New home style neither traditional nor modern

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Transitional" style is emerging as a strong force in furniture and interior design. It's a clean look that references the past but looks like today.

Traditional with a twist. A bridge between traditional and modern. Postmodern. Contemporary for people who don't like the word "contemporary."

More confusion arises when you throw in older, mostly discarded uses for the term. In the early '90s, when multi-functionalism was all the rage, "transitional" was used to describe pieces of furniture that could change function: A desk in a small city apartment, say, that...