What is the Organic Modern design style?

If you’re looking for organic modern bedroom inspo, you probably have some ideas on what this style actually entails, but – it’s worth having a quick overview anyway. With the organic modern style, the clue is in the name 🙂 ‘Organic’ references the focus on natures beauty (hence the ‘organic’), mixing layers of organic elements, hues and textures, whilst the ‘Modern’ references a reliance on a modern minimalist execution, often infusing furniture pieces from mid-century modern or industrialist styles.

Organic Modern has relatively recently become a mainstream style via the likes of McGee and Co, Soho Home, and instagrammers such as the Lone Fox, and it’s easy to see why it’s become so popular so quickly – it entails clean, minimalist spaces with plenty of warm textiles to create a cosy, warm atmosphere, and is elegant without being too in-your-face.

Key Components of a Modern Organic Bedroom

• Minimalist, uncluttered design
• Neutral colour palette
• Reliance on woods, textiles and ceramics with a hint of industrial metals
• Playing with patterns and layers within textiles
• Mixing traditional and modern furniture pieces

Organic Modern Color Schemes for your Bedroom

Organic Modern color palettes usually consist of warm neutrals, reflecting those colours we so often see in nature – particularly in beautiful grassy or seaside landscapes. Below, you can see an example of a warm neutral colour palette. We can see warm, muted greens, blush pinks, earthy browns and moody blues – and with modern organic designs, we often see a wide range of accent colours being used in a single space.

Whilst this sounds like an expert-level endeavour, and a recipe for a headache-inducing space, it really isn’t. The beauty of playing with pattern is that you can actually include a large number of accent colours, each within this warm neutral family, through your textiles without overwhelming your space. All that can be done whilst leaving the walls and floors a minimalist monochrome colour, such as cream or greige. This is great news if you don’t have the budget for a painter!

If you’re not a fan of white/cream walls (hey, me neither!), then choose your favourite shade for your walls and use the rest of the colour palette for your accents, such as your rug, throw and pillow. Olive or sage green is my personal favourite – and if you’re interested in more sage green bedroom inspo you can check out my post on that subject here: How to style your sage green bedroom: 23 stunning ideas

Organic Modern Bedroom Furniture

Organic Modern is often confused with another interior design trend called ‘Transitional’ due to both artfully mixing both old and new furniture pieces in one space. You’ll often find more traditional elements, such as intricately carved bed frames, vintage oil paintings in gold embossed frames, and beautiful Persian style rugs, mixed with newer looking items such as mid-century modern bedside tables, desks and benches.

How you mix these items is completely up to you, and if you want to pair a more modern bedframe, for example, with a vintage bedside table that is your prerogative. There are no hard and fast rules here, although as we will see below there are some staple items that you may want to implement first!

Organic Modern Beds

The beds we often see in these to-die-for Organic Modern bedroom Instagram shots or brand promos by Mcgee & Co are often the focal point of the room, and tend to be very clearly well designed and made (and likely to cost and arm and a leg). I’m a big fan of patterned or coloured headboards, and there are some beautiful options on the market already.

If you’re not wanting to purchase a completely new bed, or if you’re trying not to blow your budget, there are some options to purchase headboards as a standalone item, which is considerably cheaper (as below), or to DIY your own headboard too. Alternatively you can make the bed the focal point of the room by focussing on great quality textiles – bedsheets, pillows and throws, which can make an incredible impact on their own.

Organic Modern Bedroom Accessories

Lighting

The ceramic table lamp has been a stand-out player in a Organic Modern bedroom composition, and can be seen making a cameo in many a photo, along with wicker sconces. Whilst there are no rules, lighting is often simplistic and modern – meaning no intricate designs, patterns or shapes. Focus on natural materials and plenty of layered lighting to achieve cosy nirvana.

Art

Art is a huge element of any room design, and in an organic modern bedroom that should be no different. Whilst we typically see natural landscape oil paintings (which are absolutely stunning and which you may be lucky enough to pick up at a market or thrift store), we do also see some designs using more modern abstract paintings, and you will see this particularly in Soho Home designs.

Again, there are no rules and both traditional and modern is allowed and encouraged – just make sure they’re framed beautifully and hung centre stage for maximum impact! This is perhaps also an opportunity to hang your own art, if you are that way inclined!

Textiles

I’ve mentioned textiles around 900 times in this post alone, but that is because they are SUCH a game-changer in organic modern bedroom designs. If you’ve already started putting your organic modern bedroom together and feel like the room is just feeling a little flat – this could be what you’re missing.

Mixing high quality textiles with different, intricate, (sometimes clashing!) patterns adds so much depth and interesting to a more simple design such as Organic Modern. So whether that is adding a few scatter cushions to your collection, purchasing (/thrifting) a patterned bedroom armchair, or adding a new headboard to an existing bed, I would highly recommend upping your patterned textiles game!

Rugs

I am extremely partial to a Persian rug generally, I feel like they just add so much warmth and class to a space! Whilst they used to be completely unaffordable to the general population, you can get some really well-priced Persian-style rugs on websites like Ruggable nowadays, and they can add so much depth to a organic modern bedroom design. However, if you feel that a Persian rug is overkill/leans too far into the traditional side of things, we also see Jute style rugs (as below) being used, which are a great nod to organic influences and add a beautiful texture to the space.

Indoor Greenery

Last but not least, and this is perhaps a little bit tongue-in-cheek, we have the trusty faux-olive tree. I cannot think of a single Organic Modern Bedroom shot where I have not been able to spot the leaves of an olive tree waving hello from a corner (or centre shot). I do love how these plants look in a space, and there are some stunning fake (& affordable) versions online nowadays – both across Amazon and Etsy.

And whilst this is not a pre-requisite of an organic modern bedroom but.. you might as well! Fiddle leaf plants also do a great job – and lean further into the mid-century modern nod if that’s what you want.

So – did you know different interior design styles have a preference for different plant styles? Of course you did… or at least now you do!

So to conclude – when putting together your dream organic modern bedroom – go for a warm neutral color palette, mix old and new furniture styles, layer textiles, prioritise patterns, keep it uncluttered and finally – get yourself an olive tree!

I’d love to see your designs and hear your thoughts – just leave your comments below!