The interior of a Japanese tea house. Multiple layers of sliding wooden doors and rice paper and wood Shoji screens are open, showing a room with a low tea table through the first set of doors, and a Japanese maple in a garden through the second set. Tatami mats cover the wood floors. A large blue glazed ceramic pot in the foreground is topped by a metal tea kettle on a stand.
What's Your Style?

Japanese Interior Design

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Traditional Japanese interior design is widely popular and much admired. This uncluttered and minimalist style emphasizes tranquil and airy spaces filled with light. Japanese design tends to be understated and calm, which lends it a serene elegance. Rooms are simply but carefully decorated. Proportion and harmony guide the placement and number of design elements. Subtlety—a […]

A rustic, lumpy cement pot holds a branch of eucalyptus leaves and sits on a rustic wooden chest. Also on the chest is a brass tray with two books, a bronze bell resting on the books, and a wrought iron candleholder with five lit votives. A linen-covered sofa sits behind covered with several textural pillows, one that looks like a section from a Turkish or Southwestern brown and cream rug, the other a woven rust and white texture.
What's Your Style?

Modern Farmhouse Interior Design

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Contemporary, rustic, yet bright and clean—modern farmhouse style is one of today’s most popular decorating options. It combines reclaimed woods, neutral colors, natural materials, and rich textures to create open, homey, serene spaces. While it has some similarities to country, cottage, or earlier versions of farmhouse style, it largely replaces color and pattern with texture […]

Design 101

The Birth of Midcentury Modernism

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Midcentury modernism was one of the most celebrated design trends of the 20th century. At times minimalist and sophisticated, at others whimsical and family-friendly, it embraced simple shapes, open space, and modern mass-production technologies. These features made it accessible and affordable, and hastened its spread during the post-World War II economic, baby, and housing booms. […]

Six bent plywood midcentury modern chairs are displayed inside glossy white square cells at the Danish Museum of Art & Design. Three chairs are on the top row, and three more are below. Arne Jacobsen's Series 7 chair is at upper right. None of the chairs is labeled.
Design 101

When Danish Modern Style Ruled

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In the 1940s, during World War II, Danish designers were prominent leaders in the movement to design and make affordable, functional, elegant furniture. Danish designer Kaare Klint (1888–1954) is today considered the father of modern Danish design. He helped establish the Department of Furniture Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and taught […]

Four squares containing bright and busy textile patterns designed in the 1950s and 1960s by textile designer Lucienne Day. The upper left design has a taupe background with black, white, yellow, and red half moon shapes of different sizes and patterns aligned along straight lines like stylized flowers on stems. At upper right are white outlines of leaves overlaid on squares of varying shades of green. At lower left is a grey background overlaid with roughly rectangular faded coral, faded blue, and white shapes with tiny black characters (stars, squares, leaves) overlaid above the colors in lines. At lower right is a goldenrod covered square with many square and triangular lines and dots overlaid in black.
Design 101

Midcentury Modern Colors

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When someone mentions midcentury modernism, what colors come to mind? Chances are, you think of the olive, gold, teal, and orange tones popular in textiles from the late fifties and early sixties. Or maybe you’ve seen so many recent midcentury reproductions upholstered in beige or grey that you think of the era as a time […]

A well-dressed woman with carefully curled hair and a lace collar over her yellow dress, focuses on the making of lace. She handles several wooden bobbins of thread over a lace pillow that rests on a wooden stand.
Feature

Decorating with Lace and Macrame

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Lace, a textile used mainly to decorate clothing or home furnishings, was traditionally created by hand by highly skilled girls and women. Technically an openwork fabric, lace was invented around the 15th century in Europe. Though usually considered a clothing adornment, especially for wedding dresses and lingerie, lace often appeared in curtains, on pillows, and […]