12 Interior Design Styles For Inspiration To Create Your Dream Home

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From Hollywood Regency and contemporary to coastal glamour and Asian Zen, there is an interior design style for everyone! In this article, we break down 12 different interior design styles along with the benefits and challenges that come with each one.

Minimalist

When it comes to minimalism, the terms such as clean, reductive, and uncluttered often come to mind. A minimalist interior design has a less-is-more approach for optimum comfort and functionality. Think simplicity and a monochromatic palette mostly consisting of accent colours.

A minimalist interior design may seem straightforward. However, this interior design is more than simply picking a few pieces of furniture for a white background which can leave a space feeling cold, empty, and unlived-in. The key to this look is to keep spaces simple with only the essentials and no excessive decoration. 

What you’ll Love About Minimalist Interior Design

Homes with a minimalist approach typically have an open-concept design to promote a feeling of freedom and relaxation. Minimalist interior design styles use double-duty furniture and accessories that focus on practicality and functionality. 

Not only will you save money on furniture and renovations, but it is also space-saving! This leaves your home clutter-free, providing you with a clean and relaxed environment.

Challenges of a Minimalist Interior Design

The main challenge is making a space feel welcoming and warm. You can do so by incorporating different shades and textures. Another major challenge that people may face is knowing when to stop or add to a space. Robert Brown, an interior designer and owner of Robert Brown Design said, “if the space functions well, is simple in its composition without being overly stimulating, you know that you are finished”.

Bohemian

Bohemian or boho interior design is the total opposite of minimalism – aka maximalism. It is one of the most widely used interior designs which allows for the most amount of self-expression. 

It boasts a mix of multicultural trinkets, indoor plants, and vintage furnishings. Through the use of crystal accents, beads, and jewel tones, this more-is-more style makes for a rich and psychedelic space full of free-spirited aesthetics. 

What you’ll Love About Bohemian Interior Design

Bohemian interiors are versatile – they are perfect if you want to express your personality through home decor. This means that you can pretty much design the space however you want. Also, there is no fixed colour palette in boho interior design, so you can go for a clean look, bright and bold, or the latter.

Apart from that, mixing the old and the new is a critical element in bohemian interior design. In fact, many boho furniture pieces are sourced from antique shops and thrift stores. 

Hence why it is an ideal interior design if you have a variety of furniture lying around or souvenirs and you are unsure of what to do with them. You can basically use those items as decorative ornaments for your home. 

Challenges of a Bohemian Interior Design

The overall appearance of Bohemian décor is indeed busier than other interior design styles. But that does not mean you can simply add random things and group them all together without planning beforehand. This is a recipe for disaster. 

So, how much is ‘too much’? It is important to consider how all of the colours, furnishings, and accessories complement each other. Otherwise, it may look a lot like clutter. Being intentional and thoughtful with your decor is the key to a successful bohemian interior design style.

Contemporary

People often confuse modern with contemporary interior design styles. However, there is a difference between the two and that is their age. 

Modern interior design style specifically relates to the early to the mid-20th century. However, contemporary interior design style is ever-evolving. It does not belong to any time period and reflects present-day styles. Its timeless concept allows design movement that is easy to update and will never go out of style.

The go-to colours of a contemporary interior design style include neutrals like grey, black, and white. Choosing the right neutrals will allow you to add splashes of bright colours in a space that you can easily change depending on your mood. Keep in mind that this interior design showcases space rather than objects.

What you’ll Love About Contemporary Interior Design

Contemporary interior design style trends have more freedom compared to modern interior design styles because they embrace new ideas and adopt various forms as seasons change. It is an easy yet effective way of highlighting the architectural features of a neutral-coloured space.

Challenges of a Contemporary Interior Design

Contemporary interior designs can look dull and basic or loud and messy. You can achieve the look of a contemporary home by bringing in plays on textures, natural elements like stone or wood, textured patterns, and colour combinations. Furniture pieces should be uncluttered and plain with no curves or ornaments.

To illustrate, a neutral wall makes for a beautiful backdrop for vibrant-coloured accessories. And if the wall is painted in soft pastels, its trimmings should be neutral, and vice versa. 

Traditional

Traditional interior design is a popular style of decor that draws inspiration from European styles of the 18th- and 19th- centuries. Its design style is versatile, well-organised, and pleasant without being over the top.

You can make a traditional interior design style by combining modern light fixtures, classic artwork, and antique furniture. The goal is to create a bold statement while offering an inviting atmosphere.

What you’ll Love About Traditional Interior Design

Through the use of upholstered furniture, wood accents, and dark and warm tones, this classic design instantly makes any space cosy and homey. So, you will not have to worry about making the space comfortable as the interior design itself already does that for you. And the best part? It is a great way to pay homage to the past and your family roots.

Challenges of a Traditional Interior Design

The most difficult part is identifying which traditional items can make your home look charming from those that are simply outdated and will make your home stuffy and cluttered.

Aside from that, classic artwork and ornate furniture are typically pricey. As a result, people may have a misconception about traditional interior design styles being expensive. 

