By Felicia Feaster
For the AJC
The industrial decor trend first came to prominence when homeowners moved into loft apartments in former factories, warehouses and schools in city centers during the 1990s and early 2000s. In those cavernous spaces, institutional kitchen appliances and massive rough hewed tables worked beautifully with the concrete floors, exposed ductwork and oversize scale of lofts. » Continued on the next page
“People really got so into this industrial chic look at that point,” said interior designer Robert White of Reiner | White Design Studio, though he added that tastes have shifted. “I really think times have changed a little bit. People are moving back toward the softer side of things, but they still want that industrial edge.”
Eventually, features of loft living such as stainless steel countertops, exposed beams, corrugated metal, salvaged industrial furniture, commercial-grade sinks and exposed brick walls trickled down to nonloft owners who wanted to inject some attitude and character into their own homes. In industrial decor’s new phase, hard-edged details are cropping up in suburban Atlanta homes, where they often add character and attitude to shabby chic or keep a traditional home from reading as bland or too formal.
Interior designer Caryn Grossman of CG Creative Interiors has lived in a loft in the Old Fourth Ward’s Telephone Factory for the past five years with Chris Buxbaum, special events coordinator for A Cappella Books. Grossman has seen a definite movement of the industrial decor trend to traditional spaces in Atlanta’s suburbs.
“We’re seeing a lot of younger couples who might have lived in lofts 10 years ago and are starting families out in the suburbs. And they want to maintain some of those characteristics in their new homes,” Grossman said. “Everybody seems to have the passion for [lofts], even if they don’t feel they can live in one large room.”
Grossman recently designed a refinished basement in a traditional, Craftsman-style Alpharetta home that illustrates the suburban migration of the industrial loft aesthetic. Grossman acid-stained the basement room’s concrete floors to give an industrial look that mixes well with more refined details such as coffered ceilings.
“Six or seven different colors have come out from the concrete, and it’s this beautiful, warm coppery patina,” Grossman said.
In the modern incarnation of industrial, it is all about the mix. “If you have all industrial, it can be quite cold, so when you add anything natural like wicker or wood to concrete or to metal, it gives it the warmth or coziness,” said Milk and Honey Home interior designer Julie Holloway. Industrial also can help keep a home from seeming ostentatious. In an overly grand home in Alpharetta, Holloway is mixing in reclaimed wood-framed mirrors to tone down the formality and bring in a rustic element.
Part of industrial chic’s appeal for many interior designers and homeowners is the chance to treasure hunt for authentic items at salvage lots, antique stores, from family members or in the commercial realm.
“People are looking for conversation pieces that have a story behind them, but not necessarily something they went out to Restoration Hardware and bought,” White said.
“You really have to dig in these gritty salvage places to find these things that are really cool and unique and useful,” White said, “but you’re going to save a lot of money and you’re going to get something no one else has.”
