Modern vs Practical: Winner of the design wars

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Fight fair and wait for the signal. Flare those nostrils. Shake hands, turn, walk and draw paint brushes at ten paces. A design war can be both financially and mentally costly regardless of the fact this is not life and death material. These days the two sides facing off are modern and practical interior design. Practicality should be a pre-requisite to highly rated modern interior compositions. After all how can you enjoy the aesthetics of something without the proper application of basic ergonomics? Your home has to be lived and worked in. The two should not be mutually exclusive although, in the trends of 2014, it is hard to find that perfect fusion of modern and practical. The artistic flamboyance with the scientist's spreadsheets.

Within the overall design your accessories also have to fit in somewhere. The little things that betray your passions, personality, and tie together the larger concepts in your space. The treasured Persian rug, the antique clock that stopped an age ago, the textured wallpaper that is satisfying to the touch, and the coffee table you made and treated yourself. This can be a tricky business so, for the right accessories, take your time, hit some of the online market places such as ebay.co.uk and weigh up your choices.

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The modern, the practical and the combined

There is a pre-eminence of the streamlined, sleek and minimalist elements in a lot of modern design. In turn, you can end up cluttering the clean lines with your knick-knacks scattered all over the place. Fresh Home tells us that you need not settle for this though. Modern design encompasses all kinds of left-field ideas. Some of which can turn your living area into a Jumunji-style room by combining materials and shapes from the inside and out. Alternatively by being brave and using a more eclectic set of colours rather than synchronising everything the everyday clutter around the home won't look so out of place either, even with precise, clean lines.

For a more architectural, practical focus there are also some ingenious energy and space-saving options out there that drag your home, albeit more reservedly than those previous examples, into the modern world. Prefabricated buildings are becoming a popular concept, first finding prominence in China, as whole walls, rooftops and furnished floor spaces are made to design in factories and assembled onsite like a piece of IKEA furniture. This saves manpower, expenditure and costly raw materials. This particular example is fiercely modern and practical. Proving that it is possible to achieve both.

What could be more practical than subtle storage options in the home? Though solid wooden staircases may not always be the most contemporary option, if each step is turned into a storage draw you can stash huge amounts of possessions without having to cram them into the cupboard under the stairs along with your skeletons, hoover and wellies. Another practical trend that can sacrifice some of the modern aesthetic is recycling old buildings, furniture and building materials. This could end up saving you money and the atmospheric edge older designs can bring mean accessorising is not such a necessity.

In truth it is hard to know which is the winner, modern or practical, these days. However, you only win when you find a way of moulding the two together in a way that complements both you and your space.