Industrial Cottage Style

Industrial cottage style combines the metals, vintage signs and other things of industrial style with the softness and texture of cottage style.

For about the past six months, I’ve been moving my decorating into a more industrial style, but a hybrid industrial style with lots of cottage elements.

On our living room mantel shelves seen above, I’ve added a vintage metal fan and toolbox as well as a set of Restoration Hardware-like old books with original paper labels – all thrift store finds.

I’m calling this look Industrial Cottage Style.

Granted, there’s a fine line between this style and the Rustic Modern Farmhouse style I’ve also seen, but I want to emphasize the sink-in softness which to me is a hallmark of cottage style (i.e., no wood benches for dining – they may look good, but no one except kids is comfortable on them for long…).

I’m also editing out most of the florals and looking to make cleaner spaces (much easier now that we got rid of so much at our big sale this last summer).

To help you see what exactly I’m talking about, I made a graphic that shows how easy it is to combine the two styles, Industrial and Cottage, into one.

Industrial Cottage Style

Here are some inspiration photos from Pinterest board that show this softer side of industrial:

Pin sources, clockwise from top left: living room, kitchen nook, kitchen, bedroom

Notice in the photos above that there are still cozy sitting areas (except the kitchen), color, and classic furnishings as well as industrial elements like metal, barn lights, signs, and worn woods.

Pin sources, clockwise from top: window vignette, trunk coffee table, entry table

This set of inspiration pictures shows how adding baskets, throws and pillows softens the industrial look – and that flowers are welcome still.

I have a little collection of cream and green enamelware, so I was drawn to the use of that on the crate-coffee table as well as how that table works combined with the vintage channel-back chair.

With this style direction in mind, I’ve started looking for rusty metal items on my thrift store trips in addition to the other things I’m always on the lookout for.

A month or so ago, I came upon this rusty gem:

This tool box was a little more encrusted than this, but it was only $6.99 and has this cool overlapping closing top. I thought I had struck the jackpot – I loved it.

Even with all the smells left from some tool-type grease stains. Brian helped me wash it out and we let it sit out in the sun to let some solar magic do its work – and it did, there’s no smell left at all.

I added it to a bookshelf in our living room and ended up redoing the whole bookshelf around it, eliminating a lot of things and adding some baskets for warmth and texture. It’s one of my favorite things lately.

Decor changes are slow for me, because I like to look for interesting vintage items and do things myself,  but my head is spinning with all the things I’d like to do!

Are you making decorating upgrades or changes?