Choose Your Style: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern and Contemporary Home Design
Lighting is more than just function, it also serves as an expression of personal style for your home. Selecting the right chandelier for your dining space is just as important as finding the perfect table to complete the room, or choosing the perfect painting to adorn a wall. The right light fixture provides illumination while serving as an art piece or a conversation starter, adding to the beauty of a given room.
But with so many styles to choose from, how do you know what will work best for your home? Welcome to the first installment of Lamps Plus’s new Choose Your Style series, in which we explore the modern and contemporary styles and strive to impart the knowledge you need to truly make your home an expression of you.
What is Modern Style?
While modern and contemporary are often conflated together, or grouped together as one style called contemporary modern, they are two distinct art styles. Modern art was an era of artistic expression beginning roughly in the 1860’s and lasting over a century until the 1970’s. At its core, modern art represented a movement away from the characteristics of traditional art and towards a spirit of experimentation, beginning with post-impressionists like Vincent van Gogh. As the period progressed, modern become more associated with the likes of Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
But how does this relate to lighting?
Modern style lighting design has its roots in the modern art movement as it pertained to architecture and sculpture, and includes the subcategories of mid-century, art deco, and art nouveau. Modern style lighting has a love of clean lines, neutral palettes, and a slight embracing of function over ornamentation. Natural materials are also common, especially when paired with metals and glass.
What is Contemporary Style?
While modern is a fixed historical style pulling from a specific time period, contemporary is much more fluid. Simply put, contemporary is the style and art of today. In the future, once style and art have continued to progress, this period may gain its own proper name. But for now, any art produced after the modern period of contemporary, which also includes postmodernism.
In the lighting world, modern and contemporary have a lot of overlap, which is why they are often grouped together, but contemporary has a tendency to borrow from multiple eras. Within contemporary style, you’ll also find elements of Scandinavian design and transitional elements.
Contemporary style lighting has a love of clean, minimal shapes with monochrome or sometimes high-contrast palettes. Mixed materials are also common, such as combining concrete, glass, and metals. Many contemporary style lights and ceiling fans also feature integrated or built-in LED modules, striving for a low-profile look with slender profiles.
Meanwhile, contemporary pieces leaning towards transitional will blend together multiple styles, pulling elements such as ornamentation or rustic textures and finishes. Scandinavian style, like the region for which it is named, shares contemporary’s love of minimalism but uses natural wood as the main material.
Modern Chandeliers and Pendants as Works of Art
Chandeliers and pendant lights are more than just light sources, they are often the main focal points of any room. Whether its lighting up a lovely dining space during dinner, or illuminating a kitchen island while doing food prep, contemporary modern chandeliers and pendant lighting are a defining visual works of art.
These pieces love geometric frames with strong lines and clear shapes. They can be rounded or angular, hitting a lovely middle ground between traditional and industrial styles that lean towards those two ends of the spectrum. Linear chandeliers are also quite common for modern style, especially above kitchen islands, while mini pendant lights are very popular with their compact presentations.
Think of modern contemporary chandeliers and pendant lights as sculptures that happen to hang from your ceiling. This idea is even reflected in the materials used, with a reliance on metals and different types of glass, although crystal is less common and typically reserved for more traditional styles. As for the color palette, you will find plenty of monochrome colors, along with mixed metal finishes and bursts of gold against solid black backgrounds.
Contemporary Modern Ceiling Fans for Maximum Comfort
More than most other types of lighting, the ceiling fan is a relatively recent invention, first entering homes in the 1860’s and 1870’s, although the first electrically powered ceiling fan would not be invented until 1882. Since then, ceiling fans have become a must-have in any home, but again it would take time before ceiling fan designs embraced form as well as function.
