If the COVID pandemic taught us one thing — and it certainly wasn’t the dire need to reform the healthcare system or the importance of policies that contribute to a social safety net — it was that most people can and should work from home. Working remotely tends to make people more productive and allows them to improve their work-life balance to a remarkable degree. Recognizing this, many employers happily allow their workforce more flexibility to work remotely, which means more and more people are in need of dedicated home office spaces where they can feel comfortable and industrious.
Speaking of industry, if you are interested in creating your own home office in the industrial style, you might want to use any of the following design ideas as inspiration.
Repurposed Desk
The industrial aesthetic often employs industrial materials in unconventional ways. For example, pipes might be used as supports for shelving, or scraps of wood can form end tables or stools. If you can fashion a desk out of repurposed materials — especially if those materials appear aged or worn in some way — you can enhance the industrial style of your home office space.
Metal is a good material for a desk in an industrial home office because it is lightweight, durable and relatively inexpensive. You might be able to find vintage metal desks that suit your needs; they often resemble lockers or filing cabinets, which means they will offer plenty of storage for your home office supplies. You could also make your own desk from table legs screwed into large pieces of repurposed wood.
Leather Chairs
The industrial color palette is a rather simple one, filled with neutral and natural tones like black, brick red, caramel and tobacco brown. Thus, when you are looking for a desk chair to use in your home office, you should prefer a seat of leather. Leather comes in a variety of shades, including unnatural hues that are achieved with dyes and paints. You should choose a desk chair that is a more natural leather color, like saddle tan, hazelnut, chestnut or walnut. You should be able to find some good options from your local thrift and vintage furniture stores, but if you are intent on selecting a desk chair that is ergonomically supportive, you might look for options from Steelcase.
Metal Cabinets
Even if you do most of your work from a laptop, your home office benefits from an abundance of storage. You should have at least a few cabinets in your office space, where you can store office supplies or house the tech controls for the rest of the house, like the Wi-Fi router, smart home hub and more. You can also use the storage in your home office for non-office related items, as home storage is simply a useful thing to have an abundance of, regardless of which room it’s in.
Most real industrial spaces use metal cabinets for storage because metal is exceedingly durable and requires minimal maintenance. You should look for locker-style cabinets, which you can paint black to suit your industrial color palette. You might also consider repurposing storage solutions for the garage or tool shop, which will have the right industrial look and feel.
Caged Ceiling Fan
Design is in the details, so you need to pay attention to every element of your home office decor if you want to succeed in achieving an industrial look. Lighting is of particular importance, especially in the industrial aesthetic, and you should invest in fixtures that perfectly blend utility and style. Often, industrial lights involve exposed bulbs, so you may opt for Edison bulbs or other light bulbs that are not as glaringly bright without any kind of cover or shade.
In addition to light fixtures, you should consider adding a ceiling fan to your office space. Ceiling fans maintain temperatures with greater efficiency than your HVAC system, and because you will be spending hours every day in your home office, you need the air to feel fresh and comfortable. You can achieve a more industrial aesthetic with a caged ceiling fan, which also feels a bit more vintage than typical fan models.
If you expect to be working from home for any amount of time, you deserve a home office you love. Industrial design is easy to achieve when you focus on the right materials and colors, so you should have a gorgeous and functional industrial home office in no time.