So much of modern interior design is both fashionable and functional, but there are some elements that look just plain uninviting. Sterile environments, sharp corners, hard plastics and extreme minimalism can be part of modern design but are not necessarily part of modern comforts.

So how do you reconcile a style that you want to incorporate into your home with comfort? After all, your home must be lived in – the pictures in the magazines and online can look absolutely pristine, but they don’t usually show a lived-in home. You’ve got to add your own touch of reality into those photos if you’re going to use them for inspiration.

When designing your ideal modern home, you should give equal thought to style and comfort. For instance, shelves can usually maximize on style without much consideration for comfort – you’re not going to be sitting or leaning on a shelf! However sofas, beds, benches and dining tables and chairs should be given a little more thought in terms of comfort. Are they padded? Ergonomic? Large enough?

Thinking about comfort doesn’t mean you have to forgo style though! Most modern furniture is made with functionality in mind.

It is usually never a good idea to focus solely on style, however. This can leave you with a room that looks simply stunning, but that you never use or invite guests into because it is cold, sterile and uncomfortable.

Just because you want to have a stylish home doesn’t mean you have to give up hopes of a comfortable home. Just find the right balance between beautiful modern furniture and ultra comfortable furniture, and you’re set!

When decorating a modern bedroom, most people start with the bedroom set. A 5- or 7-piece ensemble that is perfectly matched in espresso wood or white veneer. And there is nothing wrong with this approach. However, if you’re looking for a way to create your bedroom from scratch – without relying on a pre-fab bedroom set – we’ve got some great tips.

A mix-n-match bedroom can look simply stunning, and it will always be unique. The first rule of thumb, as with any interior decorating you do, is to let your senses guide you. Style guides, trends, and advice are all well and good, but it is your home, so you should have final say.

When choosing individual bed frames, dressers, mirrors, nightstands, benches, tables, curtains and other accessories for your bedroom, you want to keep color, texture and materials in mind.

For instance, if you’re going for the shabby chic look like the image above, you’ll probably want some rubbed bronze, worn or exposed wood, distressed finishes and otherwise antique-looking textures. Or, if you want to do the ethnic eclectic look, you might want to choose texturized and colorful fabrics and natural finish woods.

It can help if you have an interesting base from which to sprout your unique bedroom set ideas as well. Exposed brick, like the image above, inspires all sorts of creativity, as does an oddly shaped room or an eye-catching floor.

Designing your bedroom without the help of a bedroom set can be daunting, but you’ll feel like a true champion designer when you’ve pulled together a jumble of furniture and created a harmonious room from scratch.

The coffee table is an oft overlooked piece of furniture, but the right coffee table can make or break a living room. But what makes a coffee table a coffee table? And what modern styles are out there? We here at Padstyle are here to answer all of your coffee table-related questions.

Possibly the most defining feature of a coffee table is its long, low shape. It normally has shorter legs than a side table or a bistro table, and it is usually oval or rectangle as opposed to circular or square in shape. This is so that it can be placed in front of a sofa and compliment its long form and be at just the right height for easy access to anything on its surface.

However, not all coffee tables are created equal. These basic features don’t come close to describing a truly modern coffee table. Some are tall, some are short; some are wide, some are thin; some are made of wood, some are made of glass; and all of them can compliment their surroundings if placed appropriately.

You can have a coffee table that matches a handful of side tables, or you can create an eclectic look using a variety of shapes and styles. The coffee table you choose can be made of glass, wood, chrome, plastic or any material of your choosing, as long as it is sturdy and stable.

A coffee table is an integral part of a living room, because it centers all the other furniture. Your sofa set will pop if you incorporate the right coffee table – but it could fizzle if you choose the wrong one. Coffee tables are also used as a gathering place, so you’ll likely want yours to be warm and inviting.

Consider size, placement, texture and material when picking out your coffee table – you’ll thank yourself later.

Welcome to another Friday Fun post!

Today, we thought we’d take a right turn from our last week’s 5 Glitzy Glass Houses That Make us Drool and show you that modern can be ancient, too. Glass is innately modern, but what about stone? Well, we scoured the four corners of the globe for this lovely collection of modern homes that are made of stone for your viewing pleasure. Without futher ado, the most modern ancient-looking homes you’ll ever see:

This bizarre stone house is located in Nas montanhas de Fafe in Portugal. It looks like a quaint cottage smashed between two giant boulders, but the view – on top of a rolling grassy plain – must be spectacular.
Image courtesy of Daily Mail

This house is a mix of stone and wood, but it looks so much like an art-deco cottage that we just had to include it. The house is a single-family dwelling on a five-acre lot, and comes fully equipped with modern accents like landscaping done in the style of the surrounding wildlife.

Image courtesy of ArchInspire

This stone house in Croatia is the ideal mix of old and new to create modern style. It features 15th century interior items such as the recessed sink in the image, but is fully fitted in modern furniture and appliance, with a lovely harbor-front view for that little something extra.

Image courtesy of CocoMale

This dreamy stone home has it all: intriguing and stylish architecture, a landscape to die for, and a large, spacious, sprawling layout. It doesn’t get better than this.

