Whether you're adding on, renovating or simply updating, maximize your project's potential with the style that was once considered "minimal.
" Start by utilizing these subtle ways to incorporate contemporary design in your home:

• Simplify the lines in your home to update a less contemporary environment.
   Replace elaborate moldings, change staircase railings and/or spindles, streamline fixtures and hardware.
  
• Repeat proportions and group like objects to make a design statement.
  Time to maximize the impact of those like-size vases in various colors that have found their way into nearly every room of your home.
   Place them together in a simple modular bookcase for a warm, sophisticated contemporary display.
  
• Shades of Light.
  Update table and accent lighting with retro contemporary printed lampshades.
   Replace overhead fixtures with fabric lampshade hanging pendants.
   For something more subtle, update with fixtures in a transitional style with a contemporary flair.
  

That was easy! But it doesn't have to stop there.
 Here are some suggestions to transform your home into a cutting-edge contemporary environment:   Merge with Existing Design Blending contemporary and traditional styling is one of the biggest emerging trends and is also known as "trad-mo.
" This term was coined in High Point, North Carolina - The Home Furnishing's Capital of the World(TM) - for traditional and modern melding.
Traditional furnishings appear in unexpected materials, and classic patterns in unexpected hues.
Your favorite pieces are reintroduced by making a bold, modern comeback.
  Contemporary in Color Warm and neutral tones of cream, taupe, gold, and gray visually harmonize with natural stone cool tone counterparts.
 Complex color values exhibit chameleon-like qualities, shifting in tone and luminescence.
  Nostalgic Accents Mix in cozy and eclectic color and evoke emotions of days gone by.
  Pops of Color Incorporate bright bursts of color saturation in high contrast, taking cues from modern prints in fashion and graphic design.
  Crisp Geometric Shapes The essence of this design is all about simplicity, clean lines, and progressive forms with clean minimalist presentation - subtle curves, gentle arcs - the simplicity of shapes in a myriad of sizes.
  Mixture of Textures Use combinations of unexpected materials, bringing elements of global style into your contemporary setting with exotic woods, woven bamboos and grasses, natural fibers and dupioni silks.
Use tonal coloration to make these interesting textures work well together.
  Time to Go Contemporary Today's contemporary is clean, simple, and expressive, yet elegant and sophisticated.
It is original and unique and easily complements any style.
 If you're still not sure whether contemporary design is the style for you, remember that to be contemporary is to be like time: always moving forward with the world around you.