Industrial or urban loft looks are timeless interpretations of the best parts of the industrial warehouse age. With sweeping ceilings, exposed piping and durable flooring, industrial spaces are effortlessly cool. These spaces often rely on being functional and work well in apartments or lofts. Maybe industrial design is the secret to unlocking your space and making the unique and utilitarian home you’ve been dreaming of. Here are a few simple ways to bring the urban industrial look into your space.

Color it Cool

When it comes to urban home decor, colors tend to lean towards the earthy. This means when designing an industrial room, lean more towards brown, black, grey, cream, and other cool earth tones. These colors will create a great base for you to build on and match well with other parts of the industrial aesthetic.

Open it Up

The industrial loft design works best with a wide open space. This harkens back to the aesthetic of warehouses with soaring ceilings and buildings with great bones. Utilize open concepts and shy away from cluttering things up or unnecessarily dividing your space up. Let your rooms serve multiple functions!

Raw and Unfiltered

One thing that is key to modern loft style and industrial looks is utilizing raw textures. Industrial loft rooms thrive on finding the beauty in unfinished or exposed elements. Concrete floors or pieces of home decor can be utilized here, along with other raw elements. Metals are especially important to industrial design, especially when it comes to piping or other exposed elements. Copper is especially great at helping you establish an urban look while being sophisticated. Industrial style accent furniture is available in a wide range of metals; and an end table, chairside table or other accent table may be just the piece you need to bring an urban vibe into your space.

Raw, unfinished, or reclaimed wood is especially important to this trend. These pieces tend to also help ground the space in warmth so that you can avoid turning your industrial space into something clinical and cold. Reclaimed wood dining tables make great additions to almost any urban loft style. They usually serve as wonderful centerpieces and work in almost any style of dining room or kitchen, which makes them great investment pieces.

For fabric, look to leather for inspiration. The raw and rugged aesthetic combined with the plush feel make a great addition to an industrial space, as it provides comfortable function. Invest in a quality leather sofa, sectional or chair to bring leather into your living space. While a wide range of leathers are available, richer leathers, such as dark browns or creamy caramels, work best for this design style, as it will help you work within your color palette as well.

Vintage Voices

Urban living furniture and industrial design pieces rely heavily on vintage design. It helps establish the call back to the industrial age aesthetic that you’re looking to build. Look for cool pieces that show your personality, like retro signs or appliances. Exposed bulbs are currently extremely trendy and are functional as well as vintage friendly.

Mix and Match

We can’t stress enough how important mixing and matching is to industrial design. Not only is it important to add visual breaks, but industrial loft furniture actually looks best when it’s surrounded by a variety of pieces that make your space look curated, not uniform. This is important in several ways.

First, mix and match your finishes and medium. Bring your raw elements from before in, and bring lots and lots of types. Metals and woods play nicely together on loft style pieces. You can even mix different types and finishes of metal without any concern, as it plays off really nicely into the warehouse loft style you’re looking for (we even have a blog dedicated JUST to mixing metals, if you’re curious on how to go about it.)

On that same vein, mix textures. Too many hard, rugged surfaces will reduce the functionality of your space by making it uncomfortable, and industrial loft style rooms are all about being practical. Mix up your raw textures with soft and plush pieces, like throw pillows and cushions. This doesn’t mean you have to bring in the frills; neutral pieces, especially with interesting textures such as knit, work wonders for bringing softness to an industrial space.

Finally, mix styles. Modern loft styles look especially great with the industrial style by working with the clean lines already established. Modern pieces that are architecturally interesting jive well with the already constructed feel of industrial design. However, feel free to mix your favorite style with industrial loft design to create the perfect blend of your personality. Farmhouse industrial? Sure! The focus on reclaimed wood in both styles will work well together, which makes it just a matter of blending finishes. Boho industrial? Why not! Throw some of your favorite vintage pieces for both looks and bring in some boho jewel tones to your industrial earth tones. The large, vaulted warehouse ceilings are the limit here.