The "How To" Design - Industrial Farmhouse

There is a fun design style that is created when you master the art of mixing finishes. Anyone can match the same tone woods or the same metal finishes together, but it gets trickier when you try to mix styles by blending mix-matched finishes together.

My favorite design style right now is what I call "Industrial Farmhouse." This is accomplished when you mix reclaimed barnwood with some industrial metal accents. This look works because you are softening harsh metal with natural elements, and vamping up the old-look of wood with edgy metallic finishes. 

I just moved into my  new house, and of course.. none of my old furniture worked in my new space. Especially in my dining room, the style and size of my ding table was all wrong. This is very common to have pieces that only work for specific spaces and in specific homes. But if you move often or like to revamp your design style, this can get pretty expensive. Here's the "How To" on getting the Industrial Farmhouse look without breaking your budget.

The Industrial Farmhouse Dining Room - You can find lots of pictures like these on pinterest and other sources of inspiration. I found these on Pinterest as a source of inspiration:

Step 1: Picking your Dining Table.

Your dining table is the most natural piece of furniture to bring in the natural element for the Industrial Farmhouse style.

 a. Pick a dining table that is a solid wood (yes solid wood is more expensive, but trust me.. you will be so grateful when white-washed oak is no longer in style, and all you have to do is sand and refinish your table instead of buying a new one altogether. Plus, having a solid wood table brings in a raw beauty that can't be accomplished by laminate or veneers.)

b. Keep your lines clean and your finish rough. You want to keep the design of the table fairly simple, without heavy detailing. Let the character of the table come out through the grain and the stain of the wood.

Step 2: Picking your Dining Chair:
 With your dining table bringing in the natural element, your dining chairs need to bring in the edginess with metal. This is where it can get tricky. Although you are mixing different finishes, they still need to have the same undertones and design lines to compliment each other.

 a. If your dining table has warm undertones, you need to pick metal dining chairs that also have warm undertones. For example, if you have a red-oak wood for your table and a stain that is a Nutmeg or Chestnut, you could do Antique Bronze or Copper dining chairs. With having my dining table a white-wash oak, I wanted to keep the cooler undertones and selected a Galvanized metal dining chair.

 b. Select dining chairs that have the same design lines to compliment your table. With your table having a simple design style, you will want to select dining chairs that also have simple and clean lines. If you were to introduce more ornate dining chairs, this would detract from the simplicity and raw beauty of the farmhouse table. By keeping both the dining table and chair the same clean lines, they compliment each other and let their mixed finishes blend.

 My favorite metal chairs that have a simple yet striking design are the Tolix chairs. They come in lots of finishes and sizes. Here are a few similar chairs that I have found:

Industry West - The Marais A Chair $145

Anthropologie - The Redsmith Dining Chair $168

World Market - The Metal Jackson Tub Chair $99

Restoration Hardware - The Remy Side Chair $99- On sale right now for $79!

I ended up ordering the Remy Side Chair from Restoration Hardware because of the height (these were 37" tall where most others are about 33" tall - keep an eye on the height when ordering these to make sure you don't get miniature chairs) - and also because I wanted a brighter galvanized metal. 

On the hunt for the perfect rug and drapes to finish off the space... final install pictures coming soon!

-Andrea