New Traditional Interior Design
Everything You Need To Know About New Traditional Design
“New Traditional”, sometimes called “Modern Traditional” or “Updated Traditional” is a style that blends the timeless elegance and familiarity of classic traditional design with fresher, more contemporary elements. It is one of our favorite design styles in which to work with our clients and the best interior design style to create a timeless home that won’t feel trendy or dated in a few years.
Before we can really understand the new traditional design style, let’s define Traditional Design.
Traditional Design
Traditional interior design is rooted in classically-inspired European and American styles from the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s known for its formal, symmetrical layouts, coordinated furniture sets, and Classical (as in Greek and Roman) architectural details like ornate millwork. Traditional design incorporates rich, dark wood tones. The color palette often leans toward deep, saturated hues such as jewel tones, burgundy, hunter green, or navy.
Fabrics tend to be layered and luxurious, with heavy draperies, swags, fringe, and trim adding to the sense of formality. Antique or reproduction furniture with more intricate lines and carved details are staples of this style, creating a formal, stately atmosphere. Traditional rooms often feel “decorated”.
This Boulder home is great example of true traditional design. The dinning set is an antique, in a darker wood and the drapery are formal, with a rich color pallet.
New Traditional Design
New Traditional Interior Design is an updated take on classic traditional style. It honors the refined details of traditional design, but reimagines them through a modern lens and for a more curated, tailored and inviting home. Traditional elements like crown molding, wainscoting, antique-inspired furniture, and timeless patterns can be used, but with a lighter or more vibrant color pallet or more and different pattern scales.
Let’s breakdown some New Traditional style rooms and the design features of each.
Pattern Play
In the bedroom design below, we have traditional classical details like the crown molding in the coffered ceiling, an elegant chandelier, and traditional full drapery. But the design is modernized with more clean lined, contemporary furniture and modern geometric artwork. The piece that really pulls the design together is a traditional herringbone pattern which is updated in a larger scale, making it more modern and bold.
New Traditional design often means mixing classic silhouettes with cleaner lines, lighter color palettes, and more casual, livable layouts. Fabrics may include “classics” like florals, paisley or menswear, like the herringbone above, but balanced with solids or modern prints. Colors tend to be softer and fresher — lighter neutrals, soft blues, or muted greens instead of heavy jewel tones.
In this second bedroom design, we have traditional elements including a canopy bed and grass cloth wallcovering. These are more updated with a graphic pattern in a fresher color on the wallpaper. The lamps are a more modern shape and material and the nightstands have simple modern lines.
Going Bigger and Bolder
New Traditional design honors the best of traditional style — the classic architectural details, timeless furniture silhouettes, and sense of comfort — but updates them with a lighter, fresher approach. This style embraces fresh, curated color and pattern to create spaces that feel warm, personal, and completely personalized.
The bathroom below is another example of using a traditional pattern, like a floral, on a larger scale to modernize the space, taking it into the New Traditional style. The shape of the slipper bathtub and the cabinet are traditional, but the floral wallpaper and window coverings lighten the formality of the room.
The result is a look that feels timeless yet current: it respects tradition without feeling stuffy or overly formal. It’s perfect for homeowners who appreciate history and classic elements, but want a home that feels inviting, comfortable, and fresh.
Curated, not Decorated
New Traditional Interior Design mixes traditional pieces with clean-lined, modern elements for a look that feels curated rather than overly matched. The overall feel is more livable and casual, with practical, performance-friendly fabrics and layouts that suit today’s lifestyles.
Compared to traditional, which is formal, heavy and “decorated”, this new traditional home feels personal, like a life well lived in the space. The velvet fabrics lean traditional, while the color pallet, and purposefully mis-matched chairs keep the room relaxed. The collection of tables is also less rigid and casual.
Traditional Materials, Reimagined
The whole home from the Denver Life Interior Designer showhouse in 2023 is designed in a fresh, new traditional style. The Beautiful Habitat team designed the powder bathroom. Here we incorporated traditional materials of terracotta inspired tiles, reimagined to new traditional by blending two more modern tile shapes and installing the floor tiles in a herringbone pattern. It’s traditional, but fresh and updated.
I hope you see why New Traditional is one of our favorite interior design styles. It’s perfect for those who appreciate the comfort of classic design but want a space that feels current, personal, and welcoming for the way we live today.
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