10 Ways to Incorporate Greek Design into Your Home
The beautiful look of Greek decor is warm and inviting and will have you thinking you’re on an exotic vacation every day you step into your home. The decor trends for a Greek theme are historical, extending for centuries. There are plenty of beautiful, timeless Greek decor ideas that can be incorporated into your home to turn it into a luxurious, Mediterranean-style home that brings the beauty of one of the most popular vacation hot-spots, into your own home for an everyday retreat, from color schemes to the type of furniture that works for a Mediterranean home, even a few architectural ideas that create an authentic look and feel. If a Mediterranean theme is something you’d love to create, then keep reading to learn 10 ways to incorporate Greek style into your home.
1. Color choices are an important part of Greek decor
Many home decor themes have color schemes that are used to help to create a more authentic look and feel for that particular theme. Greek decor has particular colors that are popular, not only in the Mediterranean, but in Mediterranean style homes here, too. When creating a Greek-style theme, consider a palette that includes blue and white, warm browns and pops of black. According to Home Addict, blues, white, and warm sandy hues are representative of the beautiful oceanic views you see when visiting the Greek Isles. Incorporating these colors by keeping your walls white, and choosing bedding, throw rugs, and other fabrics that exhibit these colors are just a few ideas to start.
2. The use of natural materials for flooring
Greek decor themes embrace a natural and simplistic lifestyle, which is why you’ll find natural elements used throughout the home. The type of flooring you’ll find in a Greek home can be anything from concrete to limestone, even a beautiful, polished marble. All are popular in the classic Greek home decor, as well as modern versions. If concrete seems too cold and basic in its natural state, polishing or staining is a beautiful option, as well as stamping your concrete, this adds depth and texture to your flooring.
3.Damask fabrics are popular in Greek decor
One of the most popular types of fabrics found in the Greek decor is Damask fabric. Damask is created using a weaving process; weaving one warp yarn with one weft yard. The yarns most often used are satin or sateen, which gives them an incredible sheen to look and feel extraordinarily luxurious. Damask is an ancient old type of fabric used in Mediterranean decor, but it is still a popular fabric and often found in bedding, particularly a blue and white printed Damask.
4. Incorporate the Greek Key into your decor
You may have seen the pattern but not known exactly what it was or where it originated. It is the Greek key design and it hails from Ancient Greece and has deep meaning. According to, Nandina home, the pattern represents ‘the eternal flow of life, the four seasons, and the crashing waves of the ocean.’ Centuries ago, this was a pattern that you would see used time and again in home decor, even in Greek fashion. It is still widely used in Greek decor and you’ll find it in fabric prints, intertwined in furniture pieces, such as, the base of a table lamp, the front of a chest, and much more.
5. Add stucco columns
Columns are a very Greek architectural detail in homes. They are very symbolic of ancient Greece and were used for functional detail as well as decorative. For a beautiful Greek architectural look, adding stucco columns between rooms in your home will help to add the finest of details to your Mediterranean design. You don’t have to make major architectural changes to add a few in your home, according to Small Design Ideas. Frame a fireplace with a couple small columns, or add a few solitary pillars in your home as plant stands, to give your home more Grecian charm.
6. Display Greek-style decor pieces throughout the space
Keeping the flow of your Greek theme cohesive from room-to-room is important, if you want to keep your home authentic in its style. Some of the smaller details matter, such as the little decor pieces you display. You can find things like, Greek sculptures, figurines and beautifully decorated vases to display on table tops, shelves, and in bookcases. A Mediterranean themed painting above the sofa can instantly transform your living room into a timeless Mediterranean atmosphere.
7. Olive trees and olive oils
One of the most common things people think about when they think of Greece or the Mediterranean, are olives. This can be in the form of olive trees, and olive oil. Give a room or two more Grecian style adding a potted olive tree into the decor theme, and if live plants aren’t your thing, faux olive trees will add the same appeal. But don’t stop there with the olive idea; by all means, have an array of beautifully detailed olive bottles with choices of olive oils, on display in your kitchen.
8. Keep window treatments to a minimum
There are several design themes that keep window treatments to the bare minimum, or recommend none at all, if you really want to create an authentic look. Greek decor is one that follows the idea of letting in lots of natural light and allowing the beautiful scenery of the outdoors, in. Light and airy is the idea, when it comes to windows, so if you do choose to add treatments, keep them light and sheer.
9. Incorporate more wood furniture pieces
Raw, natural materials are what you’ll find in true, Greek-style homes. Furniture pieces are simple in nature, typically mostly wood. Beds with and other furnishings may have intricate details carved into them, but they are also often, handmade, vintage style, or distressed. Tables are often seen as wood bases with metal or mosaic-tiled table tops, and finding furnishings in white, are also popular Greek furniture choices.
10. Highlight or create an exposed wall
Another architectural design idea is to showcase a brick or stone wall. To expose a brick wall or create a stone wall is a rustic touch, but it is very Grecian and these elements served a purpose. Greek summers are hot, and these exposed raw elements helped to keep the room cool. If you don’t already have this as an option, you can create a similar look by adding brick or stone to the adjacent walls around a fireplace. Another option may be to use the whitewash painting technique on brick that you add to an existing wall in your home. Use your creativity to bring an interesting and authentic Greek look to a room or two, in your home.