Get The Look: New York Loft Style for the Dolls House

For a foray into the fashionable style of the typical New Yorker, New York loft design offers a crucial mix of industrial seating, combined with designer touches.

The essence of the New York loft style is in creating an uber-stylish living space with an urban edge. The idea is to embody the spirit of the Big Apple indoors. Lofts are usually apartments in converted factories, mixing the industrial in finishes and materials, together with the high-fashion, designer elements that New York is famous for. These fashionable touches appear in the quirky finishes and individual styling aimed at bringing the arty buzz of the streets into the home.

Walls and Floors

The industrial origins of a building are at the heart of a true New York loft. Flooring in your miniature loft should be in the form of a stone finish paper, topped off with some brightly coloured and patterned rugs. Other alternatives include parquet flooring tiles with a distressed and worn finish to show age, or a painted floor finish to resemble concrete.

Walls should also have an industrial feel, so using brick paper or brick slips to cover your internal walls is perfect for this look. If having an all brick finish isn't for you, adding sections of white painted walls can help to create a mix and match feel. Painting walls a pristine white and picking out a feature wall in a bright paint colour is also a popular finish.

Turned Acrylic Vases from Al'Turnative Proportions

Art is central to this look, as many lofts have high ceilings and lots of wall space to fill. Paintings, posters, murals and sculptures abount in a loft space and clever New Yorkers even use their walls as a convenient storage space, so bicycles, spare chairs, and CD collections can all be turned into wall art.

Lighting is also used as a continuation of the eclectic theme with metal lamps, easle lights, modern wall lights and designer chandeliers working perfectly.

Brass Easle with Light from Peter Tucker

Furniture

The furniture for this style is pared down and minimalist. Items tend to be ultra-modern in design and each is a feature piece. Designer furniture is combined with kitchen units with metallic finishes, soft furnishings in striking patterns and smaller items in glass, perspex and chrome.

Lips Sofa from SP Miniatures & Leopard Chaise from 1 Inch Minis

New York Loft Essentials

• Key Colours: Red White & Black
• Key Features: Brick, stone, metals, designer furniture

Acrylic Bathroom Fixtures from Elf Miniatures

How to customise

• Mix sand with emulsion to create a textured paint for walls and floors to mimic concrete.
• Raid the building section of your favourite miniatures supplier for drain pipes, taps and hardware to make pipes, vents and extractor fans for the ceiling of your new industrical space. Spray painting them white, black or silver with give a cohesive look.
• Make an unusual chandelier by combining an odd number of different ceiling lights. The wires of these can be threaded through a square piece of wood to form the base of the chandelier and if each light is at a different height, this looks even more realistic.
• Add a contemporary touch to wooden furniture by painting it with metallic silver paint to achieve a chrome-like end result.

Metal & Wood Shelving from Elf Miniatures

Where to find inspiration

Take a look at the designer style of a New York loft by viewing the ones available for sale or to rent. Specialist loft agents are a sound starting point or a US property website is also a good choice.

This feature was originally published in Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine. If you like making miniatures, why not buy yourself a copy of the magazine. Or better still take out a subscription so you never miss an issue. For fans of Facebook and Twitter, or to email, print or comment on the feature, please use the buttons above to share with your friends.

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