Industrial interior design comes from the city. Old factories, converted warehouse lofts – think rustic wood and iron in an exposed space with open brickwork, beams and piping. Common in kitchen and living room design for some time, it’s looking like the industrial look is here to stay, and we’re now seeing more people apply the style to their bedrooms to create cosy yet modern, lived-in sleeping spaces.
Industrial bedrooms are a rising trend as we head into 2022. In fact, since Christmas 2021 the term ‘industrial bedroom’ has seen a 166% increase in Google searches across the UK, as well as a 39% increase on Pinterest boards too.
And getting an industrial bedroom look doesn’t have to be expensive either. Karen Yu, marketing and product strategy manager of Zinus offers her top 7 quick tips to help you get an industrial bedroom look which won’t break the bank.
1. Mimic exposed piping with a home-made shelving unit
Industrial design is all about exposed pipes and beams – a difficult look to pull off without a sizable budget and an adventurous architect! You can however create a nod to this aesthetic by using open shelving supported by piping. Get pipe fittings and wooden planks from your local DIY store and you can put this together yourself for very little money. Look to create a space for bedroom books or your own unique home-made bedside unit.
Top Tip – use copper pipes for the ultimate industrial look and match the colour with other metal copper points around the room – i.e. light fixtures and picture frames.
2. Use wallpaper as exposed brickwork
Industrial design takes inspiration from converted Victorian mills – so one of its key tenets is exposed brickwork. Without doing major renovations, you can get a budget version for your bedroom by using wallpaper. Wallpaper is a very high quality these days, and you can get convincing brickwork wallpaper rolls for under £10 in many stores. Brick wallpaper will add a sense of texture and warmth allowing you to scale back on the rest of the bedroom without it looking ever bare.
Top Tip – the trick with using this kind of wallpaper is not to go overboard. Stick to one feature wall, i.e. behind a bed or desk.
3. Turn DIY junk into bedroom treasure
When it comes to furnishing your industrial bedroom, the trick is to transform old DIY junk into new practical furniture. DIY supplies like stepladders, toolboxes, shipping crates and sawhorses can all be repurposed for an industrial bedroom. For example, you could buy an old sawhorse for cheap on eBay and use it as a clothing rack. Old working stepladders, complete with paint blemishes, make for a good shelf for displaying your bedroom plants whilst giving the room that industrial, worked-in feel. A shipping crate can make a handy stool. You might have some of this in a garage already, if not ask family and friends if they have any spares.
Top Tip – Toolboxes can make for handy bedside or below-the-bed storage.
4. Combine wood and metal in your bed frame or go minimal with metal
The main feature of your bedroom is the bed, so swapping out your existing bed-frame for something more industrial will go a long way to tying together your look. For industrial bed frames, look to minimal steel frames or those which combine metal and wood. You can find either of these frames at very affordable prices. Pallet beds are also a rising recycle trend, you only need two for a bed and you can pick these up for free from supermarkets and industrial parks.
Top Tip – Dark wood headboards and those with reclaimed leather have a strong industrial feel.
5. Paint it black
A little bit of black goes a long way to selling an industrial look. If you’re not keen on painting a wall black and are looking for more creative ways to incorporate such a striking colour into your room, try the ‘dipping’ trend. Dipping parts of furniture in jet black paint – think table and stool legs. You only want to dip a few inches up – the sudden cut off from black paint to wood with the contrast of textures, as well as the uniform consistency of each leg being dipped really sells the industrial feel.
Top Tip – painting existing fixtures, like frames, black can have a big impact.
6. Turn your lighting into an industrial statement
Lighting is a key feature of an industrial look. Try something like a mesh diner pendant hanging above the bed – these can be expensive but you won’t need anything too big for a bedroom space, so shop around until you find something in your budget. If that’s too much you can get the same kind of effect with an industrial bedside lamp instead. The look you’re going for is very minimal – exposed bulbs on stems of black metal. The industrial look works on minimalism, so a few key pieces like the perfect looking lamp will have a big impact.
Top Tip – a metal copper lamp can go a long way and you can find them online very cheap.
7. Frame black and white photography
One way to make a bedroom feel more industrial is to swap out colourful artwork for sophisticated black and white photography. Urban landscapes and old train stations are ideal. Make sure you use black frames.
Top Tip – use multiple pictures in different frames to create a feature wall effect which will make your bedroom feel bigger.
More information can be found https://www.zinus.uk/