My latest desire is turning my home into an industrial styled heaven. I am so in love with this trend I simply can’t stop making plans, searching for ideas and looking for pieces I can buy to add a little of the industrial charm to my place. It complies perfectly with my vision for a cosy crib with a personal imprint. When you enter a home that was design in an industrial style, the feeling you get is like you’ve travelled with a time machine and went back in the time of the industrial revolution boom. It has a lot of exposed metal parts, wooden furniture, everything is earthy, brownish in colour giving you that feeling of warmth like as if you’re in your own home.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the trend, industrial style in interior design is the combination of old, wooden furniture pieces, a lot of exposed pipes and ducts on the walls and ceiling, use of furniture elements that are build with wood and metal parts, and an overall design and décor inspired from the past, mainly from laboratories and old factories. A lot of brown nuances and earthy tones are present in this style, which is very easy to combine with colours.
Now, most of us aren’t really able to make a complete renovation of their home with industrial style in mind, because to be honest, that’s quite a big and expensive move. However, what most of us can do, is incorporate details in this style, such as furniture for example. If you like the idea, start looking for retro furniture online or in shops, particularly for the following 4 pieces.
A large, old, wooden cabinet
A cabinet can find its place in either the living room or better, in the kitchen or your dining room if they’re spacious. An old cabinet with doors and glass can be the perfect place for exhibiting collections of glasses and porcelain pieces, or even placing picture frames. Choose it according to the brightest colour in the room – whether it’s the chairs, the decorations or the rug.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
When you search the retro furniture online offers, you’ll find a vast choice of mirrors. Since we hang them on the walls in the hallways, the bathroom and the bedroom, mirrors are often seen as accent pieces; especially if their frame is bold and rich in design. If you choose something made of metal, make sure it’s kind of luscious in its appearance. If you go with a simple wooden frame, make it one in colour – that way it will act as both a practicality and a decoration.
A table for coffee delights
The coffee table is always the centre piece in a living room, and as such it instantly catches the attention. If you already have your sofas in brownish colour, choose a vintage-looking old, wooden coffee table in the same brown to go with it. Then cover the sofa with a blanket in a nuance of beige, and add a few yellowish and dark red coloured pillows. This combo along with the brown wooden table creates a décor that reminds much of autumn, but also gives the room the old scent that the industrial style is all about.
Rugs to make it feel like home
You may think that rugs don’t belong in an industrially styled home and that bare, exposed floors are what would suit best in this case, but you’re wrong. There’s nothing better than getting your shoes off and being able to walk around your home barefoot. That wouldn’t be pleasant at all if you were to walk on cold floors. Instead, use a rug to make the space warmer. The important detail here is to choose the right colour; go with beige, brown, greyish nuances and practically all tones of the earthy palette. Sure you can be a little creative and choose something with a pattern, but make sure it’s not a pain in the eye.
To sum it up, it is not that hard to create a home in industrial style even if it’s not designed to be one. The exposed pipes and ducts and all the metal pieces do give a certain defining charm to the place, but aren’t an obligatory necessity. Start with the furniture, and if able to, work your way to exposing pipes and other metal pieces.
