The $10 billion interior design industry is poised on the cusp of a new era that will require a winning combination of vision and resourcefulness. Not only will designers have to meet the increasing demands for their services but also have to strategically divide time and attention between clients from all strata of society.
What that means is designers have to be diverse and eclectic, creating designs that will match client needs and budgets as well. The latter is an important consideration for millennials are a smarter and more cautious bunch compared to their predecessors. Economic instability that has marked their early years has left a deep impact and has created new demands for creative ideas that deliver without costing too much.
Emerging from this demand is the "street style" décor, the new answer to brilliant interiors.
While the term is making rounds in interior design circles, street style is still a relatively new concept in the industry. The faint familiarity that one may feel with it is probably due to its popularity in the fashion world.
Avant garde designers have converted street style into an intriguing concept that has the industry raving about it. This is not style that has been concocted in a sterile studio but conceived right from the grassroots and inspired by the everyday events and landmarks.
Street style combines the uber-urban phenomenon with the joie de vivre of the youth to present vibrant eye-popping designs. Now this very phenomenon has infiltrated the world of interiors to create a vibrant culture for new age designers and clients.
One of the most pervasive features of street style is inviting street art into the home. This unique art form has sometimes been termed banal at best and vandalistic at worst. If we can look beyond these, there is a world of new art forms that can transform a simple blank interior wall into an edgy and invigorating feature.
Street style murals and graffiti are an inexpensive way to redefine the interior space. They are also unique as they allow the owners to express their ideas and feelings easily without making it a costly proposition. They actually allow one to create a unique space at less than half of the cost of a regular interior project, a fact that is definitely adding to its popularity.
It goes beyond the ordinary to create interiors that perfectly reflect the homeowner's taste, whether it is a big-city feel, industrial pieces or trendy highlights around the space. A positive feature of street style is the way it can blend in easily with contemporary design. This not only helps to match the style with existing furniture but also enhance the simple lines of contemporary pieces, especially in a renovation project where one might want to use what is already around.
Some of the dominant features of this style include exposed brick walls or metallic pipes or ducts, metal on walls and doors, copper lightning or old station clocks, all of which can bring in a modern, industrial feel along with hint of vintage. Those who do not want too bold a design can opt for simple choices like a small side lamp or accent chairs with street spirit, or a smaller feature wall laden with graffiti instead of the whole room.
Whether it is used on the feature wall or on a larger one, graffiti looks stunning and incredibly modern, which matches well with simple furniture designs. Despite street style's vibrancy, there is an underlying minimalism to the style since it demands a balance from the overall room, a feature that matches with the millennial mindset well.
With the New York warehouse trend and modern industrial lofts still dominating the interior design industry, the unique and vivacious street style has come in at the right time to take that to the next level. Renovation projects have found a particular liking for it where designers and homeowners are often looking for a style that will keep the original vibe intact.
There is increasing demand for street style décor for bedrooms, which are often more personalized. Interestingly, there is also strong demand for kids' bedrooms, where interactive projects can involve the young hands and create a dynamic style with their own signatures attached to the walls.
This catchy and edgy style has nicely infused modern life into both traditional and new interiors, and we may see more of it showcased in the coming years.
