These days many people want to incorporate modern, contemporary styles into their housing. Crisp, and spacious, with clean streamlined pieces and straight edges, there’s a whole host of ways to get the look. After modern dining room furniture made its way into people’s homes, the living room is next: Here come the new designs.

One item of furniture you can use to bring a room bang up to date is a modular or L-shaped sofa. You can have this positioned in the centre of the room or can tuck it away in a corner. There are so many different modern styles of sofa to pick from. You can choose shallow, close to the floor styles or sofas in unusual shapes.

You can also buy patterned furnishings or a patterned sofa. Stripes and floral’s are both popular. If you’re feeling even braver mix the patterns, eg: floral throws and cushions on a sofa with striped curtains or blinds. The trick is to keep the rest of the room plain and keep the patterns big and bold, not small and fussy. Patterned rugs look good on polished wooden flooring.

A minimalist look is also very modern. Think leather sofa alongside a patterned rug and wooden flooring with plenty of space, teamed with other simple, plain furniture.

Wall art can go a long way to creating a contemporary look. Think big, bold prints that make a statement and create a focal point. The bigger the print the better.

Colours that work well for modern stylings is of course white, cream and grey, that all create the illusion of space. Black teamed with these colours give a crisp, monochrome effect. Or you can splash colour around the room with a block-coloured sofa or curtains. Just paint or paper one wall to make it into a feature.

Gone are the days when you had to go conservative colour-wise in the home in order to be fashionable and stylish. Sure, if you’re redecorating with a view to selling your home, you should probably shy away from huge prints in block colours installed above your leather sofas, but otherwise there’s no need to opt for earthy, neutral tones or the standard magnolia.

Really, it’s best to opt for colours that you know you can live with, and that you’re going to enjoy. If you already have living or dining room furniture and aren’t intending to buy new stuff to fit with the room, that may limit the options somewhat. Otherwise, there are so many options.

Neutral of course doesn’t have to be boring. Using light, simple colours is an excellent way to make your room appear larger. And earthy tones such as white, brown, gold and soft greens and reds, tend to go with most furniture.

For a modern, contemporary look, the key is white. White adds space and light. You don’t have to make your home look like a hospital though. White can be teamed with black or grey for stylish monochrome. Or, you can really make colours pop by going for solid colour blocks such as red or blue alongside white walls. The effect is clean, cool and calm.

If you’re looking for a cosy or rustic look, darker colours can work well. Browns, reds, oranges, purples and coppers all work well and can make rooms appear smaller.

Then, of course, you don’t have to paint the whole room at all. Wallpaper is more stylish than ever and you can pick up some great designs. It can look great by alternating walls in different colours or by papering one single wall with huge, loud designs that make a real statement. At the end of the day, if you love it and it’s unique to your own taste and personality, that’s all that matters.