Contemporary modern style ceiling fans are the perfect blend of form and function, and are likely the most popular style. While traditional style ceiling fans feature wide or curved blades, modern ceiling fans feature blade on the slimmer side, showcasing easy elegance. Within this style you’ll also find hugger and low profile designs for lower ceilings, and a recent push towards built-in and integrated LED modules. These light sources provide stable, long-lasting lighting while reducing the fan’s energy consumption compared to incandescent lights. Just be aware that built-in LEDs cannot be changed once they run out!
As for finishes, you’ll often find matte black and brushed nickel motors, along with wood finish blades, although they typically do not use real wood material in the construction. Lastly, modern style ceiling fans typically include a wall or remote control unit separate from any existing wall switches in your home, and some contemporary ceiling fans even double as smart fans! These ones can connect to your phone or smart home to be controlled from anywhere with internet access.
Table and Floor Lamps for Contemporary Living
Table and floor lamps are the glue that binds your home together, mobile and endlessly versatile. There are few rooms in any home that would not benefit from a well-placed lamp, providing a welcome reading light or illuminating dark corners. Table and floor lamps are extraordinarily flexible in their usage, with options to represent nearly every style imaginable to best layer your room’s lighting sources.
In the realm of modern style, these lamps often feature geometric shape bases, such as cubes or cylinders, with the occasional tripod or arc floor lamp rounding out the architectural inspiration. A focus on metal materials, along with glass and even concrete, lend contemporary lamps a feel of stability and sturdiness, often paired with minimalist paper, linen, or even metal shades meant to complement the overall look.
With modern style, lamps will typically avoid more ornate designs, such as tassels or floral patterns, in favor of blacks, whites, and neutral bases with potentially one bold accent color or finish. Also, modern lamps embrace the advantages of technology, with many table lamps now including built-in USB and power outlets in the bases. A new trend you will also see more of is battery powered lamps with integrated LED modules, allowing you to move your table lamp around with ease.
Modern Wall Lights for All Spaces
Every room can use a wall light, whether it be a sconce lighting up a living room or a vanity light above a bathroom mirror. Wall lighting is a broad category in home design, combining the functional versatility of task or ambient lighting with the architectural aspects of wall sculptures and art pieces.
Modern style wall lights tend to lean towards linear designs like light bars, sconces with both up and down lights, and geometric shapes like cylinders or rectangles. These designs have a love of metal materials with glass shades and accents, or acrylic for lights featuring built-in or integrated LED modules. What you will not find are designs with ornate scrollwork, candelabra style sconces, or lamps reminiscent of traditional lanterns.
Also, modern style wall lights embrace the advantages of technology. While most designs are still hardwired, requiring direct installation, there are also plug-in and battery operated lights available, allowing for fully customizable lighting.
Outdoor Lighting for the Modern Home
Outdoor lighting is fairly self-explanatory. Any light used along your home’s exterior qualifies, from wall lanterns illuminating your front door to the landscape lighting that may fill your yard. Modern style outdoor lighting follows many of the same elements we’ve covered in this style guide, including geometric shapes, strong lines, and low-ornamentation designs. Amongst contemporary outdoor lighting you will find modern wall lights, post lights, hanging lanterns, outdoor ceiling lights, and more.
Look for minimalist designs, often in clean black finishes with clear or seedy glass to evoke the look of gently falling rain. Also common are bronze and more neutral finishes, and you should avoid lanterns or any design considered farmhouse or vintage when aiming for that modern look and feel. Further, if you are looking for Dark Sky friendly outdoor lights, contemporary modern style is a great place to begin your search.
As for the technological options in modern style outdoor lighting, you can find plenty of built-in or integrated LED models for energy efficient lighting. If you are looking for lighting that is more security focused, the modern style also includes motion sensors and dusk-to-dawn sensors. Lastly, there are plenty of solar powered options to pick from, which do not rely on any wiring, allowing you to place them anywhere that received adequate sunlight for charging.
Choose Your Style
There are so many styles to choose from, and Lamps Plus has them all! Keep an eye out for our other Choose Your Style articles as we explore Coastal designs, Rustic Modern designs, and Traditional lighting.