Transitional Living Room Ideas

Mix Prints and Accessories

Blue and white living room — John Stoffer

Handmade items bring a lot of warmth to a room, and they can lean modern or traditional. Graphic prints or modern art like the ikat upholstery and photography used here feel modern and balance out the more traditional accessories, such as the paisley-printed ottoman and the handmade jug vases.

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Highlight Architectural Details

This room keeps it classic, with a few modern lines and finishes to punch up the elegant, traditional architecture. Clean-lined stone cocktail tables and sand-colored drapes speak to the impressive fireplace. A deep army green sofa cleverly bridges the warm beiges and cool grays and blacks for a cohesive, neutral color palette.

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Pair Old and New

white living room with white furniture — Joyelle West

The steel and wood coffee table atop a vintage wool rug is a subtle but dynamic mix that keeps this room looking fresh. Once you have your large items chosen, such as the soft linen furniture in this room, see if you need more 'hard' or modern items or more traditional accessories to soften the room.

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Warm Color Palette

Living room with green focal point — Jay Wilde

Opt for a warm color palette to make modern furniture feel inviting and less stark. The warm green bookshelves in this living room ground a cozy array of cream, beige, and brown furniture and accessories. Despite using mostly modern furniture, this room is anything but cold.

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Choose Upholstery Wisely

white living room with wood coffee table — Edmund Barr

Material choice makes a huge difference when you're combining eras. While a slipcovered sofa may scream modern to some, the worn navy linen makes it feel old-world. Similarly, the gray tweed on the mid-century chairs is a timeless fabric that's much more versatile than a plaid or other pattern.

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Simple Living Room Decor

gray living room with white couch — Werner Straube

Transitional can lean minimalist because it's about highlighting the things you really love and nothing more. You can see and appreciate the stunning architecture and millwork in this living room because it's styled with equally sophisticated but simple, modern furniture and art.

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Muted Color Palette

living room with a light brown couch, graphic rug, and art pieces — Erin Little

If your style is funkier, but you still want the cohesive look of transitional style, choose a couple more saturated colors to repeat. Here, brick red and navy blue are featured in the paintings, the rug, the coffee table, and the accent chair. The look stays grounded because the rest of the room is kept neutral.

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Mix Modern with Vintage

Modern architecture is the perfect setting to display collections from any era. The clean lines and minimal decoration allow the things you love to truly shine. Don't be afraid to show off vintage items in a more modern room; the mix will make both styles sing.

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Combine Colorful Accessories

white living room with fireplace — Marty Baldwin

This room uses a simple formula for a timeless room: Traditional architecture, modern furniture, and colorful, playful accessories. You can easily apply this combination in your living room, changing up the accessories to suit your style. Bonus: If ever you need a fresh look, you can change out the smaller items rather inexpensively.

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Highlight Design Details

Modern farmhouse living room — Jared Kuzia Photography

Simple, modern furniture is a great way to draw the eye to more intricate features in the room, like the impressive wood-clad ceiling and large beams in this living room. The comfortable but sleek furniture takes an understated backseat, allowing the architecture to shine.

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Glam Transitional Living Room

white living room with gray couches — Joyelle West

Even though it's calming, neutral, and elegant, this transitional living room is also, dare we say, glam. The restrained color palette—black, white, and brown—allows many elements and eras to play nicely together. A tufted ottoman, a fawn-print rug, and a regency mirror add serious style without sacrificing serenity.

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Include Natural Elements

living room with leather chairs and a white fireplace — Brie Williams

Items from nature help bridge modern elements with traditional ones. Create more harmony in your transitional living room by including things like natural wood, plants, and found nature items. Even the birch logs in this living room feel somehow contemporary and timeless at the same time.

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Use Simple Millwork

If you know you like a mix of styles, going simple with the millwork in your room is a great way to make the rest of your furnishings fit in. These built-ins have enough detail to complement traditional furniture, but they're simple enough to make sense alongside the modern fireplace and accessories.

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Midcentury Meets Transitional

sectional couch in living room with a leather ottoman and two leather chairs. A fireplace and bench seating is along the far wall. — Jay Wilde

Organic accessories add a cozy factor to this otherwise midcentury living room. Following the architecture of the home, the couch and chairs are modern. Natural elements like a leather pouf, plants, woven pillows, and a spot for firewood soften the modern lines for a transitional look.

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Sophisticated Transitional Living Room

Modern living room furniture — Erin Kunkel

To make simple architecture more soft and inviting, add some traditional pieces like the wingback chairs, roll-arm sofa, and ottoman in this living room. Graphic items like the rug and woven accent chair create the transitional blend, as they speak to the more modern style of the room.

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Mix Texture and Materials

Living room with paper chandelier — Werner Straube

The subtle palette of transitional rooms allows you to play with texture. Here, boucle, woven, and velvet furniture blend seamlessly with a paper chandelier, a vintage wool rug, and a granite fireplace. These many elements work in harmony, thanks to the restrained palette of rust and cream.

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Choose Timeless Finishes

This simple sitting room is practically minimalist, but thanks to careful furnishing choices, it still feels warm, sumptuous, and timeless. The honey colored leather on the sofa and the overstuffed chair cushions temper the modern lines of the furniture and help them blend into the classic brick room. When choosing plants for a transitional room, think about whether your room needs more softness (leafy plants) or more modern elements (something sleek like a snake plant).

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Modern Transitional Living Room

Modern white living room — Matthew Williams

Modern furnishings in a soft color palette complement the delicacy of classic architecture while providing a fresh point of view. Here, blonde wood tables and a gray midcentury couch in a similar tone are all distinctly modern, yet because of the muted color scheme, the overall look is more ballet than Bauhaus.

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Choose Statement Art

The laid-back, neutral style of transitional rooms calls for a statement piece. In this case, modern art stands out amidst the mostly white surroundings. Thanks to the juxtaposition inherent in this style, any style of art you love will look good.

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Tonal Transitional Living Room

white living room with gray couch — Anne Schlechter

This room uses a cool palette to achieve the soothing tonal look of transitional style. Most of the furniture is midcentury, and the accessories are handmade or natural items that warm up the space.

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