Decor ideas for a modern-style home

Choosing the right style to decorate the walls of our home, pick pictures for our office or furnish our bed and breakfast depends on the kind of atmosphere we want to create. We may want a calm, relaxing setting, one that stimulates creativity and energy, or one that conjures up romantic moods. Depending on what we need, one style will suit better than another. Modern decor is undoubtedly one of the styles best suited to creating different kinds of atmosphere. Partly thanks to this flexibility, it's considered very on trend today, and a great many homes and venues are decorated in its spirit. Decorating your home in modern style means designing with rationality and functionality of space in mind, along with simplicity and modularity of furnishings, lightness and essentiality. Modern style draws on clean, soft, linear geometric shapes, creating open, airy spaces, and sits naturally alongside the minimalist interior style. If you're looking for a refined, pared-back style, in this guide you'll find plenty of decor ideas and suggestions for decorative prints and pictures that you can buy online directly from our Gallery.

1. The elements of modern decor

The fundamental features of modern style derive from the Bauhaus, a movement that originated in Germany in the early 1900s. It was a style that represented a revolution in design and architecture, founded on the principles of functionalism and rationalism and favouring soft, essential lines. All these features have been inherited by what we now call "modern style", which in fact encompasses several variants: for example modern classic, where the emphasis is on furnishing with important design pieces from the post-war period to the present day, with particular attention to sofas, armchairs and lamps, or minimal, dominated by white, light, glass and gloss finishes, where the pared-back approach to furnishing is taken to the extreme. We can easily achieve these effects by painting the walls white, a neutral element to use as a base on which to build our decor. To decorate the walls of a modern home, the images and subjects should follow these same principles.

This style is also particularly well suited to choosing prints and pictures for the office.

Modern style differs from the so-called "classic" styles, which are based on evoking times gone by, because it is so firmly rooted in the present. It's a cutting-edge style in constant evolution and, for this reason, very well suited to including technological objects as part of the decor. Typical of this style is the use of polished metal or glass furniture with linear shapes, pieces we can choose by taking inspiration from industrial-style decor. To match these elements when choosing wall decor, ideal subjects are water and metal, as in the prints we show you below.

Creating a modern living room is an excellent solution, especially when space is limited. Drawing on the principles of rationality, functionality and constant experimentation with innovative solutions, you can create a loft with an open-plan kitchen and bedroom, or place furnishings such as the bed, or even the bathtub, right in the middle of the room. All in the name of innovation and the rational use of space.

2. Using colour in modern-style decor

As we've already pointed out, modern style is a particularly flexible style that lends itself to creating different kinds of atmosphere. Let's look at how to achieve specific effects using colours and photographic prints.

2.1 Relaxation with soft colours

First of all, we can create spaces that evoke calm and relaxation by using neutral colours such as white and grey, furniture with clean lines and a particularly orderly arrangement of all the furnishings. To be a little more daring, why not choose some pastel shades that create a subtle contrast with the rest of the decor. Take a look at the prints we suggest below.

2.2 The elegance of black and white

One of the main features of modern style is undoubtedly the purity of its lines and contrasts. A very elegant way to achieve this effect is to use modern pictures and black and white prints and pictures, like the ones we suggest here.

2.3 Adding energy and vibrancy

Going in the opposite direction, we can use modern style to bring energy and vibrancy to our rooms: set white as the base colour and liven things up with bold splashes of colour on furniture or accessories, and a dynamic effect is guaranteed! Photos and prints in bright colours can be just what we need here.

2.4 The element of air

To create a sense of spaciousness and let our rooms breathe, one subject that can easily help is the sky. For a strong splash of colour, we can paint the walls light blue. We've selected a few photographic prints from our Gallery that might be just right for you.

You can give your decor a strongly modern touch with digital graphic art pictures, posters and prints.

As you can see, with the right guidance decorating in modern style is something anyone can do! Don't forget that in the Pixtury gallery you'll find canvas pictures of all the images in this article. If you'd like to ask us something more specific, get in touch and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!