Modern Flooring Ideas: 11 Options for Contemporary Homes

Modern design is one of the most beloved styles around. Clean lines, neutral color palettes, simplicity, and functionality are all encompassed in one classic style. If you’re looking to create that style in your home, you’ve probably pinned and bookmarked the perfect decor and furniture, but what about your modern flooring ideas? 

To find the right modern flooring option for your home, it’s important to understand what elements make a modern-styled home. Then, discover what flooring options are out there to complete your space. 

This guide will compare similar styles to help you narrow down your flooring options, and go over all the modern flooring trends that lay the groundwork for a modern style. Let’s begin!

What is Modern Style?

Modern style refers to a specific time in history. Also known as classic, modern design is inspired by the early 20th century and is a precursor to other known styles such as mid-century modern and contemporary. 

Modernism creates striking, yet simple, silhouettes with clean lines, earth-toned color palettes, and natural materials such as wood, stone, and leather. You won’t see pops of color in modern design. More often, you’ll see warm neutral colors, and a balance of all elements incorporated in the room. 

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Modern vs. Contemporary Styles

Because modern design is a pillar of contemporary style, the two are often mistaken for one another. However, each style has distinct differences that are important to understand when incorporating either style in your home. 

Unlike modern style, contemporary is not inspired by a specific time in history. It’s the style that changes with the times and different design features, with nuances of other styles sprinkled in. It’s said that contemporary takes pieces of Art Deco, modernism, and minimalism, and many other design elements without being focused on one style in particular. 

Oftentimes, the contemporary style includes materials such as nickel, steel, copper, and chrome while modern keep it all neutral. However, the main difference is that contemporary is more fluid with its design elements, whereas modern design emphasizes functionality, simplicity, and streamlined design (source). 

Modern vs. Mid-Century Modern Styles 

Mid-century modern style was built from modern design. However, it is inspired by the 1950-1960 time period. Think of mid-century modern as modern design’s funky cousin!

This style of design incorporates bold colors, low furniture with exposed furniture legs, and abstract geometric patterns, all while keeping the straight clean lines in the floors and furniture.

The biggest change from modern to mid-century design is the color choice. While mid-century modern design still loves the functionality and crisp lines of the modern style, it includes a fun twist with pops of bright colors. Essentially, the mid-century modern style looks a bit more lived-in than its modern counterpart. 

Now that you know what you’re looking for when planning your modern home, let’s talk about some flooring options that fit with the overall aesthetics of modern design. 

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Modern Flooring Tile

Because modern style relies on natural materials, tile flooring is an excellent choice for a modern-inspired home. Tile creates beautiful, clean lines within your flooring while also incorporating neutral colors and natural materials. 

Modern homes typically come with concrete or natural stone tiles all the same size and installed in a standard tile format, creating eye-catching lines. Mostly large format, rectangular or square tiles set modern homes apart. 

Natural Stone-Look Tile Floors

Natural stone tile flooring is a simple, gorgeous modern flooring solution. Because natural stone is just that, natural, it encompasses two of modern design’s distinctive elements, a neutral backdrop with materials from nature. 

Smooth stone tile is the most common texture for modern tile flooring. With stone-look tile, you are guaranteed an effortless style that’s easy to complement with minimalist decor and furniture. You can also dress the room up or dress it down if you want to change up your style. 

Wood-Look Tile Floors

Just as simple as the stone-look tile, you get the look of natural wood, with the crisp grout lines of tile flooring. With effortless maintenance, the wood-look tile floor has everything your modern home could want. 

Typically, you’ll find light, medium, and dark shades of wood-look tile, as all wood tones are popular in modern homes. This provides a natural vibe to the room’s gorgeous modern elements. 

Large Format Tile Floors

Modern floors, regardless of pattern, often look seamless. This is done by using large format tiles with a thin grout line. This gives your floor a balanced tone to match with decor and furnishings. 

Whether you choose large format wood-look, stone, or concrete tile flooring, large format tiles help tie the modern style of the room together. 

Shop the Modern Tile Flooring Look:

If tile flooring is the right fit for your modern home, check out some of our favorite options to get started. 

• Daltile RevoTile – Wood Visual
• Daltile Affinity
• Emser Tile Cosmopolitan

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Modern Wood Flooring

Due to its earthy color palette, wood flooring is often found in most modern homes. While this option comes in many variations, it still provides the classic modern appearance the style calls for. With a variety of shades and plank sizes trending, you can create your modern home in no time.

Most wood floors come in a variety of shade options, from whitewashed wood to dark, wood floors bring depth and create an eye-catching backdrop for modern homes. 

