Bathroom Workbook: 10 Elements of Industrial Style

You probably wouldn’t guess it, but turn-of-the-century rural farmhouses have a lot in common design-wise with big-city industrial buildings from the same era. Both types of structures were born out of a need for function at a minimum cost, and both have simple forms and were made from raw materials, with little attention paid to aesthetics.

This attention to simplicity, durability and function is why industrial style remains popular in bathrooms today. Since we’ve already looked at farmhouse style, here’s how you can incite an industrial revolution in your bathroom.

Raw materials in general. Simply put, industrial style takes cues from buildings of industry. Think more along the lines of old manufacturing — factories, warehouses etc. — rather than corporate offices. These buildings weren’t built with aesthetics in mind, but rather efficiency and budget. Basic materials like concrete, brick, steel and wood form the bulk of them, and they weren’t done to perfection.

“Masonry materials, sloppy mortar work, and quick and dirty bricks that are all uneven — it wasn’t deliberate. They were just going fast and being cheap,” says Jesse Hager, an architect at Content Architecture who designed the bathroom shown here, which is in a Houston building built in 1917 and converted to lofts in 1997.

Of course, the setting and surrounding architecture play a big role. “It helps if the space already has old elements to play off of, like an exposed concrete frame or a brick wall,” says Hager. A concrete sink, a metal storage unit and exposed pipework are elements that, as we will see, adhere to the formula for industrial style. 

Steel. It’s hard to have an industrial bathroom without some presence of steel. “Steel as a raw material balances and grounds these kinds of spaces,” says Cindy Bayon, design manager at Muratore Construction + Design. “You expect it to be there in that setting.”

Bayon incorporated a mild steel-covered door with rivets in the San Francisco loft bathroom shown here. Leftover steel pipes form the towel bar, toilet paper holder and counter support, while a leather strap holds a steel-framed mirror.

Concrete. Nothing says industrial quite like concrete. A poured and cast concrete counter is a great way to establish the style in an existing bathroom that lacks other raw finishes like exposed brick walls. Bayon used concrete floors and a pitted concrete counter to continue the industrial edge in this bathroom. 

Dark finishes. Shine is relatively absent in industrial spaces, unless it’s a blurred glimmer from stainless steel. Bayon recommends oil-rubbed bronze in industrial spaces. She used it for the sink and shower faucets here, which were chosen because they look like old industrial wheel turns. 

More Elements of Industrial Style

Bathroom Workbook: 10 Elements of Industrial Style