Industrial decorating ideas.

9 March 2015 | Helpful Tips and Hints

The best thing about industrial interior design is that you can achieve the look on a budget.

This style evolved from the factories that were abandoned and the large empty spaces were remodelled into homes for artists and architects and other creative professionals. One of the best secrets for creating an industrial style for your home is to keep it raw and give it a utilitarian appeal.

You can achieve the  industrial style  by incorporating some of the raw structure of your home such as stripping paint off the wall to expose the bricks, removing portions of the ceiling to expose pipes. Focus on raw and rough surfaces, the style shows off an unfinished look and showcases everything related to industrial building style.

• The colour palette should steer clear of bright, bold colour focusing on the warm, neutral tones to fill the space. Shades and tones of grey work well, mixed up with white adds a crisp, clean look. It’s about austere appeal, minimal and no-nonsense without a hint of excess.
• Aged wood or stone flooring are good finishes that will help you achieve the industrial look. A good guide is to ask yourself if you would put it in a warehouse. Concrete is the number one choice of flooring for industrial interiors.  Rugs and carpeting must be in line with the industrial style hard edge, using coarse weaves such as the Berber carpet-durable and popular for use in offices with heavy traffic.
• Display the building materials that were previously concealed, such as pipes and ducts and exposed clay brick walls. Industrial style embraces the raw – windows are not obscured with drapery. If you need privacy, frosted treatment or film on windows works well or use metallic style blinds or raw wood look shutters.
• Add old industrial décor- this is combining objects that are made from steel, metal or wood- preferably items that are worn down, that have been salvaged and recycled. Another option to achieve that industrial look is to incorporate the concept of exposed pipes through furniture finds, such as industrial lamps in burnished metal, old maritime shelving systems, using polished salvaged metal features in fixtures and fittings.
• Painted walls work best with a mix of large pieces of hanging art- look for amazing artwork on canvas. Art is edgy, use giant abstract works like old road signs, the use of mixed media sculptures all add to the scene.

Décor can bring in elements of softness with the use of comfy lounge suites, use big scatter cushions alongside industrial type objects. Add plants to inject colour, go for big leafy plants and pots to house them, keep décor to hard edges.