Modern interior design is characterized by simplicity, elegance, and minimalism, but it’s far from boring. While the uninitiated envision modern design as plain and colourless, it’s anything but. It relies on textures and colours to introduce warmth. It uses natural materials to make a space feel more comfortable. It brings in natural light to make every room feel vibrant and dynamic.

Regardless of your tastes and preferences, modern interior design can echo with your soul. It’s the only design style that allows you to create perfection.

Learn how you can use modern design elements to make any space feel warmer, brighter, and livelier.

Keep it simple

Modern design is all about simplicity and minimalism, with its main premise being “form follows function.” Unlike in contemporary design, every piece of furniture, fixture, and décor item is primarily functional in modern style. If it doesn’t serve a function, it doesn’t belong in your space.

This minimalistic approach allows you to create rooms that are perfectly streamlined and offer the utmost convenience. It creates a focusing atmosphere as you don’t have any unnecessary distractions that could grab your attention.

To keep things simple in modern design, you’ll need to strip away anything excessive. Anything you don’t need, use, or hold dear needs to go away. As far as the colours are concerned, you’ll want to limit yourself to a small palette – two to four soft, pastel colours are all you need to create perfection through simplicity.

Balance and harmony are essential

In modern design, everything is streamlined, connected, and symmetrical. There’s balance and harmony wherever you look.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything needs to be monotonous and monochrome, with the east and west side of the room being mirrored images of one another.

You can find balance and harmony by using adjacent colours that add brightness and liveliness. Sky blue walls can stand in perfect balance with ocean blue furnishings. Pastel pink wall art achieves harmony when mixed with wine-red carpets.

You can also achieve balance and harmony by using similar shapes throughout the space, related textures, or the same materials. If you want to add more vibrancy, you can always add some infrequent pops of colour (belonging to the same colour palette as the rest of the space).

Create simple lines

In modern design, simplicity resonates through all elements. If you want to create perfection, you cannot play around with shapes and styles. Every line needs to be simple, symmetric, and clean.

You can achieve simple lines by placing all art at the same height or ensuring that each piece of furniture perfectly matches one another. A dining room table with chairs at the same height creates harmony and simplicity. Curtains that line up perfectly with wall mouldings create a streamlined design.

You’ll want to avoid organic shapes and curves, especially in pieces such as bookshelves that need to serve a specific function. Straight, clean lines are the way to go.

Use 90-degree angles

Considering how important simple lines are in modern interior design, it’s no surprise that using 90-degree angles should be your top priority. There’s no reason to add awkward and impractical nooks and crannies or use curves that reduce the functionality of the space.

Focus on geometric shapes. They make things simple and symmetric.

Whether we’re talking about light fixtures, furniture, or carpet patterns, 90-degree angles and straight, simple lines will help you keep the space clean and well organized.

Add industrial elements

Over the past few years, industrial design has become incredibly popular, even finding its way into modern interior design. Defined by glossy, metallic surfaces, steel and wooden elements, it perfectly complements the simplicity of modern style.

The easiest way to add an industrial feel to your indoor designs is by using plenty of glass, metal, and concrete elements. Large windows and glass tables add sophistication and elegance. Metal furnishings create luxury, and concrete floors create texture that can liven up a modern home. Bonus points if you use brick walls as they add colour, and warmth and follow straight, simple lines that are the defining characteristic of modern interior design.

Get rid of all that clutter

As mentioned, “form over function” is the key principle of modern design. Everything needs to have a use and be in its place. Of course, that means that you’ll have to get rid of any unnecessary clutter. Artwork, décor, and furniture that is excessive needs to go away.

Ideally, you’ll also want to use furniture with plenty of storage space – bookshelves with drawers or cabinet doors, couches with hidden storage boxes, and coffee tables with convenient space-saving features. You can create hidden storage in indoor staircases and closets to ensure every item that’s not being used at the moment can be stored away without creating clutter. This approach aligns with the key principle of modern design, emphasizing "form over function." Everything in your space should have a purpose and be neatly organized. Utilizing furniture with plenty of storage space, such as bookshelves with drawers or cabinet doors, allows you to keep the room streamlined and free of unnecessary items. Book cases with hidden storage compartments can be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, adding to the overall simplicity of modern interior design.

Create an open feel

Finally, to truly achieve perfection with modern interior design, you’ll need to create an open feel. If possible, you can do so by taking down the (non-structural) walls between rooms – most commonly combining the kitchen, dining room, and living room into a single space.

If you cannot physically create an open space, you can create an illusion of it. Use mirrors to add more light to the rooms and make them feel bigger. Use large windows to open up the space and create more brightness. Create a flow between rooms by combining design elements and using similar palettes and furnishings.

Conclusion

Modern interior design might be one of the most difficult styles to master. After all, it can be difficult relying on minimalism while ensuring that a space is liveable and practical. Still, achieving perfection is possible if you consider every design element carefully.