As home owners and business professionals are both aware, first impressions do matter. Whether you aim to wow your customers or simply please the eyes with beautiful, on-trend designs in your home, taking note of international styles in architecture and design can pay off.
Custom designed sheds are one way to ensure that the look of your property is attractive and enticing from pillar to post. After all, it is the cohesive look of not only the house or the office building but also what surrounds it that matters aesthetically – and therefore a well-designed shed can dramatically improve the complete appearance of a property.
The industrial trend
Throughout the last decade, a modern industrial aesthetic has been celebrated in architecture and design. This industrial style is renowned for using materials such as steel, glass, aluminium, copper and iron.
"Pared back to the essentials, it showcases the beautiful interplay between pure form and function. It's unassuming, comfortable in its own skin and all the more chic for it."
– Lisa Frederick
Paying homage to machinery and the industrial revolution, this global trend draws on the sharp and crisp lines of steel edges, as well as the beautiful metallic colours of bronze, silver and gold.
A fascination with these sleek, streamlined and sophisticated materials has resulted in many homes and commercial buildings using an industrial vibe in their decor.
Indeed, both architects and interior designers have transformed living spaces into chic urban environments. From furniture designers creating steel and glass tables, to architects producing skyscrapers made of shiny, reflective glass windows, the industrial look has been a dominant global trend.
"There's a hardworking, proletarian quality about industrial style that resonates, and because it celebrates humble materials, it can be as affordable as you need it to be," said Lisa Frederick, a contributor for the Houzz e-magazine.
Frederick added: "Pared back to the essentials, it showcases the beautiful interplay between pure form and function. It's unassuming, comfortable in its own skin and all the more chic for it."
There are several ways to design your shed with the industrial trend in mind. We offer a useful Shed Boss app for customising and designing bespoke sheds, and you can keep these tips in mind while crafting your industrial masterpiece.
1. Choose an industrial exterior shape.
The facade of the shed should evoke the sleek, minimalist lines of the industrial trend, and the skillion roof is an excellent way to achieve this. As a mono-pitched roof, this slants on one angle only, in keeping with a sharp and stylish industrial appearance.
To further accentuate this trend, consider adding horizontal cladding to evoke corrugated iron. You can also think about adding a front garaport. Its tall, linear poles add to the industrialised look and also offer practical shelter for parking a car.
2. Select metallic colours.
There are a vast array of COLORBOND® steel colours to choose from, including metallic shades of silver and grey. In particular, colours such as BASALT™, SHALE GREY™, WALLABY™ and COVE™ exude an industrial vibe.
Alternatively, you may opt for rustic browns that would reflect with bronze tones in the sunlight. Options include TERRAIN® and JASPER®. Darker onyx-like black hues are also on offer to be in line with the industrial trend, such as NIGHT SKY®.
The shimmer and shine of COLORBOND® steel colours will help your shed evoke the global industrial trend. 3. Incorporate glass.
As one of the most central materials of this trend, glass is essential for evoking the industrialised look. There are multiple ways of using glass in your shed.
For instance, glass sliding doors can be installed. These offer great indoor-outdoor flow, as well as break up the horizontal cladding. Best of all, they allow more space for daylight to illuminate the metallic sheen of your shed, bringing it to life with a gentle and natural, though still entirely industrial, glow.
Moreover, skylights can be built into your shed using glass. This way, you not only adhere to the industrial trend but also get on board with a green, environmentally friendly trend sweeping the planet.
Skylights offer a chance to turn to the renewable energy of the sun for lighting, saving you money from electricity bills as well as sustainably flooding the shed with light. This is important, as the government's 2013 Sustainable Australia Report noted we release more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than any other developed country.
4. Juxtapose industrial with natural.
The Interactive Design Institute from the UK noted recently that a 2015 spin on the industrial trend is to contrast it with some natural, organic elements. The idea is to bring the outdoors inside, placing green plants throughout offices, and installing leafy foliage feature-walls inside homes by placing shrubs and plants on shelves.
A great way to apply this new direction of the industrial trend is to use beautiful green colours for your shed. From dark, rich green to more subtle khaki and mint, a spectrum of green shades is on offer including COTTAGE GREEN® and PALE EUCALYPT®.
You can also play with decorating the interior of the shed with potted plants, especially by placing them under skylights or near the glass sliding doors so they have access to sunshine. The presence of green both inside and from the outside garden can brighten the mood.
Recently, design gurus have also been hanging plants from the ceiling in funky upside-down planters or by placing pots inside macrame planters. A good place to hang these would be along the front garaport.
Ultimately, your shed is your blank canvas. You can sketch plans and design it with your own original take on industrialism!
Embrace the chic minimalism of the global industrial trend for your custom designed shed. 