20 Beautiful Examples of a Mid Century Modern Living Room

Keeping up with the times when it comes to home decor may mean stepping back in time a bit-back to the mid-of-the-century. Mid century design has long been a popular design theme for homes. The decor design gives you a look into the mid 1940’s through the mid 1970’s. The era is a compilation of geometric shapes, neat and clean lines that are accompanied by uniquely designed angles, as well as a mixture of textures and bright or bold colors. The mid century modern look has so much to look at with the design alone, that you won’t miss the fact that it’s lacking in excessively ornate or overly detailed pieces. This is a straight forward, simple, yet homey design that will make anyone feel at home when the walk in the room. You can accomplish this same look in your living room, bringing the look of an older era, into the new, by adding some modern twists, and here’s how.

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Colors upon colors

If you’re a fan of colors, then this design theme is one you may love for the sheer fact that you can mix and match, and play with colors. Whether you are a pastel lover or richer, bolder colors, any and all can be used in a mid century modern theme. To start, choose a primary color for your walls to work from, or if you plan to leave your walls white, a throw rug can display an anchor color to work from, or maybe a large piece of wall art is what you draw your color palette from. According to Don Pedro Brooklyn, pastel walls work with pea greens and golden yellows. It’s all about keeping everything cohesive and working together to create a mid century look and feel, including the color choices of your furniture pieces. Think out of the box with your living room sets and forget the look of matching colors and textures. The overall look of the design theme may be simplistic, but your color choices can be beautifully mixed and matched so that they make the overall look eye-catching and appealing.

Furniture pieces

When choosing your furniture, choose pieces that emphasize simplicity, and forgo the thick, chunky, or over-embellished pieces that can visually crowd a room. Beautiful Homes recommends embracing geometric shapes and incorporating them into your room by choosing pieces that accentuate curves and subtle rounded edges, and unique shapes. Peg legs on sofas, chairs, and tables are all a part of the mid century era and keep your room visually neat, clean and simple, for instance, a simple, set a streamlined sofa as the focal point of the room, accentuated by a geometric-shaped hairpin or prism coffee table. Add an accent chair or two, such as a couple of Panton S-styled, or Barcelona styled chairs and a tulip-shaped side table or two, and you have the right idea of a modern mid century living room group.

Don’t forget to add texture

The mid century look may be simple, but there are layers of texture involved, and you don’t want to forget to add your share of them to keep with the decor theme. From an array of metals, brass, silver and gold, to glass, leather and wood. Throw a shag, faux fur, or Jute rug over your cherry wood floors and set a beautiful brass-legged coffee table topped with glass in the center. Embroidered throw pillows are a great way to add texture to your sofa and leather, sling-back accent chairs, and of course, a few live plants throughout the room bring an element of the outdoors, in.

Lighting

Lighting is a fun element, especially in certain decor themes, and here’s one. Lighting is not only a functional element, but it’s one you can use as accent decor pieces, and for some lighting fixtures, you may even want to make it the focal point of your room. A beautiful, uniquely designed geometric-shaped chandelier, or low-hanging retro pendant light is a great way to highlight your living room’s high ceiling. There are a large range of floor lamps to choose from that scream retro, and all it takes is choosing a couple that keep the flow of your room moving cohesively. Brass, silver or any metallic base light fixture can make an area of your room pop with brightness, and don’t forget to light up your side tables with a bit of retro lighting, while you’re at it.

Have fun with this decor theme when remodeling your living room to look a little bit retro and a little bit mod. For more inspiring ideas, take a look at the following 20 beautiful examples of a mid century modern living room.