Steampunk style in the interior: description and photo examples

As a child, did you read the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle and discover the world of Jules Verne?
You may like the steampunk style, which is also gaining popularity thanks to the modern, but full of Victorian gadgets, films about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Steampunk is a relatively new trend, absolutely unique! On the one hand, steampunk refers to the Victorian era, the industrial revolution, on the other hand, it is associated with famous fairy-tale aesthetics from science fiction films. It is also called Victorian Science Fiction! How to create a steampunk style in the interior with your own hands, photos of room design, tips on how to choose furniture, accessories, lighting - this will be discussed in the article.

What is Steampunk style?

The name of the peculiar style arose from a combination of two English words:

1. “steam” - steam, which became a symbol of inventions of the 19th century;
2. “punk” – a tendency refers to rebellion, rebellion, breaking of normal patterns.

This is steampunk, combining Victorian elegance, surprising with punk spice, an unobvious choice of accents, straight from the dark mechanized world. The style is mysterious, a little mystical.

Steampunk, known as Victorian Science Fiction, was originally a science fiction trend stylistically dating back to the Victorian era, during the Industrial Revolution. It created a dark industrial vision of the past, inventions that never came to be. In the literature, authors often referred to the following works:

• Jules Verne;
• Herbert George Wells;
• Arthur Conan Doyle.

The trend has settled in other areas of culture - cinema, comics, fashion, computer games. It's a combination of Victorian darkness with industrial elegance, nineteenth-century machinery. Interior architects also take inspiration from this aesthetic.

The interior contains:

• a lot of old wood, full of characteristic discolorations, cracks;
• a large amount of copper;
• steel;
• glass.

Steampunk is a bit industrial, but the urban chic definitely gives way to Victorian, vintage elements.

Steampunk films.

• Wild, wild West (1999)
• City of Lost Children (1995)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
• Van Helsing (2004)
• Golden Compass (2007)
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
• Time Machine (2002)
• Walking castle (2004)
• City of Ember: Escape (2008)
• Timekeeper (2011)
• Illusionist (2006)
• Sherlock Holmes (2009)
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Color design

The interiors are romantic, kept in a relatively dark color palette.

Among the characteristic colors, the following can be particularly highlighted:

• a lot of brown;
• the colors of rotten greens;
• walnut shades;
• Red tree;
• shades of rust;
• old gold

Furniture selection

When choosing furniture, the main role is given to wood. The style prefers dark shades, so you can choose exotic breeds:

• teak;
• rosewood;
• merbau.

Leather chairs and sofas are popular - preferably quilted, with comfortable armrests. Furniture in the Chesterfield style looks great!

You can take a chance and introduce typical loft furniture:

• coffee tables on steel wheels;
• cast iron chairs;
• metal cabinets from working workshops;
• reclining chairs, like in old movie theaters.

Selection of materials – opposites attract

An original interior is created by combining durable, delicate materials:

• leather;
• delicate fabrics;
• lace;
• silk.

The next combination is a combination of Victorian patterns (for example, a floral cover of a sofa) and gilding with elements from the lofts - a tangle of pipes, glass, concrete, visible on the wall.

Connecting the past with the future

In addition to classic, elegant furniture, you should choose original models; there is no need to be afraid of experiments. You can safely design a steampunk style with your own hands, using items from your grandmother’s attic:

• the bottom of an old sewing machine turned into a table;
• old floor lamp, updated with paint;
• antique chairs.

A chair made of sheet metal and trimmed with rivets? Great! Steampunk style is a romance of the past with a bold vision of the future. Interiors should look as if they were designed by 19th century visionaries thinking about how the world would change over the centuries.

Steampunk in the interior and Victorian furniture

The abundance of leather in furniture upholstery will help to play up the aesthetics of the steam era. A leather Chesterfield sofa and a pair of discreet classic armchairs are the perfect company for steampunk.

Old sewing tables with simple Gothic forged elements in the finish can be used instead of a console table in the living room or bedroom. This is also an excellent solution instead of a TV stand, provided that it is hung from the wall.

Idea! A plasma screen or computer monitor can be framed in gold or copper, and a wall heater or climate control panel can be styled to resemble the shiny control unit of an old deep-sea submarine.

As a coffee or coffee table, you can use a massive retro chest or a suitcase with an abundance of metal locks and rivets. Filmmakers used approximately the same ones during the filming of the series of films about the world of Harry Potter by JK Rowling.

