How To Decorate Mid Century Modern | Super In Depth Guide ♥

The mid-century modern design style emerged in the middle of the 20th century and is one of the most popular design styles in the world. It was the design movement that brought modernity to the masses and even after 70 years continues to inspire designers to this day. Mid-century modern introduced a completely new and radical way of designing living spaces, promoting functional open and uncluttered interiors. But mid-century modern is also much more than just a design style. It represents breaking free from the oppressions of the world wars, rejecting stuffy traditions and embracing new and modern ways of life. This beautiful streamlined aesthetic actually has some of its roots in Germany's Bauhaus style. It also has strong ties to Scandinavia. Scandinavian design and American mid-century modern are actually very similar in style and that's because they developed at the same time in history and the designers also heavily influenced each other. True mid-century modern designs are timeless which explains why so many pieces that were designed over 70 years ago today are still wildly popular and are still being manufactured and sold. I'm Vivian and in today's video we're going to look at how to bring the mid-century modern look into your home. We're going to explore what furniture to look for when you're shopping, what materials were popular, which colors are mid-century and what color palettes to use, some iconic mid-century design pieces and also where to shop. Let's get started! The mid-century modern design style is characterized by clean lines, simple shapes, the use of new materials and organic elements. Because mid-century is very much about functionality there are little to no embellishments to be found. Designs were not only meant to be practical and long-lasting they were also sculptural and beautiful to look at. It was truly the perfect marriage between form and function. Sofas have clean sleek straight lines and are often elevated off the ground with tapered legs. The overall shape is usually pretty rectangular. Common back styles include tight backs and tufted backs. You can make this type of sofa a little bit more cozy by using throw pillows to soften. Chairs have many of the same characteristics that we mentioned for the sofas but you'll see more of those organic curves introduced. Mid-century furniture often has angled legs, tapered peg legs which sometimes have brass caps or hairpin legs. Solid wood is popular but also combinations like wooden marble, wooden glass, glossy plastic and metal are all common mid-century looks. As a general tip if you deck out your whole room in mid-century modern pieces the look might end up being a little overwhelming and you may get tired of it. Of course it's your home so use as much or as little of the styles as you want but my personal recommendation would be to mix in not more than a couple of pieces in a room so that you leave space for your own personality to shine through in your home. If you don't want to invest in larger pieces of furniture there are some smaller decor items that you can incorporate into your space to get the mid-century modern vibe. Popular mid-century colors include tones like yellow gold, pumpkin orange, mustard, a variety of greens like apple, olive and avocado, warm reds, earthy browns, teal and even some pastels like light pink and baby blue. Today I think it's fun to explore ways of bringing those colors into our homes in a more contemporary way so here are some ways we can incorporate traditional mid-century colors into our 21st century settings. If you're not into the citrusy pops then try combining wood mid-century shaped furniture with colors and materials like leather, brass accents, soft greens, tans and whites for an earthy mid-century inspired room. Bring it all to life with some fresh pops of greenery from outdoors. If you're feeling daring create a neutral base and integrate the mid-century look into your home through a bright pop of color. It's not enough to just get any style furniture in a bright color though. In order to get an authentic look the shape of your furniture must be mid-century. If you want to use a mix of traditional mid-century colors in your room but still keep things contemporary another option is to keep to the jewel tones. Try weaving in colors like emerald and mauve along with rich colors like sapphire and mustard. After World War II traditional building materials were very scarce so this actually led designers at the time to explore out of necessity the use of new materials and new methods of construction. This led to the creation of beautiful organic shapes in new materials at the time like fiberglass, plastic and plywood. Wood is a common element in mid-century modern design and it often functioned as a backdrop for the bold pops of color. The use of wood accents in mid-century home decor comes from the Scandinavian influence and their love for natural materials. While the Scandis kept things a little more rustic and natural mid-century designs like to combine things like for example plastic and wood or metal and wood. This creates a lot of really interesting contrasting combinations of materials. Now I want to show you a few iconic mid-century design pieces. I'm sure you're familiar with a ton of these but I think it's just interesting to see how these pieces were designed 60-70 years ago and they're still so incredibly popular to this day. So Amazon has actually a really good selection of mid-century style pieces. I have put together a list of almost 100 of my favorite pieces and I've linked it down below if you are interested in shopping mid-century on Amazon. Check out that list. For lower budgets I would recommend Ikea and also Target. Target has some pretty great mid-century style stuff. For mid-range budgets I would look at Article, CB2, Wayfair and All Modern. And for the higher end budget people I would look at West Elm Rejuvenation and Design Within Reach. Design Within Reach carries some of like the original designer pieces so you know George Nelson and Eames and the like. So I would look there if you want the real thing. Speaking of the real thing, if you want to get actual vintage pieces on a budget then of course look at your local thrift stores, go to estate sales, flea markets. There's still a pretty good selection of mid-century stuff in the second-hand scene so I would definitely recommend scouring your second-hand shops for original pieces. I used to live in London and I found a ton of mid-century stuff that I really enjoyed doing up. So that's an option as well. So if you're looking for some specific ways to bring the mid-century style into your home here's a few ideas to get you going. The first way is to use a bold accent piece. So instead of like decking out your whole room just get one piece and make it like a focal point in the room and decorate around that. Second would be to try updating your lighting fixtures. Lighting can be a massive statement in a room so for a big impact you could try to acquire a mid-century style pendant light or floor lamp and incorporate that into your space. The third idea is to create a wood accent wall. As we've said before wood was very big in mid-century homes so you could try making like a mid-tone to dark toned wood panel wall in one of your rooms. Number four add a bold graphic piece of art. Whether you make it yourself or you buy it is up to you. There's lots out there available. Number five incorporate geometric elements. Mid-century designs are known for their geometric forms which often repeat themselves into patterns so you could try incorporating that into some of your decor. Lastly you could try removing your window treatments. Mid-century homes were huge on using big picture windows and glass and allowing a lot of light to spill into the home so what you could do is if you have big picture windows you could try removing your drapes or blinds to just let all the light in. Of course that might be an issue for privacy but it's just an idea. If it works for you you could give it a shot. Thank you for sharing your time with me. I really hope you found this useful and interesting. If you did please don't forget to like and subscribe and I will see you next time. Thank you so much. Bye!