Image courtesy of FurnitureStoreBlog.com

This blocky stone house just screams modern – there’s no ancient-ness about it. Created by Zecc Architecten, it is a testament to the way stone can become a truly modern home building material.
Image courtesy of SirWal

Refresh and revitalize your home with citrus. Oranges, reds, yellows and greens can be combined together in nearly infinite ways to give your home a splash of style and lively freshness.

Citrus is a growing trend in interiors. You can paint an accent wall in a deep burnt orange for some sophisticated citrus accents, or try a cheery lemon yellow in your accent pillows and curtains. Citrus has an innately upbeat appeal, so it is best used in a room that you want to bring a little life in to.

Lime green is an interesting citrus color that you can play around with in your home. It is bright, but not part of the red-yellow spectrum like the rest of the citrus group. This means that you can incorporate it with other citrus colors to make a bold statement, yet ensuring that the colors match completely.

If you’re considering citrus, you might want to pair it with earthy tones to bring down the energy a bit, depending on your room and the overall feel of your home. For instance, an orange accent wall and a smoky brown accent pillar or two will produce a rich, mature color palate that you wouldn’t get with citrus alone.

And one last tip for bringing a little citrus into your home: watch out for going overboard. It can look cute to have orange walls, yellow sofas and green accent pillows for a day or two, but after a while your senses will begin to feel bombarded. Citrus colors – like their food counterparts – are best served in moderation.

Remodeling the bathroom can be a tough process. It’s hard to find affordable bathroom suites that compliment your home and retain a stylish appeal.

BestBathrooms has the solution: they offer everything from individual toilets and basins to bath suites, shower suites and full suites to make any bathroom shine. The bathroom suites available from BestBathrooms are the epitome of modern. They all feature solid construction and affordability along with a style that will bring life to a bathroom of any size and shape. You’ll love the “wow” factor that these sets bring to your home.

You can incorporate a stunning square bathtub with angular corners and sharp lines with a luxurious porcelain basin and pristine square-corner toilet. Or you can instead install an oval bathtub with modern, geometric feet and a matching curved basin. The possibilities at BestBathrooms are limitless. You have the option to purchase an entire set that consists of all the major bathroom appliances you need in the same style, or mix and match different baths, showers, basins and toilets to truly reflect your inner interior designer.

The best part about the modern bathroom suites from BestBathrooms is the price. You won’t find such stylish bathroom suites for prices lower than they’ve got. So if you’re looking for an affordable way to renovate your bathroom and up your home’s stylish interior, BestBathrooms is the place for you!

We’d all love unlimited space and shapes to work with when designing our ideal modern interiors, but usually that just isn’t possible. Whether you’re struggling with a small guest bedroom or a whole apartment, we’ve got some solutions for how you can make a small space stylish – while maximizing on its functionality.

First, think storage. We all have more stuff than we think, and you’re going to need a place to store it. There are many creative ways of increasing storage space while retaining style, such as:

• Creating platform floors a few inches above the natural floor for some extra slide-in storage space underneath.
• Building shelves around door frames.
• Using the ceiling to creatively hang fabrics and clothing.
• Purchasing beds, ottomans and chairs that have built-in storage cubbies.

You can also use color to make a small space pop. Highlight the walls in a nice bright or pastel color – just avoid anything too dark, as dark colors often give the impression that a room is smaller than it actually is.

Dividers can be used to break up a space and make it look larger than it is. If you have a bachelor apartment or a single room that you don’t know what to do with, you can purchase one or more dividers to make it appear like two rooms. This way, you’ll have more space and more options for creatively decorating two separate spaces.

And lastly, small spaces are intrinsically cozy – so play it up! Use soft materials, plush couches, and lots of blankets and pillows to make your small space even more inviting.

This post is for all of our do-it-yourself readers: those who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty, work with their hands, and create home accents on their own. Making decorations for the fall can range from the very easy (think carving a pumpkin) to the extreme. We’ve hand-picked three DIY projects that beginners can tackle over the next few days to have a beautiful autumn-ready home for September 22nd when the seasons change.

1. A nature walk’s bounty. When the leave begin to turn, take your family out on a relaxing walk through a forest or other area surrounded by nature. Bring a tote bag with you, and gather up all of the fall goodies you see – leaves, acorns, pine cones. When back at home, you can make a family project out of combining these fall items into several displays. Using earthy, woven bowls or flower vases to hold your found items, you can be really creative with colors, textures and placement around the home.
2. Life’s about the little things. You can use dried fruits, nuts, grains and seeds to create beautiful accents as well. Small grains like dried wheat or corn kernels can be used to fill up a glass jar about two thirds of the way, surrounding a thick, honey-dew candle in the center. Or, you can take one or two handfuls of dried cranberries and fill a wineglass, adding a red candle for effect.
3. Pumpkin 2.0. Pumpkin carving is a nice activity to do with the kids, but why not make a more adult-friendly pumpkin for your home? Cut a circular hole in the top and scoop out the insides like you would when preparing to carve, but don’t cut any holes into the sides or base. Instead, fill the pumpkin (which is conveniently waterproof) with water and use it as a fall flower vase.