Idea! Several thin curved pipes can serve as an unusual bookshelf. Don't worry if they are old and worn, these are the copies that will look most advantageous as the basis for plump tomes with gilded, worn-out spines.

Fashionable mechanisms

This style rejects intrusive electronics, but loves everything related to mechanics.

Gears

Gears must definitely appear in these provocative interiors - the older the better! It’s worth going to a flea market, looking for gears from antique dealers, in old workshops. You can find a designer who can make decorative gears.

Candlesticks, lamps, stylish decor

Interesting additions - a candlestick, a mirror frame, a lamp. The following items are welcome:

• bolts;
• pistons;
• teeth;
• various machine parts.

Why we don't like steampunk. Or “I can’t hold back steam in cauldrons”

Like any phenomenon, steampunk has two sides - its light side and its “shadow” side. Jung's “Shadow” of steampunk (which has absorbed all its sinister aspects, where would we be without them?) is biomechanics.

The fact is that the invention of a smarter machine, if it made the life of the poor and the proletariat easier, then only slightly. Yes, labor itself has become more qualified, which means that the future worker has begun to be prepared for work. And it takes much longer to cook. This means that childhood, due to the “wonderful school years,” even for the poorest children, was extended.

Yes, children of poverty stopped entering the factory at the age of 6-7 years, but they came there at 14, just after finishing the seven-year school... And this continued, by the way, for almost the entire 20th century.

Yes, and more. Steam could also kill, escaping in a frenzied stream from a leaky mechanism that should have long been sent for repairs or even to a landfill. It is clear that it was not the couple who were to blame for this, but the capitalist grabbers, who were cutting costs by not updating the fleet of machines and, therefore, at the expense of the safety of their workers in production.

But the main complaint about the era of the steam engine was different. And it was precisely this that was recorded by the crazy art of biomechanics.

When I meet, a current pierces me -

The whistle man comes in from the left

Life (thanks to machines) began to move faster, it began to run, and man, in order to keep up with its run, was forced to amputate everything human in himself (synonym - slow and varied), and become a half-dead hybrid - a man-machine.

*** The storyteller Andersen illustrated this process, which was going on by leaps and bounds just in his time - by inventing his mechanical nightingale, which is now preferred to the living, gray one from the forest...

Once upon a time, man himself was a kind of “nightingale from the grove.” But the time came and he was forced to become a “mechanical nightingale” so that he could make money at all. This is why we don't like steampunk.

Although, we need to not love first of all – ourselves. It is not God, not the king and not the hero who are to blame for the fact that we live badly. But it is common for humanity to find a “scapegoat” and blame all its infamy on him alone.

Thus, our steampunk, with its bright, recognizable style, is a kind of... magical Tar-Palantir, in which everyone sees what they want and can see at the moment. Some see the glow of a fire. Others see ravens circling over the high peaks of Thangorodrim. And some see amazing and kind things. Let us now take a look at what different artists of our time see in steampunk. How are they feeling? What are they trying to tell us? For what?

Accents with soul

In addition to “mechanized” jewelry, it is worth choosing antique, antique objects with soul:

• paintings, pictures;
• watch;
• globes;
• microscopes;
• telescopes;
• astrolabe;
• old maps;
• old photos;
• leather suitcases;
• chests.

Often it is the additions that create a unique atmosphere. It combines the richness of the Victorian style with elements related to the development of science and technology. You need to take the time to find trinkets from the 19th century (original or stylized).

Stylish wall decorations:

• yellowed black and white photographs;
• old maps;
• herbariums with a frame, sketches of biology lessons.

Unusual additions:

• old watches, their mechanisms;
• barometers;
• telescopes;
• old typewriters.

A steampunk room should look a little like the films about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes! Airships will perfectly decorate the interior:

• layouts;
• plans;
• miniatures.

Steampunk is not only a sophisticated retro aesthetic in modern interiors, but also a meeting of old mechanics with modern technology. Contrary to appearance, this combination works in any interior - in men's and women's bedrooms, so it is enough to distribute the additives correctly.

Steampunk is an excellent offer for lovers of history, romance, and eclecticism.

Steampunk in the interior: conceptual features

• Stylized household appliances, furnishings and decorative items; Natural materials in finishing and design.
• Original decor. Old maps and globes, typewriters, compasses, grandfather clocks with a pendulum, and other antique paraphernalia.
• Designers take ideas for creating creative decor from steampunk and science fiction literature dedicated to time travel and alternative reality.
• The presence of elements of steam mechanisms in the decorative design - these can be real interior details or images on wallpaper, posters and paintings.
• Original lighting fixtures. Modern lamps and chandeliers are not suitable for decorating a steampunk interior; they are replaced with unusual sconces, lamps and floor lamps, which can be styled independently or to order.

