Twice a year, in downtown Seattle at CenturyLink Field Event Center, the largest consumer home show, Seattle Home Show, features everything indoor and outdoor for home design. The show includes hundreds of vendors and exhibits showcasing builders, remodelers, the latest appliances, and fixtures, decorating, landscaping and more. The exhibits offer a range of style, but our attention was caught by the vendors with low budget designs for modern spaces.
Before we go much further, let’s define modern design.
Beginning in the latter half of the 19th century, modern design is centered around the principle ‘form follows function’. Modern design is a style of decor that focuses on minimalism, neutral colors, clean design lines, and environmentally-friendly materials. This idea primarily stemming from the fast-paced growth of cities and not enough time to complete the ‘traditional construction’ which resulted in embracing steel, concrete, larger windows, and minimalist features. Buildings became more like geometric shapes, cylindrical, cubical, or flat. For reference, some modernist design inspired art movements include Bauhaus, De Stijl and Futurism.
Back to the Seattle Home Show…
As we walked the maze of exhibits, towards the back of the convention center, was a beautifully designed exhibit by a company named Anko, that featured modern style and design. Anko had four different display broken apart into sections: timeless, urban, natural, and kitchen. All sections were filled with quality, modern pieces.
Anko is a brand that is centered around the joy of simplicity for your home and family, at a new kind of price. Started in Australia, Anko is passionate about rewriting the rules of simple, modern, affordable style. Its designs are inspired by exciting global trends which they bring back to their in-house designers. They not only focus on stunning designed but work to ethically break down the barriers to lower price, simplifying everywhere so that we can offer prices that are truly affordable. With great product and prices, Anko is a great resource to design your dream modern home, without having to spend a fortune.
Although Anko is primarily online, it has had a few pop-up stores along with a flagship store opening in Lynnwood, Washington at the end of this month. They currently have a smaller location in Bellevue Square Mall.
Modern decor is seeing a revival in recent years and big box stores and getting in on the trend. Whether you choose a unique store like Anko or choose to curate your modern statement pieces from stores like Ikea or Target, the deciding factor is not the amount of money you spend on modern pieces, but rather if you have a clear understanding of what modern style truly is. When you know what characteristics to look for, you’ll know how to shop on a budget and design the ideal modern space you’ve been dreaming of.
Here are 7 tips for creating a modern space:
- Incorporate neutral walls – whites, greys, nudes, and tans
- A focus on simple and clean lines: horizontal, vertical, cylindrical — from the architecture to the furniture and decor
- Industrial elements – use of glass, steel, concrete
- Open floor plans – allows for easy movement throughout a space
- Include pops of color throughout the rooms – especially utilize the primary colors that were used throughout art movements like Bauhaus and De Stijl
- Use modern wall art throughout the spaces
- Focus on simplicity and a space that is not cluttered
Remember that designing your dream space doesn’t have to break the bank. Utilize resources like home conventions, such as the Seattle Home Show, read modern decor blogs, follow Pinterest boards, and look to design magazines to build your knowledge of modern styles.