The world has mostly shifted towards modern home decor designs.

This can often include lots of neutral colours, plenty of simplistic furniture shapes and also a lot of clean minimalist concepts. While it’s an excellent decor style in its own right, there are plenty of people out there that yearn for a more traditional approach to decor.

Sadly, there are very few properties outside of country homes that still utilise traditional decor, so here are a couple of smart ways to introduce traditional design elements into a modern home.

Use furniture that has meaning and sentimentality

There are plenty of traditional homes that are filled with mismatching furniture pieces, strange colours and occasionally very old and outdated-looking furniture that might have been refurbished several times over.

Many younger adults would look at a piece of old furniture and simply replace it, often saying that it’s just too difficult or expensive to replace and doesn’t fit the minimalistic theme of the room.

However, traditional design concepts were a lot more about sentimentality and meaning than face-value designs. For example, majestic plant pots could have been passed down through the family as antiques and still used for many years. Even though they might look a little ragged and require more maintenance than any cheap plant pot you could get from a store, it carries significance.

This is the main difference between modern and traditional design concepts. Furniture and decor pieces are often chosen and placed according to their history and not just face value. To implement this practically, consider bringing out older antique furniture that you may still have in storage, or be more thoughtful about the decor you use. For example, if you have shelf space, consider putting trinkets and travel memorabilia on them to show people about your travels and your history.

You can also add meaningful appliances and features that give off a traditional vibe but have modern purposes. For instance, you could consider adding a gas fire from Illusion Fires. It’s a unique appliance that replicates traditional wood fires but instead uses gas as a heating element so you don’t need to bother with cleaning up the ash of burnt logs and chopping wood to use in your fireplace.

Personalise your decor arrangements

It’s common for people nowadays to go out and purchase paintings, posters or even motivational sticker messages to place on their walls. After all, an empty wall is a blank canvas that should be used. However, it’s also a place where you can put a lot of sentimental items such as old photographs, paintings and drawings that your kids have made or even nostalgic posters that you’ve kept since you were younger.

To modernise these elements, consider cleaning them up and framing them in order to preserve them for longer. They make excellent decor pieces that might not be centrepieces to use as talking points, but they’re certainly more interesting than regular pieces of art that have no real meaning to you.

In short, don’t just throw up generic decor to fill your walls. Think carefully about the type of decor that you have available and consider putting up personal items that you have instead. Be it pictures, photographs, old awards or travel memorabilia, there are plenty of opportunities to make your decor follow more traditional concepts such as personalisation.