It can be as simple as using a family heirloom as a centrepiece or incorporating furniture with traditional patterns, like plaid armchairs or rugs. You can even browse through online antique shops, flea markets, and thrift stores to find vintage treasures that will not burn a hole in your pocket. 

Art Deco

If your style leans more towards the ornate and jewel-like, then art deco interior designs are for you. Think bold and opulent, modern and functional – it is a style that dates back to the 1920s and was the epitome of chic. 

This style is about making a statement and pushing boundaries. The key elements to remember when incorporating art deco interior design style into your home are large-scale furniture, high-shine accessories, metallic accents, bold colours, and patterns with abstract and geometric shapes.

What you’ll Love About Art Deco Interior Design

Art deco styles are timeless and purely decorative. The themes can be nature-inspired like leaves, feathers, and animal prints or geometric such as chevrons and zigzags. This quirky interior design style entails a chock full of colours and patterns and can be tailored to any space to add personality to your home.

Challenges of an Art Deco Interior Design

Art deco interior design allows a lot of personalisation, but that does not mean you can simply choose just any patterns. It is all about luxury and extravagance with bold colours and stylised patterns – without softness or romance. So florals and plaid patterns are a huge no-no. 

Rustic

Rustic interiors are known for allowing the beauty of nature and weathered finishes to stand out. By emphasising the use of organic elements such as wood, stone, faux hide rugs, and greenery, it aims to promote relaxation while adding depth and comfort.

It is a mixture of industrial-inspired hardware, wood floors, textured fabrics, and vintage pieces with an earthy colour palette that adds warmth to any living space. Basically, the more imperfections and rougher the construction, the better.

What you’ll Love About Rustic Interior Design

Rustic decor is one of the easiest design styles to recreate without much effort. This antique and nature-focused interior design style allows each piece (furniture or accents) to stand out, adding character to your home. It is also a way to reconnect with nature. 

Challenges of a Rustic Interior Design

Rustic interior design may appear heavy and dark. However, you can choose a light and fresh aesthetic. Colours like wood grains, tans, and white can enhance the darker shades within the room. 

Speaking of light, what better way to brighten a room than windows? You can use large wood windows to accentuate the rustic look while providing ample natural lighting to your living space. 

Scandinavian

Scandinavian interior design style refers to a design movement that started in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. This simplistic design has roots in modernism that emphasises minimalism, lightness, functionality, and the aesthetics of everyday objects.

This style is all about balance and a carefully edited mixture of elements. Highlighting organic shapes, textural variations, and greenery in interiors with muted grey or white undertones. Artwork and textiles or accents such as throws or rugs are often used to introduce colours to the home. 

What you’ll Love About Scandinavian Interior Design

Scandinavian interior designs are relatively easy to bring into your home and popular due to their appealingly sleek and serene simplicity. Small spaces can look larger thanks to the practical design and clean lines. 

A few well-chosen pieces of furniture can be enough to provide comfort while not overcrowding a room. The natural colour scheme promotes relaxation and complements neutral-coloured furnishings to make a room feel light and airy.

Challenges of a Scandinavian Interior Design

With Scandinavian interior design, it is easy to be overly minimal which can make your living space cold and one-dimensional. Another common mistake is that people often think that Scandinavian styles are all white and only use wooden furnishings. 

Although minimal clean spaces are an essential element, Scandinavian-inspired homes should be full of personality. The cohesive blend of different textures and materials and neutrals is important to bring warmth and colour to a space.

Asian Zen

A style that has evolved from its original Japanese form to a modernised interpretation with universal appeal. Minimalism and open spaces are major themes in Asian Zen interior design. 

This interior design style focuses on creating peaceful and positive vibes in a home. And nature plays a significant role in this Asian-inspired concept. From the colour palette to light fixtures and furniture – it is essentially an all-natural concept. 

Soft neutrals like white, beige, and grey are primarily used to reinforce the serene environment associated with this style. However, you can add more vivid tones like green, blue, yellow or red to make it pop.

What you’ll Love About Asian Zen Interior Design

The Asian Zen style is characterised by fluidity — there are no strict rules, to which you can add your own personal touch. It encourages contemplation while also being aesthetically pleasing and visually balanced. 

Since this interior design style incorporates many organic elements, you will feel more relaxed while having a stronger connection to nature. 

Lush greenery is vital in this style. This is due to the air-purifying qualities and calming effect that plants have. The most popular plants used are namely bonsai trees, bamboo, and dracaena plants.

Challenges of an Asian Zen Interior Design

Since Asian Zen interior styles are all about clean and open spaces, one major challenge that people may face is removing what is not needed and keeping only the essentials. Remember, the more cluttered the living space, the more stressed you will be. 

While getting rid of items may seem difficult and tedious at first, using the minimalist style of Asian Zen will allow you to have a clutter-free home. As Marie Kondo would say, go through each of your possessions and ask yourself if it sparks joy. 

