Cozy, rustic, industrial...The eclectic mixed style of Hotel Emma

There are many benefits to having a mixture of styles; it is truer to life and more compatible with it, usually we end up with loved-pieces of various styles over our lives and they get to coexist in our homes. Such a mixed style is visually more interesting and more stimulating to the senses than a mono-style set up. It also allows you to more easily introduce new furniture or replace pieces without having to worry about them perfectly matching what's already there. When you make those mixed styles also consist of items that age well and gain patina and character from daily use, you get additional benefits like ease of use, livability, and a timeless look.

The Hotel Emma in San Antonio is a great example of these ideas being put to use. They achieved a beautiful timeless look that is sophisticated yet casual, elegant but cozy and comfortable all at once.

Photos by Casual Casa

Cool place is cool

This place has cool wooden panels and shelves in the bathroom, nice tiles and a kilim rug in the kitchen, and a nicely painted door out back.

Images from Sunset but I saw them on ALifesDesign.blogspot.com

Beautifully unadorned

This is a pretty cool bath, no? Low maintenance stone, doors that open up to the outdoors, lots of natural light coming through big windows, and unbleached curtains. Not too shabby.

This is Steve McQueen and his wife Neile Adams enjoying a bath together. Isn't it cool to see celebrities in an unpolished and unpretentious space? That place would be pretty low maintenance and would last a long time, too.

Top image from Religion.tumblr.com and the bottom image is from ArtNet.com

Wooden revival

This place has a lot of great furniture simply put together by salvaged wood, old shipping crates, and pallets. They're relatively easy to put together and they really show how great raw wood looks. These things give their home a lot of character and are also easy to live with because you don't need to worry about scratching them, or hurting the finish.

Images from ApartmentTherapy.com

Simple

Nice simple (and low-maintenance) exterior with corrugated sheets and simple gravel landscaping. This is the Tin Tabernacle Tearoom and it looks like a pretty neat place to hang out.

Image from BaileysHomeAndGarden.com

Personality goes a long way

There are some details I don't like here, like that blue couch in the living room, but overall I love the combination of industrial and comfortable. The industrial elements give the place a lot of personality and also create a low maintenance place, while the place over all still feels cozy and warm.

Images from DesireToInspire.net

Character

Great bathroom with lots of character. Easy going and low maintenance features like stone walls, exposed AC pipes, concrete floors sound industrial but come together quite nicely to create a cozy bathroom.

Images from the photographer Ryann Ford's portfolio, but I saw them first on DesireToInspire.net.

Anna Kern

Photographer Anna Kern has some pictures of cool and casual interiors in her portfolio. Notice: the paint in that kitchen in the first image, the unpainted stairs in the second image, and the bare light bulbs in the third (cfl bulbs look better bare!)

Images from AnnaKern.com

Cool side of pool-side

Great yard backyard with rusted corrugated sheets for fences, low-maintenance, low-water-use plants, and permeable gravel. That wooden gate is quite nice as well. Also notice that the plaster on the house has not been painted. Very cool, green, great looking, and very easy-going set-up.

Image from DouglasSterling.com

Cushy!

Chris Cushingham of Cush Design Studio created an easy-going loft apartment for himself with a tight budget. There is quite a bit I like in there; like the exposed concrete wall behind the bed, the exposed power lines, the bare concrete floors, and some of the furniture he built himself, like that coffee table. You could build something similar with a few wooden pallets...

Images from CushDesignStudio.blogspot.com

Long live long life!

I love things that last with little or no maintenance. These shelves and the chair below fit the bill. The chair has a warm wooden seat and back and the metal frame will keep it solid for a very long time so it won't become wobbly after a couple of years.

Image from NY Times' Schoolhouse Decor slideshow

Fancy camping-like

With concrete walls, concrete floors, lots of plants, lots of access to outdoors, and an unpretentious/utilitarian set up, life in this house by architect Ken Meffan is almost like being in a fancy camp ground. I like that! Hey, there are even rocks indoors!



All images from the 'Diamond in the Rough (and Ready)' article at Dwell.com

Warm wood and durable steel

Hardware Interiors from Toronto sells great furniture, some new, some salvaged, which showcase the beauty of wood and steel very well. With minimally finished surfaces and solid structures these pieces seem like they would last a long time and look better with age.

Images from HardwareInteriors.com

Vintage industrial pieces from Cleveland Art

Cleveland Art re-purposes/recycles salvaged industrial surplus as functional furniture/art/lighting. I like renewing/reusing furniture instead of dumping them, I like the functional and no-nonsense aesthetic of industrial objects, I like things that last, and I like things with age and character, so there is quite a bit for me to enjoy at Cleveland Art's inventory.





All images from ClevelandArt.com

Bare your walls!

There are many things I like in this picture; the exposed ceiling structure, exposed power lines, the concrete floor, and especially the bare cinder block walls - very low maintenance. I know all these elements together might be a bit too industrial for some but separately these are all great features for an honest, low maintenance space.

Image from PoppyPetunia.blogspot.com

Wood & Steel

Coffee tables like the one below showcase the beauty of wood and steel and are also very easy to live with.
Image - The Brickmaster coffee table from Ruby Beets.