When it comes to interior design, terms like traditional, modern and transitional often get tossed around. But what do these styles actually mean? Understanding the core elements of each can help you create a home that truly reflects your personality and meets your lifestyle needs. Moen’s senior creative style manager, Danielle DeBoe Harper, provides insights into these three popular design styles to help you identify which approach most resonates with your personal aesthetic.
Traditional Design: Timeless Elegance
Traditional design is all about enduring sophistication and classic beauty. It draws inspiration from 18th and 19th-century European décor, exuding a sense of history. If you are drawn to rooms with warm tones, natural colors, intricate details, and a comfy, cozy feel, traditional design might be your ideal style.
Elements of Traditional Design
- Rich Color Palettes: While traditional style embraces all colors, saturated tones like burgundy, navy, and forest green, and dark-colored woods dominate traditional interiors.
- Intricate Details: From carved wood furniture to elaborate crown moldings and trim, traditional design is rich in details that showcase craftsmanship.
- Elegant Fabrics and Designs: Luxurious fabrics such as silk, linen, and velvet, as well as textured designs such as damask, florals, stripes, and plaids, are commonly used for upholstery, window coverings, and pillows in this design style.
To create a traditional kitchen or bathroom space, start with a neutral base and layer in deep colors and patterns through your décor,
notes DeBoe Harper. Using architectural elements, like built-ins, columns, crown molding, and raised-panel cabinets, or incorporating antique pieces can add depth and interest. When choosing elements such as lighting, faucets, door pulls and handles, finding accents that feature ornate detailing or bronze and gold tones can continue the distinguished look and feel.
To embrace this design style, homeowners may want to consider a fixture like those in Moen’s Smyth™ kitchen faucet collection. This eclectic, traditional style collection is inspired by classic architectural details to evoke a sense of nostalgia and infuses an elegant yet varied character, making it a statement piece for any homeowner looking to add classical luxury to their space. The collection comes in various finishes, including the new Bronzed Gold, which is the perfect complement to traditional design.
Modern Design: Sleek Sophistication
Modern design is all about streamlined simplicity. It emerged in the mid-20th century, influenced by the German architecture and design school, The Bauhaus, which focused on functional design principles. If you love open spaces and a minimalist aesthetic, then modern design might be a fit.
Elements of Modern Design
- Cooler-Toned, Neutral, and Monochromatic Palettes: Modern interiors typically feature neutral colors like white, black, and gray, often with bold accent colors used sparingly.
- Clean Lines: Furniture, architecture, and accessories in modern design feature straight lines with no unnecessary embellishments. Less is more with an emphasis on open, uncluttered, simple spaces.
- Natural Materials: Modern design often incorporates wood, leather, and metal, emphasizing their inherent beauty.
A great choice for modern homes, Moen’s Tenon™ kitchen faucet collection was influenced by the Japandi style, which combines Scandinavian simplified design with Japanese textures and natural elements to bring warmth to the modern kitchen. Pulling in this inspiration, the collection includes a teak wood handle to further incorporate clean lines and calming details throughout its design, providing a sense of peacefulness that blends harmoniously with any aesthetic.
Transitional Design: A Perfect Blend of Contemporary and Classic
Transitional design strikes a balance between traditional and modern styles, blending old and new elements to create a harmonious look. Transitional design allows homeowners to play with multiple designs focusing on comfort, usability, and functionality. If you appreciate the warmth and classic elegance of traditional design—but with an updated, simplistic aesthetic—transitional design may be your perfect match.
Elements of Transitional Design
- Neutral Color Schemes: Transitional interiors often use neutral palettes such as taupe, gray, and beige—potentially with pops of color—to create a calm, comfortable, and cohesive look.
- Streamlined Details: Furniture and accents in transitional design are generally less ornate than traditional pieces but more detailed than modern ones. They often feature clean lines with subtle curves, or detailing may be pared back as compared to classic traditional styles.
- Layered Mix of Materials: Combining traditional materials, like wood and stone, with modern elements, like glass and metal, creates a balanced and interesting space.
Transitional design is achieved by blending the functionality of modern design with a bit of the beloved classic feel of traditional,
says DeBoe Harper. To achieve a transitional look, start with a neutral color palette on walls with brushed finishes on hardware and accessories. By choosing furniture, cabinets, countertops, and fixtures that have more contemporary and functional features with clean lines and understated details, consumers can find the perfect balance. This can be done through using a mix of materials and textures to add depth and interest, while keeping accessories minimal to maintain a balanced and uncluttered feel.
For transitional design enthusiasts, Moen’s Greenfield™ bathroom collection adapts well to any space thanks to its clean, simple lines and subtle beveled edges that add a point of interest to the room without distracting from the bathroom’s overall design. The collection also offers a variety of matching accessory options, such as lighting, towel bars, a towel ring, toilet paper holders, robe hook, and tank lever, to meet any design need.
Understanding the core elements of traditional, modern and transitional design can help you identify which style is right for you. Whether you prefer the timeless elegance of traditional design, the harmonious blend of transitional, or the sleek sophistication of modern design, each style offers unique opportunities to create a space that reflects your personality and lifestyle.
For more information about these trends and Moen products, visit moen.com.
ABOUT MOEN
Moen is the #1 consumer faucet brand in North America, offering a vast array of stylish and innovative kitchen and bath faucets, showerheads, accessories, bath safety products, kitchen sinks, garbage disposals, leak detection products and connected home offerings for residential applications that give consumers more power than ever before to understand and control the water that flows through their homes. These thoughtful designs deliver an exceptional user experience and elevate how people interact with water daily. In addition, Moen® Commercial offers superior-performing products that can deliver lower lifetime costs for today's facilities.
Moen is part of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: FBIN), a brand, innovation and channel leader focused on exciting, supercharged categories in the home products, security and commercial building markets. Moen anchors Water Innovations (WINN), which also includes several brands under the House of Rohl® including Perrin & Rowe®, ROHL®, Riobel®, Shaws® and Victoria + Albert®. Fortune Brands’ other brands include Fiberon® composite decking and railing products; Master Lock®, Yale® residential, August® and Sentry® Safe security products; LARSON® storm doors and Therma-Tru® entry door systems. For more information, please visit www.FBIN.com.
CONTACT:
Samantha Eastman or Emily Baker
Falls & Co.
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