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Contemporary interior designers often mix decorating styles from different periods and cultures.
On the one hand, this can look fantastically sophisticated.
On the other hand, it can, erm, go wrong. But there are ways of making sure it doesn’t!
This page covers, firstly, some ‘ground rules’ for mixing contemporary home decor.
Secondly, it gives you an overview of contemporary interior design 'looks' that work well in most homes.
So let's start with the basics:
Contemporary Home Decorating Basics
1. Always start with what you love most.
Whenever you decorate or re-decorate a room, take something you love as a starting point. That way, you’ll create and combine contemporary home decor in personal and often surprising ways.
Let’s say you really like your Grandmother’s settee and wouldn’t part with it for the world. Or you have this sleek, high-tech reading lamp that you just want to use all the time. Or there’s a particular color that you love to surround yourself with. Or all of the above!
The things you love most can set the stage and guide you in editing the contents of a room until you are left with a truly original, inspired living space.
Andrée Putman, world-renowned guru of contemporary interior design, said (House & Garden 10/1985):
"I have no recipe for how to combine things.
But you must be sincere.
And if you are, strangely, it will succeed.”
Andrée Putman
So the secret is to trust your gut. Still, the contemporary interior design scene is full of people who will tell you that ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘should buy that’. But the clearer you are about what you like, the more your home will shine.
2. The element that ties it all together
The first and most important element in a mix of contemporary home decor is - you. If you look at the things you love, you will find that they all have something in common. They relate to each other.
So take the time to look at, ‘listen to’, and develop a sense for your possessions. It can take a few days or even weeks of moving them around in your home.
One mistake many people make at this stage is to talk themselves out of their own abilities. They’ll say, “Oh, I haven’t got a clue about contemporary interior design. Who am I to say this works and that doesn’t?”
Please don’t do that to yourself! This is about being true to yourself, not about turning yourself into an expert in contemporary home decorating. Everyone of us has amazing creativity hidden inside, and we often don’t know it.
You are what makes the difference between a home that is vibrantly alive and one that’s a bit … sterile. 
To gain some confidence, you could start by creating a small still life from some of your possessions, the way I've done in this picture. It will give you a sense of how the stuff you own ‘hangs together’.
While you experiment you might find that a few things don’t seem to ‘fit’ any more – they don’t work with your other contemporary home decor because they’re not really ‘you’.
Get rid of them if you can - or hide/(slip)cover/paint them if you can’t.
If you keep going, you’ll get to the point where the whole room just ‘clicks’.
3. Create clusters.
You can create focal points in a room by pulling contemporary home decor together in groups. Look for ‘themes’, like a color family, or particular materials (e.g. untreated blond wood), or an area of interest (e.g. Andalucian horses)
For an illustration, have another quick look at that little still life photo - the composition is united by the colors black, white, blue and tan, and it contains several items with dots, rows/lines, and circles/spirals. Enough to hold it all together!
Clustering is also a very good way to integrate things that don’t look great on their own - they sometimes ‘thrive’ in the company of other items that complement them in interesting ways.
Another way of making contemporary home decor look really cool is the ‘star-and-chorus-line’ setup. So if you have a gorgeous antique heirloom or a striking modern piece of furniture, do give it center stage. Place other, less remarkable things nearby – they will show the ‘star’ off to best effect.
By the way, you've probably wondered what that 'thing' is in the photo at the top of this page.
Well, here it is again: The picture to the right shows the double-height ‘library wall’ in the home of a Swedish/German couple (an artist and an engineer).
Suspended from the reading gallery is the star: a self-built (and seaworthy!) kayak.
It is spotlit from above and therefore doubles as a wonderfully sculptural light source - a reflection of the owners’ love of simple, well-made, less-is-more contemporary interior design.
Which brings us to Part II of this page:
Contemporary Home Decor ‘Looks’
that Always Work
1. Start with neutral, timeless pieces.
For example, look for classic seating furniture and maybe a carpet in neutral colors.
Items like these will go with practically anything, and you can change their appearance quickly by adding more colorful textile elements like cushions and throws.
Modern classics are often ‘stars’ in their own right, but they are also very versatile and complement many different contemporary interior design styles.
2. Create a ‘minimalist’ look with a few lush surprises.
Many people complain that ‘minimalist’ rooms are not very comfortable, and I must say that austere, rigid seating and low-backed sofas don’t really do it for me either.
But you needn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. You can ‘do’ contemporary home decor that’s sleek, easy and welcoming, all at the same time.
For example, keep your home furnished in a simple, unfussy, timeless style with clean lines, but scatter delightfully yummy, unexpected gems around it – an overstuffed cushion covered in rich, sensuous cashmere, or a luxurious throw made out of an exquisite embroidered fabric backed with silk.
Indulge your senses where it really makes a difference to you!
3. Opposites attract.
If there’s one ‘rule’ that’s currently being followed in contemporary interior design everywhere, it’s this one:
Mix, rather than match, your contemporary home decor.
Play things off against each other: serious and witty, dark and light, old and new, shiny and matte, antique and modern, sleek and rustic, finished and frayed.
This is the most important ‘rule’ of all. It also gives you the most freedom in creating your own contemporary home decor!
It’s certainly not true that ‘anything goes’, but almost anything can be combined with something else that is quite different – and then, voila!
Try it. Play around with what you have. Surprise yourself. Have fun. None of this ‘means’ anything – it’s all just about having a home you really love.
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