Building & Renovating

All The Finishing Materials You Need For a Modern Minimalist Home

These are what you need to complete your dream modern minimalist house

Photography: Jilson Tiu (Main Photos)

You might think that a coat of white paint is all you need to create a modern minimalist house. But there are myriad other materials and finishes that you can use to add depth, texture, detailing, and color to this style of home.

Wood


This traditional building and finishing material can work well in a modern minimalist space. Worried about finding legal or sustainable wood? Go for engineered wood substitutes, veneers, or recycled wood.

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READ: An Old Bungalow Transformed into a Two-Storey Sustainable Home

Concrete


Raw, unpainted concrete walls and floors are hallmarks of the modern minimalist style, and these give a cool, gritty feel to the space. Are you settling with drywall? Then you can actually “fake” a raw concrete wall finish with different layers of gray paint and some skilled blending techniques.

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READ: Industrial and Tropical Elements Complete This Three-Storey Home

Recycled materials


A lot of modern homes try their best to lessen consumption and their carbon footprint by upcycling or recycling used materials. Industrial designer Mitch Shivers used broken PVC pipes, driftwood, and other scrap objects to create his fence.

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READ: Recycled Pieces Fill a Modern-Industrial Three-Storey House

Steel


Often used for structural members or roofing, steel can be used as surface cladding, or in architectural details. Here, Shivers couldn’t find an old bank door for his main door, so made one himself out of stainless steel sheets.

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Bricks


Even though bricks or brick veneer have long been a favorite finish for modern industrial design, bricks can add warmth, color, and texture to a sleek space.

Glass


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One of the most important materials used in modern minimalist design is glass—not only for windows and doors—but as a way of giving the rooms a sleek look, while allowing transparency and light into the space, as seen here in this glass balustrade.

READ: A Stunning, 450sqm Modern Minimalist Home

Polycarbonate


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Plastic may seem counterproductive in creating sustainable modern design, but a lot of plastic or polycarbonate materials are good, affordable alternatives to stone, glass, roofing (as seen here), or cladding.

READ: A Renovated 1970s House in Pasig

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