Admittedly ‘Italian Mod’ hasn’t been my go-to style. It’s not how I would define myself in any way. But I’m a style polygamist so I fall in love hard and can easily add it to my love collection (am I allowed to say that if I was raised Mormon?). Right now I’m designing these two houses and one of them might have some elements of this Italian Modern design. Thus our budget post for all y’all who are into it.
‘Italian Modern’ means sculptural and even futuristic furniture, sleek finishes, good flow and smart function. Typically the ‘budget’ version is bad (a lot of contemporary/cheesy finishes), so we thought we’d offer our budget design skills, and show you how to do it right, regardless of budget.
First up the not-so-schmancy-but-still-kinda-schmancy version:
Sofa | Rug | Accent Chairs | Coffee Table | Accent Table | Media Cabinet | Floor Lamp | Table Lamp | Mirror | Planter | Tray | Candlesticks | Leather Pillow | Black Pillow | Burgundy Pillow | Picture Frame | Throw Blanket
Oh, my apologies. I forget to mention that ‘Italian Modern’ is typically crazy expensive. It’s not normally done on a budget because it needs special pieces to pull off the minimal nature of the style. While you might think the first version is expensive, the individual pieces aren’t.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it even cheaper. Thus …
Sofa | Rug | Accent Chairs | Coffee Table | Accent Table | Media Cabinet | Floor Lamp | Table Lamp | Mirror | Planter | Tray | Candlesticks | Leather Pillow | Black Pillow | Burgundy Pillow | Picture Frame | Throw Blanket
Good news is that I like those cheaper chairs even better. Sure, they can go ‘Star Trek’ but that’s a good thing when you are going ‘mod’. I like the sofa from the most expensive version more, but overall I love this look too.
But let’s knock another grand off and give you a real budget version.
Sofa | Rug | Accent Chairs | Coffee Table | Accent Table | Media Cabinet | Floor Lamp | Table Lamp | Mirror | Planter | Tray | Candlesticks | Leather Pillow | Black Pillow | Burgundy Pillow | Picture Frame | Throw Blanket
NOT BAD, FOLKS. For those of you into this look you should feel proud that you can have this room with an affordable budget. It’s ‘Italian Mod’ without the pretentious price tags, and yet still interesting and pulled together. That lamp for $36 is ridiculously good, so is that credenza. While many of this wouldn’t work in my English Tudor, if I had an apartment in Rome this is what I would do.
Like ‘Memphis’ (which I wrote about last week) I feel like this is controversial, design-wise. Are you into it, or it it too Mod and cold for your eyes (and butts)?