Industrial Style Guide: Give Your Home a Sophisticated Edge

industrial_style_home

The first association you get when you think about industrial interior design is probably an image of a loft with oversized metal windows, industrial lighting, high ceilings, exposed bricks, pipes or concrete and raw unfinished wood, in a repurposed factory, warehouse or any industrial space. However, since it became popular in the 2000s, this style has entered many homes, whether as a strict theme, an inspiration, or simply incorporated in combination with different home design styles. There are many ways to give your home an industrial style touch, whether it’s an urban loft-like home or not.

Industrial Style Interior

industrial_style_interior

Source: Twitter

This history meets modern style, refers to a design stripped back of too many unnecessary embellishments, often achieved by the use of bare bricks, metals and wood. Celebrating the simple, but sturdy aesthetics of industrial structures, industrial style relies heavily on the contrasts, and it’s what it makes it so impressive. This can be between contemporary and vintage, smooth and coarse surfaces and structures, metal and wood materials…

The most used colours are dark and light neutrals – greys, blacks, whites… It’s often used in combination to other styles, because it creates a unique look, even without the bare concrete, bricks or wood. Whether you’re designing a living room, or you’re simply updating, you could simply incorporate elements, like furniture, lighting fixtures or decorations into your contemporary home to give it this sophisticated industrial edge.

Industrial Lighting Fixtures

industrial_pendant_lighting_fixtures

Source: Pinterest

One way to bring a touch of industrial style into your home – either along with other items or even as a sole industrial element in your room serving as a statement piece is by adding industrial pendant light fixtures to your home decor.

Like the style they are named after, industrial pendants are inspired by factories and industrial spaces, and traditionally they are made of dark-toned or white metal, with an unfinished look, and without any unnecessary embellishments. They often come with wire cages, and they always feature exposed bulbs. The way an industrial style pendant looks gives it a vintage, old-timey vibe, and this, in turn, will let you see a history piece in a practical and decorative, and yet quite simple lighting fixture.

Metal fixtures are very popular in contemporary interiors, which is one more reason to think about investing in industrial pendant light fixtures to your home. Pendant lights come in different shapes and colours, and they can be either minimalist or very noticeable. This is of course also true for industrial pendants. However, if you opt for this style, you should take advantage of them, and make them a feature piece in your room. They have a high decorating value, greatly influencing the aesthetics of the place.

Lighting plays a truly crucial role in interior design, but not only because light fixtures can be a great asset to your home decor. Moreover, the light itself, both natural and artificial, can affect the entire atmosphere of the room. But, the magic of light doesn’t stop there – lights and shadows can make different features more appealing, they can accent spots and elements, they can influence the colours, and they even influence your mood.

All of this is why even by incorporating only industrial pendants, you could transform your living room. In fact, these peculiar designs can pair beautifully with different interior design styles including modern, minimalistic, rustic, etc.

Industrial Wall Art Decor

industrial_wall_art

Source: Pinterest

Art brings so much to your home. Not only does it add a lot of value ­in any sense, aesthetical, cultural, decorating, but it also adds layers of meaning into your home decor. There are many different ways you can use art to give your place an industrial style sense. You could display salvaged items or handmade metal artwork, etc. to get that old factory feeling. You could add steampunk decorations, for a sci-fi retro-futuristic twist.

If you want to achieve an industrial style in your home, walls can help a lot. For instance, if you really want to achieve that loft feeling, you could cover a wall with wallpapers or murals, that can realistically mimic any effect you want to get – anything from exposed brick to floor to ceiling windows with beautiful views.

However, walls always benefit from some artwork, regardless of the style. Photographs, paintings, art prints and posters, can not only instantly express anything, but they can also serve many other purposes in regards to your intended interior design style.

And there are many ways you can go about it, depending on your taste and your needs. You could select wall artworks that can warm up visually and contrast a harshly expressed industrial style. Alternatively, you could select art to complement the colours of your home decor, to create whatever effect you are looking for, whether it’s to accent colour, to contrast colour or to simply bring in colour.

Black and white photos, art prints and posters are often used to decorate industrial style homes, and even colourful abstracts can blend in perfectly in rooms with combined styles. They can create both contemporary harmony and sophisticated edge. Industrial style rooms can also benefit from nature photographs, paintings or printed canvases. Whether monochromic or in colour, these could bring life and colour to any industrial style room.

Industrial Furnishing

industrial_furniture

Source: The Times

There are different pieces and styles of furniture that can be used in industrial styled places, and that can be considered industrial. Couches and armchairs are often made of leather, mostly brown, or in other neutral colours. However, original, salvaged pieces with timeworn effects are for more strict and distinguishable industrial style. Alternatively, some people make furniture of pallets, to create the often sought for “used” effect.

When it comes to furniture, once again in industrial style interior design, what you should be looking for are raw, bare materials. Whether you salvage them, you make them yourself or you buy them, if you want to incorporate industrial furniture, you should opt for pieces made of unpolished metal or glass, or exposed wood or concrete.