How To Identify Modern Style Homes

When modern is your style, you can’t help but seek the neutral colors in life. Your wardrobe is probably mostly black and white.

Modern Style Homes

Creams, beiges and inky shades rule your home’s decor. Simplicity seeps into every aspect of living. But how much is this affected by the actual home you live in?

A farmhouse is so easy to fill with knick knacks and antiques that modern simplicity is almost impossible to attain in that element. So for ultimate modern living, living in a modern style house is the goal.

Clean lines, neutral colors, the outside of your home will reflect the inside. Here’s what you need to know about identifying modern style homes as you prepare to create your own modern paradise.

History

Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room

The modern styled made it’s entrance at the end toward the end of the 19th century. With materials like glass, steel and concrete more readily available, people were ready to achew the older styles in favor of new and modern ones. Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler designed a home in 1922 that was named the first modern house in existence. His later creation of the Newport Beach house, Lovell, was a major cornerstone in modern architecture in the U.S. After the second world war, architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra made modern design a common sight among the wealthy neighborhoods.

Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room
Modern Style Home kids room

Modern homes are very boxy in nature. With flat roofs, grid windows and industrial features, it’s no wonder that they are the modern stylist’s dream. Often, the exterior will be made up of elements like concrete or stone paired with wood siding. You’ll find windows with black sashes, linear stair rails and fences and absolutely no shutters. Yet somehow, modern homes manage to be warm and inviting to the eye.

Exterior

Modern Style Home kids room

So many modern homes you see consist of black and white. However it doesn’t have to be two tone to be modern. If your house is in a rustic area, covering the exterior with warm wood siding can help your modern home blend into the neighborhood but still fit your modern style.

Modern Style Home kids room

Pining for a bit of color in your life? Use the exterior of your home to achieve it. Pops of bright shades like turquoise, red and yellow make the exterior of your home a fun sight to see. You’ll easily prove that modern living can be minimal and family friendly at the same time.{found on mcinturffarchitects}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Living in a city home can be tricky for modern style lovers. Properties are smaller which makes your house options limited. However, to keep part of the traditional home and just add a modern piece, like a second story or a backyard greenhouse, can make your entire house feel modern and fresh even if it is technically a Queen Anne.{found on chanarchitecture}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Challenged on horizontal space to build your modern home? Think tall instead. Rather than having your modern home splayed long across your property, stack all the areas on top of each other. Garage and storage on the bottom, living layers next and private areas on top.{found on duketarchitects}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Modern homes can be anything but one big square if you like. They could be all kinds of squares and rectangles, stacked on top of each other in different ways to create one big work of art. Anyone would be lucky to call that home.

Modern Style Home kids room

Modern living is quite a common style for tiny houses. When there isn’t much room for quaint and chic, it’s just best to go simple and clean, leaving you with a modern feel. Modern tiny houses can be small and vertical or so small that they are portable. It’s up to you how much space you need to function.{found on design-milk}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Whether your modern house is made up of stone and wood or wood and iron, you’re sure to find some concrete somewhere in the exterior design. It’s a common element for entertaining spaces since it’s cheap and relatively simple. The easier the material, the bigger your outdoor entertaining space can be.

Modern Style Home kids room

Just like the exterior of your home is modern, any outdoor living space is going to reflect this style. Sleek outdoor furniture will look wonderful on your modern patio. Black countertops would make a find outdoor kitchen choice. As you make these outdoor decisions, think of how they will look against the exterior of your home as well as how they work with your interior decor.

Modern Style Home kids room

One reigning element of any outdoor space is the fire pit. There’s nothing like settling down with your friends, hot cider in hand, and watching the flames together. There are tons of DIYs for modern fire pits if you have the itch to do a project or you can purchase on of the many sleek examples.

Modern Style Home kids room

Some modern homes have the space for outdoor entertaining but maybe not the resources to add all the fancy patios and pools. No worries. Spend your time and money making your indoor living areas easily accessible from the outdoor space. Then all you have to do is throw open the doors and let the party flow in and out themselves.{found on fearns}.

Modern Style Home kids room

No outdoor space to speak of? Get creative and consider vertical gardening. You can make your pattern face outward for the world to see or face inward for your own pleasure. Either way, use the walls of your home to bring some greenery into your life.

Interior

Modern Style Home kids room

When you walk into a modern home, one of the first things you may notice is the open concept layout. Living areas are usually one large room, the living room flowing seamless into the dining room flowing into the kitchen. It’s certainly a popular layout for families with children and hosts of large parties.