Red, rusty, black walls

What wallpaper is suitable for steampunk? The best wallpapers have rich embellishments.

You can look for interesting steampunk wallpapers with characteristic decor:

• airships, hot air balloons;
• images of watches, gears, various mechanisms;
• futuristic drawings;
• imitating ancient maps;
• imitating concrete, brick;
• imitation of metal, rust.

The basis of the design is a combination of contrasts in the choice of colors and materials. A characteristic, effective combination is a duet of black with red and metal (steel, copper). It can be achieved by matching black leather sofas or Chesterfield chair with rusty red or copper color on the accessories, wall. In the latter case, you can achieve a distinctive effect by decorating the wall, architectural element - baseboards, fireplace with copper, rust.

There are many original solutions to choose from:

• wallpaper;
• photo wallpaper;
• special decorative paints.

A metallic wall in a dark shade or jewel tone is a popular decor trend that can be achieved using acrylic paints with metallic pigments. Victorian style is great for original wall decoration with a velvet effect. You can choose an industrial style:

• concrete;
• brick;
• rust effect paint.

It is advisable to balance an attractive wall decoration with white and dark colors:

• brown;
• sepia;
• creamy;
• dark blue;
• dark green.

It's worth choosing one strong accent color and filling it with a palette of neutral colors.

Colors and materials

In real designer steampunk you will never see plastic or synthetics. These materials are associated with cheapness and practicality, which style does not recognize. The emphasis is on various types of wood, metal, glass, stone and brick. The main material always remains wood, since almost the entire Victorian half of the room is decorated using it. If there is no possibility at all, then some resort to materials that imitate natural ones. But such a “forgery” must be of high quality in order to match the atmosphere.

Among the fabrics, preference is given to silk, satin, chiffon, leather and linen. Brown is always present in the color picture. It usually occupies more than half of the room in different shades. Using halftones of gray and black, the effect of smoke in the room is achieved and a feeling of floating steam is created. Decorative elements must include brass and bronze.

Steampunk allows for bright shades: turquoise, deep blue, wine red, dark green. These tones only highlight individual details against a general brown background, but in no case draw attention entirely to themselves.

Original laboratory

Spectacular steampunk loves “laboratory” elements. You can safely invite the following items into the interior:

• characteristic tubular screens;
• steel tables mounted on wheels;
• glazed medical cabinets.

Interesting fact! A popular restaurant decorated in this style used chairs reminiscent of a dentist's patient's chair to add some flair!

The following decorations will help emphasize the laboratory aesthetics:

• glass elements in the form of test tubes;
• flasks;
• droppers;
• jars.

An interesting decoration is black and white engravings of fauna and flora, reminiscent of illustrations from 19th century encyclopedias.

Living room

Steampunk style is great for decorating living rooms. Massive stylish furniture with leather or textile upholstery will look great here. Modernity has no place here, so the ideal option would be to purchase stylized models of a TV or laptop, although they are not very cheap. Or decorate them with special frames made of copper pipes around the perimeter.

In the living rooms, fireplaces designed in the form of a steam boiler look great. When designing a living room design, you need to decide on a theme; it can be industrial, aeronautical or shipbuilding. If you take a little bit of everything, the atmosphere will be too congested and difficult to perceive. A spacious living room can be zoned using decorative arches, metal supports, openings and spans.

Lighting

This style loves lamps! Ideally, these are steampunk lamps, built from bare, vintage-style designer light bulbs. You can use table lamps decorated with:

• gears;
• screws;
• caterpillars;
• other items from the machine shop.

A great idea is oil lamps, which act as a capricious addition to classic lighting - instead of ordinary candles and recently fashionable lanterns.

Original finishing elements

When arranging your interior, it is important to use every industrial detail you can find. Original technical elements – favorite decoration:

• damp, brick, concrete walls;
• steel beams, columns;
• technical boxes;
• antique stoves;
• pipe fragments;
• cables.

The more colorful accents, the more authentic the design looks.

Punk style elements

There are more "punk" elements than "steam" elements here. Furniture and accessories “with pepper” will allow you to add more punk:

• furniture decorated with stilettos and spikes;
• wall cladding with rivets;
• staircases finished with corrugated metal.

Such elements are closer to the modern trend, which in this interior should naturally intertwine with the elegant, rather dark Victorian design.