Curtains can make or break a room. They line the walls and can be as stunning as a modern piece of art or as dull as a rusty nail. There are many factors that go into choosing the right curtains for your home, including price, length, the rod and rail system, and fabric. Today we’ll give you the low-down on some of the most common modern curtain fabrics, so you can choose which one is right for you.

Cotton
Cotton is not usually used as a solo fabric in curtains – it is normally mixed with other materials such as silk, synthetics, and wool. When cotton is combined with linen, for example, it creates a beautiful chambray fabric that is lightweight, sheer, and has a frosty sheen. Organdy, bastiste, and damask are common types of cotton or cotton blends used in curtains.
Silk
Silk is a gorgeous material to work with, as it has a reflective surface that appears to radiate in many colors. Silk is woven alone or with other fabrics to produce everything from a solid color curtain to a translucent, wispy gauze. Moiré, voile, pongee and satin are common types of silky fabrics used in curtains.
Lace
Lace can be made with almost any fabric, as the weaving pattern is what makes it unique. A lacy curtain is often made of lightweight material like cotton and features intricate cut-out patterns in the weaving.

These fabrics and other can be cut to different lengths, dyed different colors, and feature different patterns based on your preferences.

Design aficionado will know that minimalism is a growing trend among modern interior designers. But why is minimalism so popular? For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, minimalism is a design concept that strips things down to their bare essentials – a chair will just be a chair, not a chair/cup holder/sculpture. Minimalism seeks to bring out the core of our interiors, enhancing their functionality while minimizing the unnecessary details and flourishes.

Some people have argued that along with stripping design of its “extras”, minimalism also strips it of its style. Without the little details that makes every piece unique, how can you create an inviting, beautiful space? We’re here to tell you that minimalism can achieve just this, if the right balance is achieved. Here are three benefits of minimalism that we think you’ll love, even if you only incorporate it into one room or add minimalist elements slowly to your home.

1. Reduced clutter and more peace of mind. Minimalism is all about trimming the fat of the often excessive modern design trends. A fully minimalist room will naturally be clutter-free, as clutter is hidden by chunky cabinets and concealed closets. Along with less clutter, a minimalist room will give you a subtle peace of mind, as you survey complete Zen in your surroundings.
2. Minimalism is money-saving. Depending on how you incorporate minimalism into your home, you can save hundreds of dollars on the little accent pieces that you don’t buy. No more throws, pillows, or wall art that you love and then leave a few weeks later.
3. Simply space. Minimalism will free up the space in your home, making it look larger and more inviting. You’ll love walking into your living room and taking a sweeping look across a wide-open space.

Fall is here, and you’ve no doubt already seen its withering effects on your perennials as they die off for the colder months. Gardens are a lovely addition to any home’s landscaping, but it can be a bit disheartening to care for them all spring and summer, only to watch them fade to brown come winter.

Rock gardens can help combat the retreat of your flowerbeds. Always a staple in modern landscaping, rock gardens feature large and small colorful rocks scattered artistically across a front or back yard. Here are the basic steps to create your own rock garden, so you can have a beautiful yard all year round:

1. Choose the location for your rock garden. If you want to place it in a large, sprawling space, you’ll need more rocks and a more natural design concept than if you want only a small rock garden bed amidst other landscaping elements.
2. Find the rocks that you’ll use in the garden. When choosing rocks, consider the color (do you want red sandstone or grey limestone?), size, and shape of your rocks. Large, oddly shaped rocks are often the centerpieces of a rock garden.
3. Choose the plants that will accent your rocks. Some believe that the plants you choose should only be those that grow naturally amongst rocks, while other go for sprigs of bright color amidst the stones. The choice is yours.
4. Place, plant and position your rock garden. You’ll likely need help from a strong friend or a landscaper when moving the heavy boulders and rocks around your yard, so before you even begin you should have a solid design plan in your head to minimize the amount of lifting.
5. Enjoy your year-round landscape!

Checkered ’50s tiles might not be in season, but interiors that crave a little black and white don’t necessarily have to be bland and boring. Using black and white can be an effective design tool to highlight your home’s stylish simplicity if done right.

There are a few techniques you can use when going monochrome to avoid the possible pitfalls of a such a paltry palate. First, why not try adding one or two pieces in black and white before doing a whole room renovation? You can bring in a black sofa with white accent pillows, or a black glass table with a lily-white porcelain vase centerpiece. If you like the look, expand outward from there.

Black and white is all about contrast, so why not go beyond just colors? Some of the best black and white interiors use patterns and textures to augment the effects of the monochrome walls and furniture. And if you’re going this route, take a risk: pair plaid with checkers and hold your head up high! You’ll be surprised at how stylish black and white can be with some bold texture choices.

And finally, you can catch your guests’ eyes by embracing a single splash of color in an otherwise black and white backdrop. Take the photo above – the stunning amaranth rug is made even more eye-catching because it is surrounded by monochrome. A solitary rug, pillow, or accent wall in a solid color can spruce up a black and white interior.

If you want to wield this modern minimalist color scheme with confidence, all you have to do is be bold.