Author: guessletis

Industrial interior design is a popular style loved by many homeowners for its raw beauty and slightly rustic visual appeal. If you’re not already familiar with industrial home design, it consists of stripped-down furniture, salvaged pieces, cool tones and natural materials to create an interior that’s as functional as it is aesthetically pleasing. By including these must-have elements in your home, you can pull off industrial style with ease:

Industrial lighting

Having plenty of lighting in an industrial home is crucial for offsetting the cool tones found throughout the interior. Not just any light fixtures will do, however, for industrial style. Look for salvaged or unfinished pendants and lanterns made of materials such as steel, ribbed glass, tin, aluminium or iron. These raw materials add a natural sleekness to any room in your home. Hang metal pendants above your kitchen island, place iron lanterns on top of your brick fireplace or opt for aluminium track lighting on the walls in your living room.

Neutral colours

Most industrial homes start with a base of neutral hues like grays, browns and blacks. A combination of neutrals is far from boring if you use them in the right way. Instead of using the same colour throughout a room, vary the shades. Bring in a mix of light and dark tones to keep the room interesting. You may introduce brighter hues like tangerine or turquoise, but it’s important to do so sparingly, using items like pillows, rugs or seat cushions.

Salvaged wood

Weathered wood is a versatile material that’s commonly found in industrial-style homes. Add a distressed wooden dining table to your kitchen, or place a salvaged wood coffee table in the center of your living room. There are a number of ways you can introduce this material to your home. This element is essential for industrial homes because it offers a contrasting warmth to the neutral tones and various metals throughout the interior.

Exposed elements

Your first instinct may be to cover up pipes or wood beams that are exposed in your home. However, these elements are what make up industrial style. They not only serve as supportive structures, but they lend character to the space as well. Leave your salvaged wood beams as they are, and don’t worry about trying to cover up the pipes in your bathroom. Instead, play up these elements to your advantage. Paint the pipes a color that contrasts with your walls to really help them stand out. Instead of covering up those concrete floors, simply stain and polish them to embrace the look of your floors.

Unique pieces of art

You wouldn’t typically find a framed photo of flowers in an industrial home. Instead, think out of the box when it comes to decorating your home’s walls. Mount an old vintage clock or a salvaged road sign on the wall, or put an old metal sculpture on display in your entryway. Just like the exposed architectural elements, these pieces of art add character, texture and dimension to the space.

Few would dispute the bedroom’s primary function as a place to lay your head after a long day. This space acts as a personal retreat from the rest of the world where you can relax in quiet comfort. As such, many people consider the bedroom to be the area most closely linked to the homeowner’s personality, sense of style, interests and lifestyle. Every aspect of the room is often designed for individual comfort and appeal.

However, the bedroom also possesses the potential to become something greater than simply a place to sleep. With a little imagination and decorative awareness, you can create a multi-purpose master bedroom for a variety of activities. Consider placing a mid-century modern lounge chair in your room to create a casual sitting area. You can pair this furnishing with additional items like a small sofa for reading or watching television in private, free from family distractions.

Lighting is another key element in repurposing your bedroom to accommodate new activities. Table and floor lamps are great for specific tasks, like enjoying the newspaper before work. However, for widespread illumination, consider installing a stylish pendant light fixture.

 

Minimalist aesthetic eliminates clutter

Minimalist homes are focused around the idea that less is more. In fact, these interiors are free of any clutter and intricate detailing, letting natural materials and textures take over the spotlight. Countertops are cleared off, and walls typically only feature one to two decorative pieces. Lines on furniture are sleek and straight, boasting a simple elegance. Color is used sparingly throughout minimalist homes, as a monochromatic color palette is most commonly used. A combination of grays, whites, beiges and creams keep the focus on the architecture and structural elements of the home.

There’s no doubt that minimalist interiors are beautiful, modern and sophisticated. However, reducing all of that clutter can often be easier said than done, especially if you have a big family. The good news is, with a few tricks, you can adopt a minimalist style in your home. Here’s how:

Minimalize furnishings – Choose items that double as storage

Storage chests are obvious solutions, but it’s important to get creative when searching for ways to protect and conceal small items. Look for storage ottomans that open up to reveal space for TV remotes and magazines. Opt for a subtle storage bench in your entryway that can be opened to store shoes, boots, umbrellas and bags. These sneaky organizational strategies will keep all of your essentials easy to find, but out of sight.

Say you’re watching a period film that’s about Versailles during Marie Antoinette’s reign. You’d expect the set to be full of rococo elegance: chandeliers hanging, elaborate floral wallpaper adorning each room and classic French art hanging from the walls. But what if, in one scene, you see a flat-screen television in a parlor? Seems out of place, right? (In literature, that’s called anachronism.)

In modern times, we have access to a whole human history of design movements, which often means various styles come together in a single home. In fact, many homes are a visual display. But if you love vintage or classical design, you may wonder how the most cutting-edge technology will look in your elegant space. Here are some for bringing together the old and new in a way that would impress:

Tone it down

Not every piece of furniture in your home has to be gilded, glittering and ornate to show off a rococo, baroque or classical style. Adding sleek, modern tech to your home will be easier if you design with a mere touch of classic rather than an onslaught. For instance, choose furniture that speaks to the style you want, but avoid adding too much decorative moulding to your walls. Or, mold away with everything from dental to swooping vines, but pick simpler furniture.

Including these more modern subtleties in your home will help your devices feel more well-placed.

Add darker tones

While rococo may be characterized by light colours, consider adding black to your living room (or any room that has a big TV). Most devices these days look like black slates, so a TV would stand out in a room dominated by pastels and golds.

However, if you add dark tones to your television room, the TV will match those black elements and seem more at home. You don’t have to have a pitch-black room to get the effect – just pick strategic pieces in dark hues, like bookcases and coffee tables in a dark wood stain.

Frame the TV

Many people now hang their TVs straight onto the wall to clear up space on the floor and put the device at a good viewing height. If you mount your television, you have an opportunity to dress it up to match your classical space.

Add decorative wall moulding around the TV to frame it. It doesn’t have to be a square frame, just surround the television with sweeping vines or intricate lines. This will draw your eye to your TV without making the modern device seem too out of place.

Store Remotes

Smaller devices, like your TV’s remote control, can be kept out of sight. Pick furniture that has small compartments that let you store belongings. This will get your remote out of the way when not in use and help prevent it from “walking off.”

Although technology, like televisions, can look like an anachronism in a classic-, baroque-or rococo-inspired space, these tips can bring the past and present together more harmoniously.