Hollywood Regency

Ever dreamed of living like a Hollywood star? Well, now you can. Hollywood Regency is one of the most classic yet intriguing interior design styles from the 1930s – which is a product of the Golden Age of cinema. It effortlessly combines art deco-inspired details and high-polished glamour. 

Consider a mix of monochromatic and bold colours, classic French furniture, clean lines, lacquered accessories and accents, faux fur rugs, and oversized gilded mirrors. As for patterns, various tropical and animal prints adorned everything from floors to upholstery. It is all glitz and glam for this style. 

What you’ll Love About Hollywood Regency Interior Design

Hollywood Regency is less constrictive than other interior design trends due to its eclectic style. This gives you the freedom to customise each room to make it uniquely yours, so you will never have to compromise on decorations.

Challenges of a Hollywood Regency Interior Design

One of the most challenging parts is blending Hollywood Regency-style items into existing items of your home. You would have to find a balance between the old (traditional pieces) and the new (modern pieces). 

The key is to start with a few core elements to set your desired tone. Keep essential parts, such as the floors and walls neutral then add touches of glitz and glam in measured amounts so you can easily swap them out.

Transitional

Transitional interior design brings together both traditional and modern styles. Combining elements from numerous design styles results in a cohesive design that gives the classics an updated look with a modern feel. 

It is about balancing luxury and cosiness; masculine and feminine; old and new. The result? Simple sophistication. 

The transitional interior design places emphasis on comfort and softness than it does on form over function. This style is practical, and thus uses large-scale furnishings in plush upholstery, textural elements, and a neutral colour palette.

What you’ll Love About Transitional Interior Design

Transitional interior design styles are easy as you can be as expressive as you like while creating a home that represents your personal tastes – no transitional home ever looks the same. 

The neutral colours in transitional interior design allow the lines of the furniture to take centre stage. This timeless interior design style also embraces natural light and favours blending details to create a warm yet modern home.

Challenges of a Transitional Interior Design

Getting the colours and materials right is the most challenging part. The solution is to limit the use of accessories that are colourful with many patterns. 

However, too much similarity will cause things to blend in too well. The aim is to be diverse and stick to three or four different themes and common elements to keep everything cohesive and well-balanced.

Coastal

Coastal interior design is characterised by the reflection of natural elements – like sun, sand, sea, and sky (even seashells!) – in a home through colour and texture. This interior design style blends airy, light and bright environs with cool and warm neutrals to give your living space a beach-like feel.

Common coastal colours include ocean-inspired shades of light blues and greens with seaside motifs. But white is the primary colour of this design as it is all about making a space fresh and open.

Speaking of which, nothing screams coastal more than natural lighting. Interiors should not be dimmed or feel cramped, but rather free with abundant light. So large windows, glass doors, and skylights are key in coastal interiors.

What you’ll Love About Coastal Interior Design

Coastal styles create a calm and soothing environment for your home – it feels as if you are always on vacation. Like many of the interior design styles we have mentioned, this is one style that allows you to bring the outdoors indoors. 

Challenges of a Coastal Interior Design

With this interior design style, it is easy to go overboard. Coastal interiors are known best for their relaxed and airy feel, so you do not want to ruin that by adding too much. 

Instead, go for the minimalist approach and stick to an easy-to-work-with colour palette and keep it soft – nothing bold or loud. Use furniture made from rattan and wicker but keep it minimal. Otherwise, it may feel too matchy-matchy and sometimes a little messy.

Feng Shui

Feng Shui is more than just arranging your furnishings in a particular way. It is a philosophy to create balance with the five elements – wind, water, fire, wood, and metal – for a harmonious and fulfilling life. Each element symbolises certain qualities that aim to enhance different aspects of your life. 

To achieve this, you would need a tool called the “Bagua” map – which translates to “eight areas” in Chinese. This, along with the five elements act as a guide in determining the furniture and decor placement of your home.

Because Feng Shui principles encourage harmony with the environment, keep furniture pieces simple without excessive decorative elements. As for the colour palette, it should reflect all five elements. 

What you’ll Love About Feng Shui Interior Design

The goal for Feng Shui interior design styles is peace and balance. They emphasise incorporating natural materials as much as possible. The serene and simple style is also not restricted by decorative rules and trends.

From furniture to decorative pieces, Feng Shui interiors are nature-inspired. So do not hesitate to add plants to your living space. They can purify the air and absorb harmful toxins.

Challenges of a Feng Shui Interior Design

Choosing the right colours for this style may be confusing. For the most harmonious results, choose neutrals for your primary colours and pick one or two brighter accents for every room. Also, too many plants could end up feeling like clutter! A simple solution to this problem is to choose fewer but larger ones instead.  

Conclusion

Although we highlighted 12 of the most common interior design styles, this is not meant to be the end-all-be-all list. Besides, interior design is a dynamic and ever-evolving industry. 

Interior design style is unique to each individual and it usually reflects their personality. The majority of people decorate their homes using a combination of a few different interior design styles.

Regardless of whether you are an expert or a homeowner who simply wants to revamp their living space, use this article as a guide for reference the next time you are looking for decor inspiration for your home or your next project.