Karen McCartney on how to add a luxe feel to traditional industrial style.

As time passes there is a tendency for traditional interior styles to merge and morph into something new. Think of those we have already embraced such as ‘Shabby Chic’ and ‘Modern Country’, and then prepare yourself for ‘Luxe Loft’.

In each instance the combination is about balance and counter-balance. Country style sharpens up and becomes less rustic by the addition of ‘modern’, and in turn shabby becomes, well, less shabby with the addition of ‘chic’. Loft with its connotations of heavy industrial furniture and rough-hewn reclaimed wood fixtures takes on a certain rock star glamour with the addition of ‘luxe’.

Warehouse spaces, which now fetch phenomenal prices, gained popularity in the seventies and eighties (because they were cheap and mostly in undesirable areas) when artists appropriated the trappings of their surroundings and became inventive about how and what they used. A working bench became a table, timber pallets a bed base and battered industrial lights were tamed for domestic use.

The look has become sanitised and refined over the years but the appeal of the raw and hardworking remains and often these original pieces fetch high prices at auction.

Even in a smart interior the addition of an industrial piece acts as a foil to the new, imbuing it with greater character and adding interest to any room. The reason, you see, is that these items have lived an honest life, been functional and useful and the marks of their toil bring an authenticity that is hard to replicate in the freshly minted.

Nowadays we pair a metal articulated light with artfully ruffled linen sheets, or an old office cabinet with contemporary art, or peeling paint with precision production pieces – and it always works. The most effective colour palette is monochromatic; stone, gray, black and muddy tones of blue, but within that remit almost anything goes.

Working with leather, heavy linen, thick pile or casually strewn sheepskin rugs (preferably Icelandic) and clusters of open-frame lights adds the design touches that put the luxe into loft.