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Styles of Home Furniture

Home furniture is available in many basic styles that can be divided into three major categories. Before you go shopping online for home furniture you might want to familiarize yourself with the different categories that merchants use to sell home furniture.

The first major category is the traditional style. In essence traditional home furniture refers to designs from the past. The traditional category of furniture includes the entire history of furniture styles ranging from Renaissance to Louis IX to Chippendale to Art Deco.

The thing that differentiates traditional styles of home furniture from other types is their formal appearance. Usually they are adorned with elegant, yet conservative details such as symmetrical designs, intricate carvings and lush upholstery. The woods that characterize traditional home furniture also tend to be a darker color in nature and highly polished.

The second major category is what home furniture retail merchants call the transitional style. These looks are like hybrids of the modern and the historical. They incorporate both traditional and contemporary design elements. For instance the look of a chair itself might be traditional but instead of the usual floral upholstery it may be decorated with polka dot upholstery instead.

Transitional styles are the most easy to decorate with, especially if you want to create a casual living space that is easy to inhabit. Transitional style furniture also tends to be more comfortable than traditional furniture and features quirks such as overstuffed sofas and laminated tables that are easy to clean.

Another characteristic of transitional home furniture is that it is very easy to clean. The finish on the woods tends to be lighter or stained to hide dirt and imperfections. Metal, which rarely looks dirty is more common in this style of furniture. It is also characterized by easy-care high performance factors that don’t show grime and that wear well with a lot of use.

The third type of home furniture is called contemporary. Contemporary furniture usually defines furniture that was designed from about 1950 onwards. It’s not always defined as its smooth rounded curves and clean crisp styling distinguish modern but most contemporary furniture.

Contemporary furniture is also simpler and sleeker in terms of its design with minimal detail. The focus is on function and efficiency as well as durability making heavy-duty cottons and leather a favorite choice of contemporary home furniture designers. If the furniture contains many elements of glass or metal then you have permission to label it as contemporary.

As you can see, it is quite easy to determine which category you will be needing to shop in when it comes to finding the right style of home furniture for your space. All you have to do is decide which look best suits you – traditional, transitional or contemporary.



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