Revolving around the sun-kissed, bliss lifestyle of the Mediterranean region, designing your space using the soft colours, beautiful patterns in a simple way will never fail to create a warm, inviting home. There's many different elements that you can dive into, all leading to a peaceful home where you'll always feel like you're on holiday.
In this post we'll cover general elements that can be applied to almost every aspect of your space to truly capture the Mediterranean feel. For some help with decor pieces and ideas, we'll also look at different items, colour shemes and materials to help you create your ideal home:
Use Warm Colours and Natural Materials
A staple of the Mediterranean design style is the use of soft, warm colours paired with natural materials. Using colours such as white, cream, beige and brown for you primary colours can instantly set the tone for your chilled, relaxing space. Adding in shades of blue and green can add some visual interest, whilst further adding to the Mediterranean feel.
As for the materials, popular and effective options include wood, stone and ceramic pieces. These materials offer so many options for finishes, patterns and textures to add to your space. Additionally, choosing fabrics like cotton, linen and wool can add to the warmth of your space in a super minimal way, opening the door for some Med-inpsired patterns.
Bring the Outside Inside
The mediterranean design style draws tonnes of inspiration from the natural surroundings of the region. There's quite a few different countries on the Mediterranean Sea that have some differences, so finding a nation's style that you like most will help you out a ton when deciding what you want to include in your space.
One thing that all designs share is the inspiration of nature, which can be done through potted plants, fresh flowers and splashes of green throughout can make your space feel much more naturally inviting.
Focus On Your Decorative Elements
Mediterranean inspired interiors tend to put the focus on the decorative elements to bring it to life. This can include tiles, mosaics, natural furniture, patterned carpets/rugs and wall decor. You can incorporate these elements in almost every room of your home, creating a cohesive flow throughout your entire space.
Applying decorative tiles to your backsplash and/or bathroom walls and floor is a timeless and effective method when in comes to using these elements, as they can easily add so much colour and overall visual interest. Another method that is massively underrated is applying a mosaic pattern to a coffee table, capturing so much Mediterranean spirit.
Emphasise Your Lighting
In any space, the lighting can be the determining factor on the overall tones that the space has. This is especially the case in Mediterranean inspired homes, and lighting is one of then best ways to create the warm, inviting atmosphere you're looking for. Be sure to incorporate as much natural light as possible, as it's the best way to bring the outside inside whilst bouncing off the decor pieces you've chosen.
In places that won't receive much natural light, consider adding accent lighting or ambient lighting, through some stylish fixtures that can become statement pieces in themselves. Making sure that your lighting isn't overbearing will be key to maintaining that chilled out vibe you've already created.
Finding ways to incorporate these ideas into your home can be tricky, especially with so many options out there. To give you that extra bit of inspiration, we'll cover some different decor pieces and colour ideas to fill your space of Mediterranean serenity.
Add Pops of Colour with Sicilian Tiles
Image Credit: Porcelain Superstore
Different style tiles are a super popular element that's included in Mediterranean spaces, especially Sicilian tiles. Beaming with bright yellow and blues, this style of tile is undefeated when it comes to bringing a warm, summer feel to your space.
The best thing about these tiles is the range of patterns cand colour combinations available to you. Whether you go for a flower themed blue and yellow tile or a green and orange geometric pattern, your space will be filled with the colourful Sicilian take on the Mediterranean style.
These tiles are also versatile when it comes to where you can use them. To get the most out of them, using them for your bathroom tiles or kitchen backsplash, adding so much life to these rooms. They can also be used for smaller decor pieces like coasters, or furniture pieces like coffee tables.
Create Elegance with Wrought Iron Light Fixtures
Image Credit: Homary
Wrought Iron is a material that's popular in all different takes on the Mediterranean design style. It's used for a few different decor pieces, however using it for light fixtures is the best way to make the most out of the rustic, elegant feel of the material.
Whether you want to use the material for your main fixture such as a chandelier, there's many different styles that the material can shine with. You can also use wrought iron with smaller fixtures, perfect for creating both accent and ambient lighting.
