What Does Modern Artisanal Style Look Like?

Artisan goods have experienced a resurgence in the last several years, with more consumers choosing handcrafted clothing, home decor, and art over mass-produced products. This modern artisanal trend focuses on the story behind the product, the designer or craftsperson who may be local or in a foreign country. It’s carefully curated and not wasteful; each piece is thoughtfully designed for a purpose.

But what does it look like? How can you tell it apart from other trending design styles? Here are a few tips on how to spot this exploding home decor trend and how to make it your own.

Neutral Hues With Pops of Color

Modern artisanal decor uses primarily warm neutral tones. The style is earthy, organic, and a little rustic. Therefore, you will find lots of cream, warm beige, and brown colors. In keeping with this color scheme, artisanal design typically uses natural materials such as wood, rope, hemp, and linen. Natural metallic elements like bronze are also featured especially in kitchens and bathrooms.

However, it’s never monotone. You’ll often find accents of green, yellow, red, and blue. They tend to be more muted hues, such as olive or moss green, mustard, terracotta, or stone blue, and are used sparingly to add interest and creativity to the sace. Artisan-crafted pillows, bedding, stoneware, and wall art may be primarily neutral tones but with dashes of color here and there.

International Inspiration or Origination

Modern artisans frequently find inspiration in other cultures and traditions, or they promote goods that come directly from the source. Sometimes there are even collaborations between local and international artisans. Examples include handmade alpaca throws from Peru, artisanal Turkish towels, or a vase featuring glazing techniques originating in ancient Egypt.

What’s most important is that modern artisanal design isn’t stolen or even borrowed from other cultures; it’s deeply respectful and knowledgeable of traditional roots, inspired rather than imitated. Imported products come from artisans in big cities and small villages all over the world, and they come with the artisans’ stories. You may purchase a rug made by a family of weavers in India, or a wall hanging by a women’s cooperative in Guatemala.

And since modern artisanal styles focus on sustainability and ethics, these are typically fair trade, providing healthy wages and working conditions for women and families.

Tradition With a Contemporary Twist

Design is always evolving, and modern artisanal style is the evolution of artisanal traditions dating back thousands of years. For example, an artist might get inspired by ancient Korean porcelain moon jars and maintain the traditional moon jar shape, but use a modern glazing technique that creates a unique textural surface. Using an ancient Polynesian weaving technique, an artisan could update her wicker baskets by interweaving the traditional palm fronds with upcycled fabric.

Finding means to bring tradition into the future in novel ways is at the heart of modern artisanal style. It travels through time to deliver the best of both worlds, the old and the new. It’s also created by a new generation of makers with an eye towards contemporary style and usefulness in modern day times.

Unique and One-of-a-Kind

You won’t find modern artisanal decor pieces in big box stores. You won’t walk into a friend’s home and see the same exact chair, lamp, or mirror. Each item is produced individually by hand. This means it may be one-of-a-kind, or one of a small production of similar items. But each product will be unique. If you look closely at two similar vases from the same maker, the glazing will be at least slightly different from the other.

Modern artisanal style shuns mass production, homogeneity, and conventionalism. Whether it’s a piece of wall art using novel materials such as stones and sticks, or custom handmade pillows, it’s guaranteed to be unique.

When you want true conversation pieces, look to modern artisanal style. Each piece has its own story to tell about its maker, its cultural roots, its materials, and its origin.

Minimalist Design and Function

Modern artisanal style isn’t busy or superfluous. It doesn’t contain anything unnecessary. Pieces are valuable and carefully crafted and curated. In modern artisanal decor, more is less.

Uncomplicated, streamlined, sometimes spare, but never without meaning. Objects are placed with purpose to set off or complement other objects around them. Often, unique materials are used to make items you wouldn’t expect.

Function is as important as style. Simple, organic materials such as wood and sisal combine to replace necessary kitchen tools made of cheap plastic. Artisanal decor can offer creative solutions to everyday problems. For example, palm leaf plates and bowls made from fallen areca leaves replace unsustainable paper, plastic, and styrofoam tableware.

How to Incorporate Modern Artisanal Decor in Your Home

Artisanal decor costs more than mass-produced goods, and rightly so. The materials, craftsmanship, and artistry, and the distance that some pieces travel, makes them considerably more expensive to make. Modern artisans don’t cut corners, use cheap labor, or automate production. Each piece is made individually, by hand.

If you’re inspired to incorporate modern artisanal style into your current decor, it can be pricey to make the switch all at once. A more affordable way is to start curating your collection with one piece you love right away. Instead of spending on various mass-produced pieces, save up for one artisanal piece and continue to add to your collection over time.