Modern Style Home kids room

Reflecting the outside architecture, most of the indoor elements will also be boxy in design. You won’t find rounded doorways or gently curved fireplaces here. Everything will have four lines and four corners, creating a clean and modern look.

Modern Style Home kids room

You might think that a fireplace has no business in a modern home, but actually it’s just the opposite. Amidst cold colors and sleek textures, fireplaces can offer that much needed warmth and comfort to a room. Find a modern one in black or white, maybe with burning stones or white faux wood.

Modern Style Home kids room

Speaking of color, most modern homes limit the indoor palette as much as the exterior. Black and white comprise most everything with shades of gray and very light browns coming in to soften things up. Though like any other home, you’ll probably find a pop of green from a houseplant in the corner.{found on AD}.

Modern Style Home kids room

This black and white palette holds true all the way into the kitchen. White cabinets paired black countertops are a popular combination in the modern kitchen. It certainly encourages you to keep things clean and minimal in your kitchen styling. No pumpkin tea towels here.

Modern Style Home kids room

If you’d rather go for a statement kitchen, consider just the opposite. Black cabinets with white countertops is going to bring the eyes immediately to what you have on the counter instead of the drawer pulls. It will also be that surprising combination that your home needs.{found on AD}.

Modern Style Home kids room

If there was ever a time to opt for black tile, it would be in your modern bathroom. As long as you have some natural light to keep your space from going full on cave-like, you’ll achieve the sleekest bathroom known to man, worthy of all the fluffy white towels you can muster.

Modern Style Home kids room

So you don’t want all black and you don’t want all white, what’s the in between? Marble obviously. With all its various gray tones, it will fit right into your two tone palette as well as bringing pattern to an otherwise flat view. It’s especially effective to swath your modern kitchen in marble countertops and backsplash.

Modern Style Home kids room

When your home is mostly colorless, it’s extremely important that you have plenty of natural light to warm things up. Thankfully modern homes usually don’t have any lack of that. Window walls let the sunlight in all day long while giving you the most amazing view.{found on AD}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Things feeling a little dark in some corner of your home? Consider adding a skylight. It should be relatively simple in a modern home and it will light up all the dark corners that you have concerns about. Not to mention that stargazing is so much more fun.

Modern Style Home kids room

Since most modern homes lean towards the minimal side, it’s up to the literal structure of your house to provide interest. Wall panels, painted the same color as the wall, can add lovely texture without overwhelming a room.

Modern Style Home kids room

When your stairs need a railing, it’s only the best choice to make it pretty. Modern homes with a second story usually have simple steps and a linear railing design. Black is popular for the frame and sometimes, the “spokes” will be this silver chord or even the same matte black as the frame itself.

Modern Style Home kids room

Open shelving in a modern kitchen is a great way to add interest to your space in a practical way. Since everything is displayed, it will also help you thrift through what you need and what isn’t necessary, keeping in mind the style of your home.

Modern Style Home kids room

Ahh lighting. Modern lighting might be the most fun to shop for. As another practical purchase, it makes sense to choose something that’s fun to look at while it does it’s job. Sparkly or matte, choose the lighting that best suits your space and makes your modern room happy.

Modern Style Home kids room

Minimal is the Emerald City of the modern home which means more large statement pieces and no knick knacks. Large art is a great way to bring a little color into your space without cluttering things up. And don’t forget your wonderful modern lighting.

Modern Style Home kids room

Looking for a big bold statement in your modern home? Get some bright acrylic cabinets. Yes, they aren’t black or white, but with their sleek fronts and modern finishes, they’ll give you a kitchen that looks like it’s from a movie.{found on AD}.

Modern Style Home kids room

Maybe you’d prefer houseplants to make the biggest statement in your home? You need an indoor garden. Whether it’s a full fledged terrarium room, a wall of herbs in the kitchen or just a few pots sprinkled throughout the house, that lively green will make your house into a home.

Modern Style Home kids room

What do you do when your home is in the mountains but you despise all the bear and moose decor? Take a page from the 70’s decor book. Paneled walls in honeyed wood tones, pops of harvest colors, all sleek lines, you’ll have a modern cabin to be proud of.

Modern Style Home kids room

At this point you’re probably thinking “What about the kids’ rooms?” Our suggestion is to give them the basics to start with. Simple modern bedroom furniture, maybe some two tone wall art and a bedspread in their favorite color. After that, let their imagination run wild and create their own space. Most likely they’ll take note of your own modern style and model their room after it.