Are you struggling to bring your ultimate home design idea to fruition, despite having it clear in your mind?

The best way to figure out what you want to do when it comes to designing your home is to look at pictures of other spaces to see if it fits your fantasy. This is especially true if you are considering a mid-century modern industrial design, as the industrial style can be very bold and overwhelming when paired with a mid-century modern style.

The key is to find the perfect balance between the industrial and mid-century modern styles.

When people imagine an industrial space, they will probably think of harsh metals, unfinished and untreated wood, and red brick walls. Contrastingly, when people think of midcentury modern design, they probably think of plastics, geometric shapes, and shiny porcelain.

So, how is it viable to combine these two styles to create a beautiful, warm, gorgeous interior space?

Take a look at our tips below to achieve your dream mid-century modern industrial home by seamlessly combining industrial and midcentury design.

About Industrial Design

Industrial design has the appearance of a warehouse. It uses vintage pieces with clean lines, no clutter, neutral colors, and minimalism to create a timeless look. The key to industrial design is to create a practical, functional space using vintage finds and simple architecture.

About Mid-Century Modern Design

Midcentury modern design uses minimalistic elements to create a comfortable and cozy space. This style is clean-lined and characterized by geometric patterns and neutral colors like white, beige, tan, and grey.

Good design will make use of warm woods, metals, and plastic, as well as mid-century furniture pieces that are practical, sleek, and comfortable.

How To Achieve Mid-Century Modern Industrial Design In Your Home

Minimalism

Both industrial design and mid-century modern design make use of minimalism to create the desired aesthetic.

Minimalism is about leaving spaces uncluttered by selecting decor items and furnishing that are practical and functional.

The mid-century modern industrial look is all about creating a space with a stripped-back appearance – there are no unnecessary elements in the room.

The first step to creating this look is to declutter a space – remove anything that is not essential. Leave the walls and floors exposed, and allow the furniture to become the focal point in the room.

Monochrome and neutral colors

Mid-century modern industrial design is all about neutral, monochrome colors. White, beige, black, grey, and tan tends to dominate. These colors can be incorporated into furniture, walls, curtains, cabinets, and artwork.

Earthy tones from wood and bricks are also very popular in this design. Wood flooring with exposed brick walls is a great place to start, as the cool brick and warm wood perfectly complement each other.

Use other colors sparingly

Despite neutral colors being key in the mid-century modern industrial look, it does not mean you must avoid brighter colors completely.

You can make use of metallic colors, like bronze, pewter, and gold, as well as soft colors like teal and blush pink, to liven up your space.

Finding a color scheme that works for you will also depend on the type of flooring you have, the color of your walls, the natural light in your home, as well as your personal preference.

Plants are a great addition to the midcentury modern industrial look, as the splashes of green and beautiful flowers will add natural colors to your home.

Be practical

Midcentury pieces are all about function and practicality. The same goes for industrial furniture.

When you are deciding on how to furnish and decorate your home, you need to keep practicality in mind.

Furniture must be uncomplicated, using clean lines, simplistic design, and simple forms. This does not mean the furniture must be uncomfortable – midcentury furniture is all about comfort and being cozy.

Leave things unfinished

The modern industrial design makes use of exposed bricks and pipework that attract many to the design style.

When combining the industrial style with the midcentury modern style, you can intentionally leave certain elements unfinished, like not plastering over bricks, leaving wood untreated, or exposing your ducts and pipes.

The colors of the raw elements can form part of the entire design aesthetic. These elements can then be complemented by wood and metal furniture to complete your midcentury modern industrial look.

Factory furnishings

What is called “factory furniture” is very popular in industrial interior design. This type of furnishing looks like it would typically be used in a factory or warehouse. The materials used are durable and practical.

These furnishings combine well with the mid-century modern style, as it has clean lines and is minimalistic.

Clean lines

Both industrial and midcentury furniture make use of clean lines. These lines are unbroken and can be geometric or singular. The lines extend to decor and artwork, and graphic design can be used to create geometric patterns and textures in prints and fabrics.

Embrace negative space

Midcentury modern industrial designers love negative space. Negative space – i.e., space without any clutter – becomes part of the design of the room.

Use natural materials

A mid-century modern industrial space will combine natural materials like metal and wood.

Wood

Wood can be incorporated into your home as flooring, ceilings, exposed beams, wood panels, doors, window frames, and furniture items.

Any type of wood would do – whether light wood flooring or a dark wooden beam over the mantelpiece.

These wooden elements can then be combined with futuristic metal designs to complete the look.

Metal

Metal fixtures and furnishings are key to getting the industrial look. Exposed pipe- and ductwork is one way to incorporate metals into your space, but you can take it even further and use metal in your furniture – like a steel table or brass drink cart. Metal stools by a wooden bar or a copper sculpture will go a long way in giving you the design aesthetic you crave.

You can use a metal spray to update your existing pieces with a metal finish if you do not have any metal pieces.

Create a focal point

Midcentury design often revolves around a focal point or statement piece in the home. Whether this is a piece of mid-century modern art or an item of furniture like a coffee table or dining room table is entirely up to your personal preference.

A statement piece aims not to clutter the room but rather to complement the architecture and existing features in the room, drawing your eye and guiding it across the space.

Practical but comfortable

Mid-century modern industrial design is all about functionality, but that does not mean you have to sacrifice comfort.

The furniture items should have elegant lines while still being incredibly cozy and comfortable to use. The materials used must be durable enough to last for many years while still giving you a sense of comfort and style.

Play with light

Lighting fixtures are key to achieving your desired look. Artificial lighting is the next best thing if a room does not have a lot of natural light.

