How to Achieve the Industrial Home Design Trend
Without Looking Like You Live In a Warehouse

While the industrial look has long been a darling of urban designers, today it is making its way further and further into suburbia as well. Modern industrial design trends range from the vintage to the rustic to the downright futuristic. While the industrial look is a popular look, no one wants to live in a space that genuinely looks like a warehouse. The key is to add in heavy industrial elements while lightening them up with softer touches and features such as warm woods and thick, luxurious fabrics. Here are 5 industrial home design trends that can help you achieve an industrial edge without making your home look like a meatpacking plant.

1. Heavy metals and thick woods
Giant, rusted out steel beams and heavy distressed wood surfaces are another basic staples of industrial home design trends. There are a wide variety of ways to incorporate these elements into your home, ranging from a dining room table made of a giant distressed oak barn door to DIY nightstands. You can also have a kitchen island custom designed and fabricated to utilize these elements. For those DIY wood projects, the jigsaw is a super versatile tool and a great place to start the power tool journey. It is handheld, can be fairly inexpensive and cuts shapes in a variety of materials, with the appropriate blade. a jigsaw is one of my son’s favorite tools he uses when woodworking.

2. Stainless steel
From prep tables in meatpacking plants to warehouse shelves, there is probably nothing that typifies industrial design more than stainless steel. Stainless is also a great addition to busy homes for the same reason it is used so heavily in industries of all types. It is durable, easy to clean and sanitize and relatively indestructible. To keep your house from looking like a warehouse, however, you can pair the cold, industrial look of stainless with warm woods, soft fabrics and even bright colours. The kitchen is not the only place you can use stainless, either. Some bathrooms incorporate a stainless steel backsplash, softened by walls upholstered in padded silk. The pairing of more masculine stainless steel with softer, more feminine accents is a great feature for couple room designs.
3. Distressed floors
Older warehouses and factories are well known for their beaten, battered wood floors that have often been bleached out from years of cleaning. Today, you can achieve this same look with a wide variety of flooring options ranging from vinyl to bamboo to engineered hardwood. Flooring comes in a wide ray of industrial finishes and washes to help you achieve a suburban industrial look. You can soften up the industrial look with throw rugs in rich, luxurious textures or bold patterns.
4. Concrete
From poured concrete countertops to sealed concrete floors, there is a wide range of ways to incorporate concrete into your industrial home design. You can even have a slab of concrete turned into a coffee table. Concrete can be finished in a wide range of colours and textures ranging from traditional grey to finished tinged with warmer reds and yellows. Best of all, concrete works well in a wide variety of temperatures. If you live in a hot and humid area, concrete won’t mildew like carpeting can and it won’t warp and buckle the way wood does. If you live in a hot, dry climate, concrete stays cool underfoot and helps cut down on energy costs. If you live in a cold climate, concrete makes an excellent conductor of radiant heat. Concrete doesn’t have to be cold, and it can even save you money in the long run. Like stainless steel, concrete is also highly durable, easy to care for and low maintenance.
5. Glass
While cool stainless and edgeless glass have long been a favourite of modernists, thick, chunky glass paired with concrete, stainless and heavy metals are de rigueur for fans of the industrial look. Whether it’s French windows edged in black or walls of glass bricks, glass is an important element in industrial design to offset heavier elements like distressed metal and wood.

♦ Whatever elements you incorporate into your industrial home design, the most important thing is to have a plan.
♦ Without an overarching design for your home, you may end up with a mishmash of features, designs, and styles.
♦ Whatever your design aesthetic, make sure you develop a specific plan for incorporating it throughout your home. Do some research on industrial home design trends for every room of your home, to make sure you incorporate a comprehensive design aesthetic that carries on throughout your home from the kitchen to the bathrooms to the backyard.
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Related:
Building and Designing the Perfect Home
A Touch of Glimmer in Your Home: Decorating with Metallic Finishes
4 Ways To Style Your Home With Black Chrome Furniture

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