Industrial interior design accessories: vintage style

When we think vintage, we are immediately taken back to the look from the 20’s – 50’s. Nowadays however, the term includes many styles with an old, nostalgic vibe to them; amongst the many, we find the industrial, retro and shabby chic styles. Urban industrial décor has been very much in trend over the last decade thanks to its modern city chic feel and its vintage vibe.

When choosing your vintage/urban style accessories remember that contrast is essential: if you want to bring the modern city feel of urban/vintage industrial design you should combine smooth surfaces and sleek lines to contrast with the coarseness of industrial materials.

This kind of furnishing exudes practicality, especially in city homes where space can be valuable. Vintage urban industrial design offers clever storage solutions, as wooden boxes or open wood shelves as in the kitchen in this photo, which features wood, lots of it, industrial pendant lights and vintage chairs.

The true protagonist of this style is often seen as exposed bricks, pipes and light cords as metals (not gold or brass) that have a matte finish or a kiss of patina. Although industrial style is not about shine and sparkle, it easy to recreate this vibe in a kitchen for example, using restaurant stainless tables with vintage stoves.

Light should also be in abundance, as it is indeed a city person’s kind of style; there should always be enough light to work, eat and entertain, especially in winter. Along with large windows and skylights, make sure you select plenty of lights. Here the choice is huge, since industrial lighting is accessible in stores and can be a fetched from factories that no longer use them and restored appropriately. Industrial pendant lighting for instance is very fashionable at present, used above dining tables and counter tops in kitchen lighting or in the bedroom over bedside tables or reading areas.