Lights can be used to create shadows and textures, highlighting focal points while casting darkness in other areas.

Don’t be afraid to play with light. Combine modern chandeliers with industrial furniture, use lights to introduce metallic colors, or play around with softer lighting by using wall sconces that shine upwards or highlight the unevenness of exposed bricks.

Incorporate different lights into the same space – a table lamp and standing lamp used within one room will make the room look more spacious by adding layers and depth.

Make it personal

When people think of modern industrial homes, they may think of a cold space without any character or personality.

To avoid this, you can bring in warmth by adding personal touches and a bit of life.

Life does not have to be actual living things (although plants go a long way in making a space feel homier), but rather showing that a person lives in the space. Signs of wear on carpets, personal mementos, photographs, and sketches go a long way in making a space feel more like home.

You do not have to go over the top. Start small, like adding your favorite books to a bookshelf, a photograph here and there, or display small souvenirs from your travels.

If you want to transform your home into a modern industrial midcentury home, then any of the tips above would be a good starting point.

The very first thing you need to do is get rid of any unnecessary items and slowly start transforming your home through vintage pieces, earthy tones, natural materials, and clean lines. There are plenty of ideas online which you can get inspiration from.

The mid-century modern industrial look is affordable to achieve, easy to maintain, and will impress all the guests in your lovely home.

Earlier this month we featured a tutorial explaining a Lightroom technique for editing b&w photos to achieve maximum impact. The quick tutorial below takes a similar approach for all of you Photoshop users.

Instructor Brendan Williams specializes in straightforward image-editing tutorials designed to help others simplify and master daunting Photoshop techniques. It you’re tired of flat and boring monochrome photos, this seven-minute episode will quickly set you straight.

Eye-catching contrast and effective tonal separation are the hallmarks of dramatic b&w images, and flat is definitely not where it’s at. The most basic approach is simply going to Photoshop’s Adjustments panel, employing a b&w adjustment layer to strip color out of an image, and then using sliders to modify the Luminance values of individual color channels to add or subtract contrast.

But the easiet methods rarely deliver the goods and Williams explains the problem like this: “What you get is a very basic and uninteresting effect.” In other words, there’s a much better approach, and Williams explains how to add maximum impact and drama to b&w photos in less than seven minutes.

The first step occurs in Photoshop’s Adjustment panel where Williams makes a Gradient Map layer. Once this layer is created inside of the Properties panel, Williams then clicks on the Gradient preview, opens the Basics folder, and makes sure to select the B&W Gradient option.

Initially the effect may appear far too intense, but that’s easily rectified by following Williams’ instructions to adjust how the Gradient blends into the image. There are a few options available, and this is how they work: Choosing Perceptual will provide the most intense contrast, while Linear is a lot softer (therefore brightening up the effect). The Classic mode delivers results that fall somewhere in between

Once you make your choice and evaluate the image you can still use your Gradient Map to further refine the effect until it perfectly suits your fancy. With Williams’ first example, created in the Linear mode, he further accentuates Contrast by opening Photoshop’s Gradient editor and adjusting color stops to change the intensity of shadows or highlights.

Williams provides other examples, using different modifications, as the video proceeds. All this requires a bit of experimentation because every photo is a bit different as is the approach you’ll take to create the proper amount of Contrast and the specific values of highlights and shadows in the image.

There’s much more to learn by visiting Williams’ instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look. And don’t miss the Lightroom tutorial mentioned above, explaining how to use that software to create incredible b&w photographs.

Lightroom’s powerful Tone Curve can dramatically improve your photographs and it’s incredibly useful for adjusting both color and b&w images. In the quick tutorial below instructor Robin Whalley demystifies this important tool, describes what goes on under the hood, and demonstrates when and how to put it to work.

Whalley is a professional landscape photographer based in the UK who posts weekly videos on editing images for maximum effect. He kicks off the episode by saying this: “The Lightroom Tone Curve is an extremely powerful but potentially confusing feature.” His goal is to cover all of the basics to you can unlock the magic of this tool and start using it today.

You’ll find the tone Curve in a dedicated panel within Lightroom’s Develop module. Whalley explains that it exists in two similar forms, yet the differences are important to understand. The first option is known as the Parametric Tone Curve where sliders are used to adjust the image, and this is the topic of the video below.

Your other choice is the Point Tone Curves, that will be covered in later lesson. By default the Tone Curve is a straight diagonal line indicating that “the curve doesn’t have any effect on your original image.” Manipulating this line is what you’ll learn how to do today for making various adjustments to the photo at hand.

Whalley’s first example illustrates what happens when you drag the Darks slider to the right. In this case the shadow tones become lighter revealing hidden detail. You’ll notice when you do this that the Curve moves up above the diagonal position. Conversely when you move the Tone Curve in the opposite direction the image is darkened.

If you want a do-over there’s a quick way to reset the effect so that the Curve reverts to the default position. If you prefer not to use sliders, simply click on the diagonal line and drag it until you see the effect you’re after. Just remember that when you move the Curve up the image is lightened, and when you it down the reverse occurs.

In many cases you may want to do both, as represented by a Curve whereby it’s above the diagonal for the highlights and below it for the shadows. Thus bright areas become brighter and dark areas become darker.

The foregoing is just the beginning of what you’ll learn by watching this episode, and by the time the video concludes we bet you’ll use the Tone Curve frequently and add it to your Lightroom bag of tricks. All you have to do to find more videos like this is pay a quick visit to Whalley’s informative YouTube channel.

We also encourage you to watch a very important tutorial we posted recently from another post-processing expert, in which you’ll learn the best way to organize your Lightroom catalog for maximum efficiency so you never lose a photo again.