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Interior Design Style Guide
Choosing the right lighting starts with knowing your design style. From Midcentury Modern to Minimalist, each interior design movement has its own materials, forms, and iconic fixtures, and the right light fixture can define a room as much as any piece of furniture. This guide breaks down 18 of the most popular interior design styles so you and your designer are working from the same vocabulary, with lighting recommendations for each.
Contemporary
Contemporary design is a broad, ever-evolving term generally associated with an art-museum aesthetic: clean, stark, minimalist, and often monochromatic. Look for linear LED fixtures, sculptural pendant lights, and smart-enabled flush mounts made with experimental materials, designed to feel current rather than tied to a specific historical era.
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Transitional
Transitional design bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary. Not quite one or the other, it's versatile, familiar, and timeless. Look for drum shade pendants, simplified chandeliers, and classic-form sconces made with a diverse mix of materials, equally at home in a 19th-century villa or a 21st-century condo.
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Midcentury Modern
Midcentury Modern design (roughly 1945–1969) reinterprets postwar optimism through warm woods, round forms, and clean lines — the aesthetic most associated with "Mad Men," Palm Springs architecture, and the Space Age. In lighting, Midcentury Modern shows up as Sputnik chandeliers, arc floor lamps, and artichoke pendants, typically in warm brass, walnut, and smoked glass. It pairs low-profile furniture with sculptural, statement-making light fixtures overhead. For a deep dive into the style in situ, Palm Springs remains the best-preserved time capsule of Midcentury Modern architecture and design.
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Traditional
Traditional design is time-honored and frequently handcrafted, drawing fondly on historical references. It's ornate by nature, favoring adornment and artistry over restraint. Look for crystal chandeliers, cast iron pendants, and wood suspension fixtures built to feel established and enduring rather than trend-driven.
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Scandinavian
Scandinavian design is defined by clean lines, washed or light-toned woods, soft edges, and intuitive functionality, a Nordic sensibility that also heavily influenced Midcentury Modern. Look for wood pendant lights, paper or fabric shade fixtures, and simple globe pendants, all designed to diffuse light softly rather than glare. It's a natural fit for minimalist and hygge-inspired interiors.
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Coastal
Coastal (or nautical) design draws on the calm textures and palette of the beach: sun-bleached driftwood, smooth stone, pale pastels, and nods to nautical instruments like rope and rigging. Look for woven rattan pendants, whitewashed wood chandeliers, rope-wrapped fixtures. It's especially popular in beach houses and sunrooms but works in any interior aiming for a relaxed, breezy feel.
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Farmhouse
Farmhouse style blends rustic barnwood, flea-market antiques, and weathered metal finishes for a warm, lived-in look rooted in rural American design. Signature pieces include oil-rubbed bronze pendants, distressed-finish chandeliers, and mason jar pendant lights. Farmhouse lighting works especially well in kitchens, particularly kitchen island pendants, and entryways, where a slightly imperfect, handmade quality reinforces the bucolic feel.
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Minimalist
Minimalism operates on the principle that less is more: clean, unadorned forms that create a sense of calm by removing unnecessary detail. Look for globe pendants, disc flush mounts, and simple linear fixtures with no ornamentation. Minimalist fixtures are often designed to disappear into the architecture rather than serve as a focal point.
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Southwestern
Southwestern design draws heavily from Spanish, Central and South American architecture as well as Navajo and Apache design traditions of the American Southwest, emphasizing repeating geometric patterns, clay and terracotta tones, and desert hues. Look for ceramic pendants, hand-decorated table lamps, and wrought iron fixtures in warm, earthy finishes.
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Industrial
Industrial design celebrates the process of making things: exposed mechanics, vintage hardware, and hammered or unfinished metals drawn from old factories and foundries. Look for matte black pendants, caged metal shade fixtures, and exposed bulb fixtures. It's a popular choice for loft conversions, urban apartments, and any space aiming for a raw, unpolished edge with a modern sensibility.
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Art Deco
Art Deco is defined by repeating geometric patterns, luxurious materials, and streamlined symmetry, emerging in the early 20th century alongside advances in manufacturing and the rise of Manhattan's skyline. Look for fluted glass sconces, sunburst chandeliers, and fan-shaped flush mounts in chrome and brass. It's the go-to style for anyone chasing a "Gatsby glamour" look.
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Glam
Glam style is all things glitzy and sparkly, from over-the-top opulent chandeliers to gold-and-glitter pendants. Traditional glam favors ornate, crystal-studded fixtures, while "cosmo glam" pairs a few lavish, reflective details with otherwise modern forms. Look for crystal chandeliers, gold pendant lights, and mirrored sconces for dining rooms, powder rooms, and entryways designed to make a statement.
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Bohemian
Bohemian ("boho") style has roots in both Art Nouveau and Wabi-Sabi, favoring raw, organic materials like rattan and bamboo and embracing imperfect, handmade forms over mass-produced ones. Look for woven pendant lights, rattan chandeliers, and textured shade fixtures, often layered with warm-toned bulbs. Pair with plants for a lived-in, eclectic look.
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Victorian
Victorian design is highly ornate and elegant, referencing Gothic and Baroque influences for a look that sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from minimalism. Look for crystal chandeliers, candelabra sconces, and ornate metal pendants with damask-inspired detailing, well-suited to period homes and formal interiors.
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Whimsical
Whimsical design is eccentric, abstract, and sculptural, never taking itself too seriously, adding a cheeky twist to familiar objects or reimagining vintage forms with modern, high-tech features. Mashup substyles like Steampunk or Pastel Gothic let fantasy take over. Look for sculptural pendant lights and novelty table lamps as a conversation-starting focal point in playrooms, creative studios, or any space that wants a sense of narrative and surprise.
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French Country
French Country design, sometimes called "shabby chic," blends warm rustic finishes, slipcovered furniture, linens, and antiques for a look that's part flea market, part countryside bed-and-breakfast. Look for beaded chandeliers, wrought iron pendants, and candelabra-style sconceswith a heirloom look.
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Memphis
Memphis design, founded in Italy by architect and designer Ettore Sottsass, uses exaggerated scale, cartoonish shapes, abstract lines, and bold color for one of the most playful design movements of the late 20th century. Often shorthand for "'80s design," Memphis draws heavily from Pop Art. Look for colorful geometric pendants and sculptural table lamps as a statement piece.
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