Loft Interior Design
Loft living has grown more and more popular in big cities and even smaller ones. Given the open space, loft interior design is a niche all its own.
Loft Interior Design
The loft became popular in New York City, when mostly down and out artists began living in converted warehouses in more commercial areas of town. The main advantage of the loft at this time was the inexpensive rent. A secondary attraction was the excellent lighting. Large windows and skylights supplied the lighting. The excellent light and wide-open space made the loft ideal for the artists that were there first inhabitants.
The idea of loft living caught on so well that it eventually became a planned mode of living. Rather than converting old commercial building, new buildings were built from the ground up to resemble an old warehouse. Inside, the loft apartments were carefully designed and fitted with the most modern amenities. The prices were no longer low enough to suit starving artists.
There are four features that most designers agree are essential to a loft. These are high ceilings, open spaces, exposed building materials, and big windows. Some designers go to extremes to create a retro-look to the loft building. This includes exposed pipes and even goes as far as the installation of old style freight elevators. Often there is a conflict with this desire to make a retro-design and the building codes of the jurisdiction.
There are several styles of loft apartments. Some are totally open. The only walls and doors separate the bathroom. Other designs will use partitions or walls that do not reach the ceiling completely to mark off bedrooms. Most loft designs will incorporate the most modern appliances. This is the challenge of the Interior Designer in any concept that is based on nostalgia for a past era. The challenge is to integrate the modern innovations that have made life comfortable and safe with the feel of a past time.
Loft apartments have become popular in some larger cities such as New York and Chicago. In some ways, the loft represents a pure example of the difference between interior decorating and Interior Design. The single most noticed element of the loft is space. Decorating issues such as furniture and color become secondary to the spatial arrangement of the loft. Open spaces and less non-restricted traffic flow have become more common in the interior design of many contemporary homes. The loft is merely an extreme example of this trend. The increasing population of urban areas and the resulting overcrowding and shortage of housing have made the open space of the loft less and less practical. Although the loft should continue to flourish, it will become more and more, a carefully designed upscale option.