Sometimes I get so fed up with clutter, even my beloved antiques, and I just want to shove it all in storage and start all over. Every time I go to a spacious home decorated with a minimalistic modern style, I want to stay forever. So here’s how a contemporary motif is done. Remove all excess furniture and knickknacks. Pretend this is an episode of Hoarders, and if you haven’t experienced the horror of that show, I dare you to watch it. I guarantee it will send you into a cleaning frenzy. After I saw a few episodes, I cleaned out my messiest closet and all the storage under my bed and never looked back.
In this picture of an office, we see a lot of under cabinet lighting installed into the bottoms of shelves. These shadows created by the light add depth to the room.
If you’re just starting out, you may have a lot of plain furniture from Ikea, and your walls are probably eggshell white. This is the perfect canvas for contemporary lighting designs. You can pull off the black and white look.
Of course the black leather ottomans and glass tables make the catalog rooms look impossible, but even with furniture found on craigslist, a home can look like a million bucks with the right lighting design.
The Arctic Ice Chandelier is manufactured by Triarch International. It’s no gilded chandelier dangling crystal teardrops, but the way its light sparkles behind frosted glass just proves the age-old expression, “Less is More.”
Recessed lighting can either go unnoticed or turn your home into a Bond movie. For the latter effect, think creatively about placement. Line the ceiling above the cabinets with recessed lighting, or better yet, put a light on the wall next to every other stair of your staircase. If you can’t install the light into the wall, you can try a surface mounted light. They work especially well in gardens and on decks.
Here is a light that reminded me of the style featured above, the Cosmo semi-flush mount. It combines the beauty of nature with the modern aesthetics of simplicity and utility.
The Chainlink Island Light is for the breakfast nook, or the after-hours bar in your attic. Triarch International has given us yet another light that would rock the black and white color scheme.
You don’t have to play by the rules (unless the co-op board says you do). Black and white is chic and cool tones prosper in the modern lighting motif, but something like a bright color light such as the candy apple pendant light, a green couch and an orange fuzzy area rug creates a fun and artistic ambience that’s party perfect. Check out the Stargazer Sconce. It’s hip and meant to accessorize a room with a giant shark tank, but I can also see it bringing a plain white room with wood floors to life.
A similarly nautical sconce is the silver bubbles wall sconce. If the bright blue is too much, but you like the element of water appearing throughout your home, this silver design is more suitable.
While looking through different styles of contemporary lighting, you’re bound to notice the popularity of the “floating orb”. Many people choose to use a bulb with lower wattage for these. Their shape draws focus like the bull’s eye of a target, and if they’re too bright, they will burn little floating orbs right into your cornea. It is highly recommended to install these with a dimmer so you can create the illusion of a harvest moon or a lingering phantom. The pendant orb from Triarch International hangs very still like a pearl earring.
The crystal wall sconce from Crystorama and its cousin the cubic crystal pendant use crystals that are polished by hand on a wooden wheel.
Geometrical shapes are fashionable, especially when they’re suspended in interesting ways. Refined simplicity is the epitome of contemporary lighting. Look around your room and just envision stripping it naked and decorating the ceiling and walls with lights, like ornaments on a tree.
