Vintage Industrial Style: Great for Home Office Design

With an increasing amount of freelancers or independent one-man businesses working from home, having a home office is pretty common nowadays. But what is not common yet (but should be!) is giving your home office design a bit more thought. After all, don't you want the environment you work in daily to be inspiring? Without a company that dictates how your office space should look, you're free to go crazy and transform it into a space which is all about you.

One style which is great for a home office is vintage industrial. Industrial is traditionally all about hard work and puts the right mood across when you're gearing up for another day of good ol' hard work. The vintage aspect of it makes sure that the work side isn't too harsh, by giving a flavour of nostalgia and informality. This mix gives the best casual yet work-inspiring office décor any home worker could wish for.

Have a look at the example to the above. This work place  is both an office and a studio at the same time. This particular form of vintage style is rough: the big black metal industrial style pendants, the unfinished table top, torn fabric table lamp and typewriter texts. This design is smoothed out just a little bit by elements such as the wall and the coloured wooden chairs. You can play around with office furniture in many ways like this, alternating smooth vs. rough, bright colours vs. earthy tones, metal vs. wood, etc. Adjust the balance so it suits your personality and profession.

Another way of doing vintage is by letting wood dominate as the main material. This gives it a more gentle, but still pleasantly rugged look. The home office design above for example has kept everything simple, and therefore has a calm feel to it. The colour white is prevalent and complements the plain office furniture perfectly. Even the only real metal element in this composition – the desk lamp – blends in with the soothing light that is reflected by all the white wood. With a desk this simple and serene, it can't be hard to find concentration.

These examples are at the end of the industrial vintage spectrum. But like we said, you can play around with the rough and gentle elements until you have found the perfect combination. For example, not all furniture has to be either rough or smooth, wood or metal. This wooden desk combines oak wood and metal handles with a leather work top, which gives it more of a classic look which is neither very smooth nor very rough. It just shows how many different routes you can take within the landscape of one style.