many design professionals love the Art Deco style, as it allows them to express their bombastic and bold views through elegant restraint, sheer balance, and sophisticated compositions. The style originated in the 1920s post-war America and Europe and was meant to offer a new perspective and aesthetic for a new time.

At its core, the style is heavily focused on the sensual exploration of symmetry and order, putting geometry and lines at the very center of its compositions and designs. Bold curves, layered designs, and angular patterns, accompanied by lively aesthetics, are just some of this style’s most prominent features.

Style: Mediterranean

Mediterranean style is influenced by location. It is mostly based on Italian, Greek, and Spanish homes, bringing all these locations to life through bright colors and the representation of natural elements.

The style also puts an emphasis on the use of decorative mosaic tiles for interior elements like backsplashes, mirrors, bullnose-edge counters, tabletops, floors, etc. The main goal is to bring that well-known, familiar, and rustic appeal to the interior. One of the key things about the Mediterranean style is the blurred line between the outdoors and indoors.

Style: Scandinavian

Heavily relying on efficiency, functionality, and simplicity, the Scandinavian style is considered a modernist style of interior design. The main focus is on striking a balance between personal, warm invitations, and minimalist efficiency. The style is mostly characterized by clean detailing, bare ornamentation, and organic materials.

Style: Rustic

The well-known, warm, homey feel and classical simplicity are the main elements of the rustic interior design that set this style apart from the other popular styles. Rustic is meant to bring out that irresistible charm of a happy family home, where a modern busy man of today can find their long-wanted peace of mind.

The Rustic style is prevalent for modern offices and corporate buildings and urban apartments and country houses. The style gives way to neutral colors, whitewashed tones, darker shades, and repurposed, salvaged, and hand-crafted items.

Conclusion

Getting a rudimentary understanding of design styles and fundamentals can help you solidify your design ideas. More importantly, it can help you identify different interior design styles to conjure up great ideas and inspirational visions for your future frameworks.

That’s how design professionals build their aesthetic and style. These are the most popular styles of interior design at the moment, as the art of design continues to evolve. Stay on top of the latest news, events, and trends by paying a visit to Easy Render today.