Sophie Bush, the founder of Warehouse Home, talks industrial interiors.
With the launch of a new book 'Hotel To Home' celebrating industrial interiors in the world's most beautiful hotels, Sophie's guest blog reveals how colour can be combined with statement industrial style.
About Hotel To Home
As an interior designer, design writer and a homeowner, I’m always looking for new ideas. Over the years, I’ve found plenty of inspiration around the world - for my home and for the homes of my clients. I’ve spotted furniture and lighting I’ve liked in coffee shops and restaurants. I’ve discovered boutique boltholes and big brand hotels that weave rich narratives into unique interior schemes and solve everyday design dilemmas in ingenious ways.
Writing ‘Hotel To Home’ enabled me to combine my passions for travel and design. But it’s not a travel guide. It’s a design manual filled with ideas for achieving hotel chic industrial style in any home and on any budget. The book draws modern and vintage ideas from over 40 hotels and shares how to adapt them to a residential setting. It covers Structural Features, Materials, Colour, Feature Furnishings and Lighting.
One of the chapters I most enjoyed writing was ‘Colour’. There’s a common misconception that an impactful industrial interior can only be monochromatic. But when it comes to colour in industrial interiors, there’s actually a whole spectrum of opportunity. A utilitarian scheme certainly looks dramatic when incorporating variations of grey or black. One of the most impressive examples is The Krane in Copenhagen. A one-room hotel in a converted dockside coal crane, its interiors are predominantly a deep coal black and the effect is incredible.
Industrial Interiors In Black
Image of The Krane in Copenhagen
Black is a dramatic choice for the home. Bold homeowners might paint feature walls or whole rooms. But even in smaller doses, black is sharp and sophisticated, defining specific focal points and functional areas through stark contrast with lighter and brighter spaces. Just look at this home in Seattle.
Image from Pioneer Square Loft in Seattle
But there are actually a number of ways to incorporate colour into industrial-inspired spaces. Shades can be soft and subtle, warm or vibrant. There might be a single accent colour, complementary pairs or clashing combinations. Colour can also be successfully introduced through furniture and decorative lighting choices, as well as high-impact wall treatments and by painting features like brickwork or exposed piping.
Image of The Eliza Jane in New Orleans
Neutral Colour Palettes For Industrial Interiors Schemes
Image of the Gorgeous George bedroom in Cape Town
A neutral palette offers many benefits. In a heritage property, it ensures the emphasis remains on original features such as exposed brick and old timbers. In any home, a lack of strong colour creates a sense of spaciousness and serenity and enhances natural light.
Image of Titanic Hotel in Liverpool
Industrial Interiors In Pastel Tones
A lighter take on industrial interiors can also be achieved through the use of delicate pastels. Introduce gentle tints through painted joinery as well as smaller items of furniture, lighting and decorative accessories for a ‘barely there’ approach to colour.
Image of Whitworth Locke
As the world opens up to us all again, I hope ‘Hotel To Home’ helps every reader experience new destinations, and their own homes, through a fresh creative lens. And if you need further inspiration, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experienced team of Warehouse Home interior designers.
Image of the Shoreditch Loft Project By Warehouse Home Interior Design Studio
For more of our fabulous guest blog series, take a look at the blogs below:
