You adore the minimalism and elegance of modern interior design, but you probably don’t appreciate how rooms can feel cold and sterile with the characteristic hard materials and straight lines of the modern style. Fortunately, there is a solution: organic modern.
Organic modern interior design involves incorporating warmer colours and natural materials without the clutter of other cozy and welcoming interior styles. It is the perfect combination of sophisticated and inviting, especially if you also want to decorate sustainably and uniquely.
However, amateur decorators often accidentally veer into other design styles when aiming for organic modern. Here is a step-by-step guide to getting organic modern right in your home.
Paint the Walls White
Organic modern highlights the beauty of a clean, natural home. You want to create a subdued and airy space, which means the dominant colour in your rooms should be white. Though colour is not unwelcome in organic modern spaces, bright and bold tones can be overbearing in large doses. To prevent colour from introducing chaos and clutter, you should try to stick to white, cream, light beige and pale gray for most of your larger décor and offer the occasional nod to colour in accent pieces like artwork or throw pillows.
Invest in Natural Materials
This is the “organic” element of organic modern. Natural materials bring with them the undeniably beauty of the natural world, which is full of varied texture and comforting color. The best materials for furniture are timber, rattan and bamboo, all of which offer warmth and durability. For soft furnishings, you can opt for faux fur and wool.
An added benefit to natural materials is the safety they offer your home. Many non-natural materials introduce toxic substances like VOCs, which can have lasting negative effects on your health. While organic modern might be an aesthetic choice for your home, it can also benefit your lifestyle if you opt to upgrade items like your old mattress with an organic mattress made of safe, natural materials.

Prioritize Natural Shapes
One way organic modern deviates from the regular modern style is that it eschews rigid geometric shapes in favour of softer and more natural lines around the home. Nature rarely has sharp, straight lines, so a home filled with them can feel cold and sterile. While you can’t incorporate rolling hills or fluffy clouds, you can evoke these images by purchasing home décor items that feature curves or rough edges.
Pay Attention to Comfort
Your home can be beautiful, but it must be comfortable. If the organic modern interior style had a mission statement, it would be to create absolute comfort in a space marked by aesthetic and natural softness. When you are making choices about functional items in your home, like your furniture, you should always choose the more comfortable option, as it will make your space more inviting and more enjoyable.
Add Plants

Plants are the ultimate organic accent — after all, as living things, they are the epitome of organic. Not only do plants effortlessly provide the natural movement and materials that serve as the backbone of the organic modern style, but they also fill your home with fresh oxygen, making your spaces cleaner and more healthful. You can find plants of any size and shape, but if you have pets, you should opt for non-toxic varieties. Then again, if you don’t have a green thumb, you can find convincing fake plants online.
Try and avoid Knickknacks
Nature isn’t cluttered by knickknacks, and neither should be your home. In fact, clutter of any sort only serves to eliminate the feeling of light airiness that organic modern requires. Ideally, you should strive to minimize your belongings, getting rid of old furniture and decorative pieces that don’t fit your new aesthetic. It doesn’t matter how you declutter — whether you follow the KonMari method or some other minimalist guru’s process — as long as you end up with a noticeable lack of clutter and a lightness of space. Going forward, you should avoid the temptation to fill empty spaces in your home, and if you do need new decorative elements, you should opt for hand-crafted art purchased directly from the artist.
Organic modern is the perfect blend of clean, sleek modern sensibility and warm, welcoming, natural style. You can make your home a bit safer and more sustainable — not to mention incredibly comfortable and cute — by following these steps while decorating.
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Love the ideas presented in your article and I think it’s worth to add some candles to get contemporary style and ambient natural candle light into any room at home…
I used to love refurbishing and decorating with antiques and ornate decor; however, I have come to love a simple, clean modern design. I have worked on decluttering and simplifying my life and decor. I love this take on sustainable decor, using only things found in nature. It is making me take another look at my decor choices.
Organic mattresses are built from natural materials that smoulder rather than burn, indicating that they are free of harmful flame retardants. They also don’t emit any potentially damaging compounds to one’s health.
I love the decor and design of each photo. It improves homes’ structure and value. Thank you for sharing the steps for styling a modern organic home. I love it! Great article!