Forget the matchy-matchy look. Decorating a room with different furniture styles, colors, and patterns is fashionable and fresh — but it can also be hard to pull off. Here are easy expert tricks for mixing antique, modern, and traditional design so that your space looks considered instead of chaotic.
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1
An Eclectic Living Room
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In stylist Peter Frank's quirky Hudson Valley home, an 18th-century Korean screen hangs above a sofa slipcovered in vintage French linen sheets. His advice for a successful pairing? "It all comes down to contrasts: Mix hard with soft, square with round, blocky with leggy," he says.
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2
Old Meets New
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Though their styles are different, both types of lighting in this Las Vegas kitchen work well for their purposes. Designers Caroline Decesare and Berkley Vallone chose industrial-style hanging lamps for their modern edge — and to provide sufficient work lighting — above the two islands. Those pendants contrast with the rustic candle chandelier which softly illuminates the cozy breakfast table.
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3
A Traditional Bathroom with a Twist
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In this master bathroom designed by Paolo Moschino, a 19th-century English secretary makes a surprising focal point — and offers up plenty of storage.
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4
Carpets with Contrast
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For maximum impact, designer Jonathan Berger put a zebra carpet runner from Manhattan Carpets next to an antique Ziegler Mahal runner in a
late-19th-century townhouse in Brooklyn. The brown in the rugs temper the showstopping pink walls, painted in Benjamin Moore's Razzle Dazzle.
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5
A Vintage Country Blend
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Clad in wood from a tobacco shed, this L.A. kitchen combines a rustic look with salvaged finds, like the vintage chrome chairs that are upholstered in Brazilian cowhide. Homeowners Robbin and Hillary Hayne even chose not to match the vintage pendant lights.
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6
Mingling of Styles
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A Southampton, New York, cottage mixes primitive and modern furniture. Dark, antique Indonesian window transoms hang over the white fireplace, while a Saarinen chair from Knoll softens the straight lines of 1940s French armchairs. "People get into trouble when they do too much of one thing," says designer Vicente Wolf.
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7
An Unexpected Mix
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Primitive and cozy — but with an edge — this Spanish-style country home in California is designed by Kelley McDowell, the wife of actor Malcolm McDowell. She designed a shower door in the style of a metal casement window and chose natural Ojai river rock for the floor.
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8
Surprising Color Combo
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In the family room of a Southampton, New York, house, designer Steven Gambrel painted walls two vivid Benjamin Moore colors — Cedar Green and Marlboro Blue — then made the effect softer by framing them in white.
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9
Out-of-the-Blue Chairs
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Gambrel also offered up contrast in the boy's bedroom, where he pulled up a pair of blue desk chairs — reissues of a Josef Hoffmann design — with a brown wooden desk. While the colors are different, both pieces have a useful, casual quality to them.
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10
An Unusual Union
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The living room by designer Marshall Watson evokes a traditional mid-20th-century American sensibility but with a modern twist. The sofa's superscaled houndstooth contrasts with the rug's green and navy stripes, while the Lucite tables are a striking difference from the antique English coffee table.