Do you know where the trend for loft-style interiors came from? Yes, you guessed right – from across the ocean. A loft is a large apartment in a former factory building. It’s easy to imagine huge factory halls and warehouses that, due to changes in market conditions, cease to fulfill their original function and stand abandoned. In the 1950s, this was the situation in New York’s Manhattan: many companies with their headquarters, production halls, and warehouse spaces moved to the outskirts of the city. Artists quickly became interested in these well-located buildings, setting up their studios and workshops there. Renting factory space was much cheaper than renting a traditional apartment in a tenement house, and the possibilities for its development and arrangement were incomparably greater.

Today, too – and not just across the pond – we can find apartments furnished in former factory buildings, but much more often we deal with ordinary residential premises arranged in a loft style. A classic loft, as mentioned, is a huge, high room without partition walls, in which structural materials are visible: bare concrete, roof trusses, steel, glass. And it is precisely the reference to these elements that is the essence of the loft style, in which we furnish both small apartments in blocks and premium-class apartments. Of course, it is impossible to increase the square footage of a small apartment, but it is possible to improve its utility value and visually enlarge the space, for example, by eliminating unnecessary partition walls.

The loft style is an aspiration to create an open space dominated by subdued colors (grays, blacks, beiges, whites), and the materials from which the walls, ceilings, and installations (brick, wood, metal pipes) are made are exposed, not hidden. Loft-style interior accessories are chosen very carefully. They are meant to be visible, they can even catch the eye, but they should not serve to cover the aforementioned structural elements. Therefore, we do not cover radiators, but on the windowsills above them, we can place plant pots in textured covers. Pepco recommends:

• Ceramic pot cover (ø 19 cm, height 16.5 cm; price: PLN 15)
• Basket with handles woven from hyacinth grass (ø 29 cm, height 23 cm; price: PLN 20)

If you like houseplants, it’s worth placing metal plant stands with built-in black or gold pot covers (ø 25 cm, height 55 cm; price: PLN 30) around your loft-style apartment.

We do not cover radiators, nor do we mask the floor. In a loft-style interior, there is no room for carpeted floors, as the structure of parquet, laminate, or ceramic tiles is meant to be visible. Therefore, we opt for small rugs, which we place in strategic locations: next to the bed, by the sofa in the relaxation area, or in the kitchen. Rugs, we might add, not in traditional Turkish patterns, but ethnic, graphic models, rather flat-woven than with long pile. Cotton rugs in black and white, printed graphic prints (size: 80×120 cm, price: PLN 30) will work perfectly in such a styling.

A coffee table is always useful in the relaxation area (e.g., a model with a round top, ø 35 cm, height 35.5 cm; price: PLN 35). If you plan to furnish this area with home textiles, such as blankets or cushions (perhaps those with a 100% cotton cover, dimensions 35×50 cm; price: PLN 30), it’s also worth buying a great basket for their storage (metal, with handles and natural weave along the edge, dimensions: 41.1 x 38 x 37.7 cm; price: PLN 30).

A loft-style interior can be arranged even in a very small space, provided that, for example, one of the walls is left in its raw state or part of the installations is simply visible (e.g., pipes supplying water). These elements will stimulate the imagination so much that we can easily choose small accessories that make the entire arrangement cohesive and visually attractive. Minimalism, simplicity, subdued colors, and attractive, carefully selected details – this is the quintessence of the loft style, also known as the industrial or post-industrial style.