Italian Designing Styles

Italian Decorating Styles

Transform any living space into an Old World Italian-style room, or update your home with chic and cutting-edge features of contemporary Italian design. Both traditional and contemporary styles are comfortable and inviting, and each serves a different lifestyle. Traditional style is suited to homes where the kitchen is the heart of the home, and where most of the entertaining and daily interaction takes place. A home with its focus on entertaining guests in a common area with TVs and music, or is part office and part home would work well with contemporary Italian decor.

Traditional

Traditional Italian decorating is an earthy style, mimicking the textures and colors found in the Italian landscape. It's referred to as "Old World," or rustic. The Italian decorating styles which fall into traditional decor include regional styles, associated with the countryside and nature. Tuscan decor, Mediterranean and Spanish-Italian are all regional styles of decor which are commonly adopted when homeowners choose to an Italian home decor style. Textured paint may be used to create a traditional home decor style, which is a modern way to create a painted stucco look.

Contemporary

Contemporary Italian decorating style is worlds away from traditional Italian decorating styles, in furniture choices, materials, colors and overall ambiance. Contemporary decor is sleek and functional, with clean lines. Furniture is simple and multi-functional. Couches may have built-in side tables. Headboards may have built in and foldable side tables. Entertainment centers house DVDs from the side, accessible yet hidden from view while watching TV. Unlike traditional Italian decor, contemporary decorating incorporates shine and sheen. Materials include glass, lacquer, aluminum, chrome, brushed steel, lacquered glass and colored leather furniture. Contemporary Italian furniture pieces provide both function and appeal.

Features

Traditional Italian decor infuses colors of the sunset with the landscape and hints of the morning sky or the Mediterranean sea. Warm reds, hinging on orange, with sunny and golden yellows warm up any traditional Italian decor. Olive or avocado greens and cobalt blue add a hint of coolness to the palette.

A more contemporary color scheme would center on a bold pairing of black and white, with or without a bolder hue of a color found in traditional Italian decor. Warm red is replaced with bright and cold fire engine red. Warm avocado takes on a lime green, bright look in contemporary Italian decor.

Contemporary Italian style calls for whites and quiet neutrals. The furniture and functional accessories should be the focal points for this decor style.

Natural floors work best, while wall-to-wall carpeting will not work for Italian decor. Ceramic tiles or terra cotta tiles or flooring which mimics these surfaces may be used in kitchens and living areas.

Modern materials from bamboo to parquet flooring work for contemporary decor. Keep rugs and to a minimum, and use them in areas of the room where they serve a function.

Warning

Creating a room inspired by an Italian decorating style should not translate into a theme-room look or a cliched or kitschy look. Use cliched Italian home decor accessories prudently. Keep silk ivy vines and painted vine murals to a minimum in the room. Hanging up signs which read "Vino" or "Cucina" may also look tacky, and show too much effort for the natural and traditional Italian style. These items would all add to much clutter for a contemporary Italian decor.

Keep contemporary Italian decor chic by not adding any new accessories or art pieces unless the piece is exceptional on its own merit.

Prevention/Solution

Either style can be achieved without going overboard. Traditional style should look unworked, as if the pieces and well-chosen accessories came together naturally, over time. Focus on combining natural textures including wood, metal and ceramics. Use throw rugs or decorative floor coverings to add subtle bursts of color.

A contemporary look can be achieved with the modern approach of keeping anything nonfunctional out of the room. The key is to make sure all of the functional elements are chosen for their aesthetic value as well as their usability. Incorporate the negative spaces and white walls in the room as part of the overall design for contemporary Italian decor.

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