Light Wood-Look Flooring

Light to medium shade wood floors varies from light white oak wood to warm honey, to ever-popular gray wood. The most important part of modern wood flooring is that you see the natural grain to give that earthy element. 

It’s most common to see very light, natural wood floors in modern homes as light wood floors encompass the neutral and natural color palette a modern home needs. 

Dark Modern Wood Flooring

Dark wood flooring offers depth and moodiness to a modern room. It’s a common trend for dark wood floors to subtly show the natural grain of the wood, giving the room that earthy element. In other cases, the seams of a dark wood floor can look elongated which creates the striking look that the modern style is known for. 

Ultimately darkly shaded floors serve a dual purpose: a nice dramatic element to play off of with decor, wall colors, and furnishing, and a show-stopping organic piece for the modern home. 

Wide Plank Wood Flooring

Similar to large format tiles, wide plank wood flooring offers a modern, seamless appearance to your floor. Plus, wide plank flooring is one of the more popular flooring trends in 2024. 

In the modern home, wide planks make the room seem larger and allow the natural grain of the wood to shine. With straight flooring seams, wide plank flooring allows the modern style to be the star of every room. 

Shop the Modern Wood Flooring Look:

To get your modern home off to the right start, here are some of our favorite modern wood flooring options. 

• Shaw Reflections Hickory Engineered Wood
• 12mm Bel-Air Windwood Laminate Flooring
• Anderson Smooth Natural Timbers Engineered Wood

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Modern Vinyl Flooring 

Vinyl flooring is one of the most versatile styles of flooring on the market. With the choice of planks, tiles, and sheet vinyl, all you need is that modern look to align the design of your home. Let’s go over some of the modern flooring options in the vinyl category. 

Natural Wood-Look Vinyl Plank Flooring 

Like other wood-look flooring, vinyl planks allow the appearance of the wood grain to shine. Also available in a variety of shade options, vinyl planks are durable and fit right in the modern flooring options. 

With vinyl planks, modern homes can have the appearance of real wood with added durability. Throw in some leather furniture and minimalist decor, and you have yourself a modern-styled room. 

Large-Format Stone-Look Vinyl Tile 

Luxury vinyl tile adds a modern twist to your home. Made to mimic stone, these tiles are the perfect natural backdrop to your modern style. 

Similar to traditional tile, vinyl tile is available in large format, so it’s also commonly found in modern homes as a seamless, stone-look floor. Luxury vinyl tiles give the appearance of traditional tile but at a fraction of the cost. 

Monochromatic Sheet Vinyl

For an even more seamless modern flooring option, sheet vinyl is used in modern-style homes. 

With a monochromatic, textured vinyl sheet on the floor, the modern style is the star of the home. Neutral-toned vinyl sheets used as a balanced backdrop show off the smaller hints of modernism in the room. 

Shop the Modern Vinyl Flooring Look:

There’s so much variety with vinyl floors. To help narrow your search for modern vinyl flooring, take a look at some of our favorite options. 

• TritonCORE Pro 7″ Rigid Core Vinyl Planks
• Stone Flex Tiles – Classic Collection
• Tarkett Fresh Start 12′ wide Vinyl Sheet

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Modern Carpet Flooring

With the right carpet flooring, you can elevate your modern design. Natural materials like jute and a simple color palette can take your floor a long way. Let’s dive in.  

Low Pile Carpet Tile and Rolls

There’s nothing cozier than carpet, right? In a modern-style home, you’ll typically find low-pile carpet rolls or tiles to help streamline the design of the room. The carpet will more than likely be minimalist and will have the same texture throughout. 

To encompass the natural element in a carpeted floor, oftentimes you’ll find beige, gray, and other earth-toned carpets to modernize the space. This also brings balance to the overall design of the room. 

Neutral, Textured Area Rugs

Similar to low pile carpet tiles and rolls, modern homes often incorporate neutral area rugs to tie together the room. Unlike rolls and tiles, however, modern area rugs are usually more textured and typically made with natural materials like hemp or jute. If there is any pattern, it’s created with the cut of the area rug and not with color. To fit in with other modern flooring trends, area rugs are often basic and minimalist. 

Shop the Modern Carpet Flooring Look:

To add some coziness to your modern home, allow us to point you to some of our favorite options. 

• Shaw Intellect Carpet Tile
• Shaw Ribbed Indoor Outdoor Area Rug
• Shaw Lucky Break Carpet Tile

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Conclusion

Modern style homes require a neutral, earthy aesthetic. To find the right flooring, it’s important to consider the color, material, and texture. 

Now that you know what you’re looking for, are you ready to start shopping for your dream modern flooring?

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