Can we combine different styles in interior design?
To answer, we refer to the words of Frank Zappa when he said that “talking/writing music is like dancing in architecture”. After all, what really matters is whether you like it or do not like it. Then we can talk and write, justify and contextualize, even some will try to establish certain stereotyped canons, but ultimately, everything is summarized in whether we like something or do not like it.
Also, what we like today, maybe we do not like tomorrow. And in this sense, the style is a slave of the moment as a process in constant change, with additions, variations and new proposals at every moment. The most successful proposals are also the most reproduced and in that reproduction, sometimes imperfect, changes are introduced.
In interior design there is a lot of writing and it is well known that we do it in this blog. And we agree with Frank Zappa that beauty does not require words to be appreciated. Moreover, it is our conviction to distance ourselves from any purist positioning on styles or aesthetic proposals. In the same way, we also do not have a manifest will to mix styles, because the stylistic frontiers are diffuse and the mixture happens almost inevitably. Naming the aesthetic proposals, serves to facilitate easy communication, and precisely we love to adjective as part of our creative process, but any label must be flexible enough to admit additions, connections and mixtures that result in new proposals.
Interiorismo Modern and industrial apartment in Gracia
Although it is true that the novelty never arises from nothing, but from the mixture, from the multiplicity, from the combination of preexisting elements; The aesthetic balance of the proposal will determine its success and acceptance.
Our stylistic range, already in itself, is quite broad and eclectic. Proof of this are the different projects that we have published. But in addition, it is worth mentioning the main factor that influences the definition of each project and makes it different. They are the people who inhabit it, our customers, who with the expression of their tastes and preferences end up providing novelty based on personalization.
We have never been a study marked by an aesthetic solipsism, of a single formula that traced or adapted to each project. While it is true that we have some characteristic guidelines, and we always hope that we collaborate with clients who turn to us because they like what we do, our proposal is always personalized and unique for each case. In the process of communication that involves any project, we put ourselves in the skin and at the service of our clients to design and produce the house of their dreams. And in the dialogue and the proposal, we always manage to feel ours, of the study and of the client, as something that we have achieved together, and it would not have been like that, if we had done it alone. Each project is different because each client is different. We put our criteria to the service of the client so that the result is unbeatable.
Style and elements – Recipes and ingredients
An aesthetic style for interior design can be likened to a gastronomic recipe, while the different elements that compose it -thanks, materials, type of lines- would be its ingredients. Although it would be rare to put together two recipes in one dish, we can take and combine certain ingredients from both recipes to make a new recipe that results in a balanced dish.
Taking into account different decorative styles does not always have to be a problem, it can also be an opportunity, although some risk must be assumed. In fact, there are no rules that prevent combining different trends. However, we must ensure that the resulting space has cohesion between all the elements, the same tone that a space and elements chosen, as well as certain stylistic compatibilities that make certain styles have better conditions for exchanging elements than other .
Industrial style and contemporary style: good companions.
One of the most interesting options to combine styles would be the combination of industrial style with contemporary style . In fact, they are two very current styles with origins very close to our days that fit very well. On the one hand, the maintenance of elements typical of old factories such as iron beams, exposed brick walls, aged wood or darker colors; on the other, simple lines, light tones and pieces of design with simplicity as a premise.
Why not combine in the dining room of your home or living room, exposed brick walls, large windows of cuarterones and seen facilities, with furniture, textiles and works of art more typical of contemporary design.
A unique apartment in the center of Barcelona
Iron and wood
Between iron and wood we can find many variants and get closer to one style or another. It is not the same to combine natural pine wood with stainless steel, aged wood and black iron sheet. Between these two extremes we find a multitude of variants and combinations that can keep common reminiscences of both styles. The structure of the dining table, the stools or the railing of the stairs can be elements where these combinations make sense.
The box and the content
In the combination that we take as an example, it is recurrent to start from a constructive base, a box, more typical of the industrial style and complete it with elements more typical of the contemporary style. The concrete seen for the ceiling or the floor, with furniture of pure and delicate lines in the kitchen or the dining room.
Interior design detached house in Sant Just
Reuse of vintage materials and parts
The reuse of materials for uses not initially intended as wooden pallets, or the recovery of pieces of vintage design in modern environments is a common resource that usually gives very good results. The combination of the old and the new is a resource that reveals an eclectic style, but at the same time balanced. The introduction of pieces with history, whether in the decoration, the furniture or the structure itself, do not have to be out of tune in a set with a more contemporary look. A contemporary style bedroom can also have an industrial touch.
Interiorismo Modern and industrial apartment in Gracia
The classics of contemporary design, the best couple in the industrial style
Design icons never go out of style. It may be 50 or 60 years later that certain pieces of design continue to be seen as avant-garde. In this sense, they are a safe bet. And some of these pieces are able to confer a certain sophisticated air to the whole by themselves, because of their iconic character. The commitment to the classics of contemporary design is usually a guarantee of success. Ingredients that combine well with the rest and find a place in almost all recipes.
