How Joanna Gaines Tackles Industrial And English Cottage Decor Style

Mixing design styles is a good way to achieve a unique and personalized space. Combining different design styles is tricky— but when the styles are as disparate as English cottage and industrial, even the pros might be daunted. This is the exact challenge Joanna Gaines had when designing a barndominium on "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home."

While the English cottage style combines floral patterns, warm colors, and vintage items to achieve a cozy, inviting, and often feminine atmosphere, industrial style is edgy, unfinished, often masculine, and incorporates elements you might expect to see in factories. To blend these design styles, Gaines often gave traditional elements a twist. For instance, country-style barn doors got a modern, masculine edge with black paint. She covered up permanent, industrial elements like concrete floors with large, cozy rugs. Additionally, she incorporated materials like wood and leather that work for both design styles to meld them together.

If you think industrial design may be going out of style, but still want to incorporate your favorite elements into your home, there are many English cottage design ideas that radiate charm and are currently on trend. You just have to figure out how to strike the right balance.

Anytime you're combining styles, it's a good idea to identify what it is you like about each. You may find that even design styles that seem to be polar opposites have a lot in common. For instance, if you love the mix of wood and metal in industrial design, that's great news because English cottage designs often uses those elements too, just in a different way. In the barndominium design, Joanna Gaines paired large, black, metal windows and light fixtures, with a wooden table and comfy leather couches to soften the space.

Additionally, both styles tend to embrace vintage materials, texture, and, in different ways, simplicity. In an industrial loft you might expect to see old brick and shabby metal fixtures, and the same can be said for cottages, they're just softened a bit. A brick floor can give your space a modern, industrial look but also fits in right at home in English cottage design. Finding materials that the two design styles share in common can be a great way to find common ground.

Often, when you're mixing styles, choosing styles that are related to each other makes the job easier — but you can also use cottage style to soften industrial design, and industrial elements to modernize the English cottage aesthetic. Mixing in plush rugs and textiles, like throw blankets, can take the edge off of industrial chic. Finding more muted patterns, like the similar but not quite identical rugs in Joanna Gaines' barndominum design, can bring a hint of cottage to the room without standing out like a sore thumb. 

Finding other furnishings with a cottage vibe, made out of industrial materials, like metal jugs or brass handles, can be an excellent way to cross vintage industrial design with the warmth of cottage decor. All it takes is some creativity and a keen eye for what fits in both worlds. Learn how to mix metals in your home decor to hit just the right note in your blend of cottage and industrial style.