If you a little bit confuse in decide what furniture look for each room in your home, 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.

Traditional furniture and contemporary furniture each belong to distinctive interior design categories. Where the first is a celebration of the ornate and indulgent, the second adheres to the understated. Traditional furniture offers elegance and romance. Contemporary furniture is subtle and urban in its appeal. The styles each have their own characteristics, their own charm and attractions. They are, in a design sense, opposites.

Styles ranging from art deco to post-modern could be considered contemporary in comparison to traditional styles. In terms of furniture, however, whatever followed the modern styles of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s has become known as contemporary. Now these furnishings are less sleek and suppler in appearance than in earlier styles. Traditional furniture of the 21st century mimics the curves and carvings of furniture styles made through the early 20th century and so retain that stylistic identification.

Traditional furniture need not be oversized, overbearing or overly ornate. Softer curves, subtler patterns and controlled carvings make modern-day traditional furniture lighter and more compatible with 21st century lifestyles. Traditional and contemporary furnishings usually don’t work well together. A traditional side chair in a space designed in a contemporary style may add interest, but in the reverse, the chair will appear out of place.

If you have a large house, restaurant, or hotel, it’s easier to accommodate the traditional style, which takes up a lot of visual weight. In smaller spaces, the big, dark furniture can make the area look cramped. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t put traditional furniture in a small space if that’s the style you love. The secret is to be choosy about your pieces. One strategically placed item can be a wonderful focal point in smaller rooms. To finish off the décor, choose smaller items for accents, and avoid cluttering the space with too many items.

Traditional luxury furniture pairs wonderfully in a room that contains antiques. That’s because the furniture style matches the time period of the other pieces. Of course, you can also boldly mix traditional and modern styles. The only rule when it comes to décor is to make the style represent your personality and suit your needs.

–sh