Keep Things Neutral with Terracotta Pottery
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A timeless, almost essential feature of the Mediterranean style is the use of terracotta, specifically through pottery. You'll easily be able to find a wide range of shapes and sizes for pieces using terracotta, all perfectly complimenting the rest your space whilst serving a practical purpose.
The best ways to use terracotta pottery as decor accents is by either displaying your plants in holders made from the material, or by simply displaying the pieces by themselves. Putting smaller pieces around a larger piece always looks great, as does scattering smaller vases and pots throughout your space.
For using terracotta in a more practical way, looking out for things like plates, jugs and cups can help you keep up the Mediterranean vibe across all areas of your space. The neutral colour of terracotta adds warmth, whilst being able to blend in with all the colours you choose for other elements of your space.
Contrast Primary Colours Throughout
Image Credit: Fairfax & Sammons Architects
When it comes to adding visual interest into your Mediterranean space, contrast the bold, bright colours that the style can be known for a the perfect way to do this. Whilst keeping your walls and floors neutral, playing around with the colours of your decor pieces can do wonders for your space.
Some perfect combinations to look into using are blue against yellow, blue against green, green against yellow and blue against red. Carefully implementing these colours together, you can add visual interest and depth to both your decor/furniture and your space overall.
Go Minimal with Whites, Creams and Beiges
Image Credit: Oka
Keeping on the topic of colour, keeping your main colour palette minimal is the best route to take when creating a warm, inviting space that makes Med-inspired spaces what they are. Using whites, creams and beiges throughout can help you achieve this; be sure to not use only hard white throughout your space as it can easily become cold and boring!
Another super effective way to use these colours is through natural materials, such as wood, linen, jute and wool. All of these materials offer these neutral colours, along with their own unique textures creating even more visual interest to your space.
Add Mosaic Patterns
Image Credit: Jennie Grover
Another super common feature in Mediterranean spaces is using mosaic patterns as accents throughout. These patterns add so much colour and contrast wherever they're applied, and come in a wide range of shapes, colours, textures and patterns. The visual interest is almost unmatched when it comes to mosaic pieces, with some pieces coming in a 3D look.
Popular places to apply mosaic patterns are through tiling for your kitchen and bathroom, as well as through smaller elements like mirror frames, coffee tables, coasters and trays. Similar to Sicilian tiles, the colours that mosaic patters produce allow your space to fit right in with the Mediterranean vibe.
Incorporate Moroccan Decor
Image Credit: Architectural Digest
A popular country that many Mediterranean spaces take inspiration from is Morocco, beaming with colourful textures and patterns, the nations design style can't help but fill a space with so much more life.
Some of the most effective ways to use the Moroccan design style is through pieces such as pouf ottomans, a Moroccan inspired rug, Moroccan tiles and wall decor. Each of these feature the warm, unique colour combinations and patterns, making each of them a focal point in an already pretty colourful space.
Include Sunshine Themed Colours to Brighten the Space
Image Credit: Otto Tiles
What comes to everyones mind when they think of the Mediterranean is the warm, sunny atmosphere you'll struggle to find anywhere else. Bringing the sunshine colours, from dawn to dusk can help out a ton when choosing your colour scheme. Yellows, orange, reds and pinks will seamlessly blend your space with the lush colours of the summer sky.
Applying these colours to your walls is the main way to use them, but there's other creative ways you can create a consistent colour palette for your space. Using these colours for your tiling, pillows cushions, flowers, cabinets and countertops are just some elements you can apply these colours to.
Incorporating the Mediterranean interior design style into your home is the perfect way to create a warm, summer feeling atmosphere that you and everyone else will never want to leave. Applying warm colours, bold accents and natural materials can help you include all different sides of the Mediterranean style, bringing in all the best elements of the countries lucky enough to have the Med on their coast.
Following these tips and ideas, hopefully you have all the inspiration you need to create your dream Mediterranean inspired home, full of life and personal creativity.