What Is Transitional Style? Designers Share Why They Love It

Neither outright traditional nor modern, transitional design is something of a cross-section that allows for the best of both worlds to come together. Often, the style tends to mix elements of multiple aesthetic movements, to render the interior timeless, while emphasizing comfort and personal touches, making it a favorite for many a designer and homeowner.

“We love to work with a transitional lens because it’s the most welcoming and friendly of all design styles,” Meredith Heron, TV personality and principal of Meredith Heron Design, says. “The style is more harmonious because it mixes periods and finishes and works with things you love or have a sentimental attachment to such as a family heirloom.”

Read on to find out everything you need to know about transitional style, so you know how to incorporate the versatile design in your own home.

What Is Transitional Style?

As noted earlier, transitional style is a blend of both traditional and modern design styles across a range of periods, usually referencing them through furniture, architectural elements, fixtures, palettes, and materials.

Transitional style aims to balance this blend to the point that it can’t be dated or pinpointed exactly. In a sense, it’s a way to render the interior timeless. Some of the key points of transitional style are:

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A Combination of Period Styles

Furnishings, fixtures, decorative objects, and finishes can come from or reference a myriad of periods and design movements. Think art deco plus midcentury modern plus minimalism and Victorian. Everything goes so long as they look complementary.

“The key to mixing period pieces is to always remember to work with scale and proportion, and deliberately not matching colors to be exact,” Heron says.

Neutral Palettes

When mixing various styles, a neutral color palette works best in the background since, as the term suggests, it’s meant to work with everything. These hues typically include taupe, ivory, some grays, and tan, as well as some darker earthy tones such as brown and certain green and blue color families.

Mimi Meacham, founder and principal designer of Marian Louise Design, explains how whites, blues, greenes, and greige are color elements perfect for transitional style. Meacham and many other design pros add, however, that bolder colors are welcome when added as an accent that doesn’t dominate.

“Styling your shelves with pops of color and whimsical accessories will draw the eye and freshen up your home," Meacham says.

Hospitality Design Influence

Comfy and luxe touches you’d typically encounter in a hotel guestroom or lounge are all characteristic of transitional style. Such a composition can incorporate everything from a generous club chair and layered textiles to ornate millwork and visually grabbing wallpaper.

Colleen Bute Bennett, founder of CBB Design Firm, recounts a formal living room she designed with the neoclassical era-inspired wainscotting and molding and a 70s-esque cocktail table.

“It shows you can mix all the different eras and textures effortlessly in a single room," Bennett says.

Minimal Accessories

Some pro designers recommend that accessories should be minimal in style while others suggest just limiting the accessories in number. Still, others emphasize that it’s about strategizing how and when to bring in out-of-place items such as keepsakes, collectible art, and quirky flea-market finds. Bennett believes that transitional style often works with antiques and one-of-a-kinds as these can help blend period designs.

“We always talk about adding something ‘ugly’ to a room, often a mismatched pillow or antique piece that brings its own baggage,'” Heron says. “The goal is to give the feel that it just landed here and maybe wasn’t intended to be in this room. This makes for a much more fun space.”

Statement Lighting

Whether it’s a chandelier, pendant, or floor lamp, a lighting fixture that functions as a focal centerpiece in a space’s design is par for the course in transitional style. Typically, the fixture leans more modern or contemporary in style.

Tips for Bringing Transitional Style Into Your Home:

Try a Fun Wallpaper

Elevate a space with playful or stylish wallpaper. It’s much easier to do so nowadays as there are tons of peel-and-stick options with various patterns, graphics, and textures available.

Mix and Match Colors

Mismatch colors or finishes ever so slightly.

“Instead of going up and down a paint chip, I may go one or two chips over in the deck so they aren’t the exact same huge. Your eye will appreciate this break and see how they work together but aren’t a matched set,” Heron says.

Install Pendant Lighting

Add modern pendant lighting over a dining table, breakfast bar, or other logical spot. If you’re short on budget or time, consider a plug-in lamp, concealing the cord along the ceiling or wall with a paintable, adhesive D-line cord cover.

Don't Forget Window Treatments

Invest in chic window treatments.

“Whether it be a light sheer, luxe velvet, or simple linen, a new fresh window shade or drape will complement the transitional design aesthetic and help finish your space,” Meacham says.

Create Comfort

Be sure to include a comfy seating piece in any furniture grouping as comfort is key to this style.

Combine Styles

Combine opposing features to bring in and balance period styles: curves versus clean lines, animal prints versus geometric motifs, and industrial finishes versus traditional warm woods.

Get Personal

Add your personal touch—whether an heirloom, antique, or artwork—as you see fit.

“Play with your space,” Heron says. “If you get the sense that something really works but seems out of your wheelhouse, you’re almost certainly on the right track!”