Cast Iron Stair Treads

Industrial floor lamps, bar stools, desks and other industrial-style furnishings have experienced a resurgence in popularity with the rise of interest in minimalist design.

It's a look that celebrates the past even as it suggests vigor, productivity and brawn. The newly chic industrial style of decor repurposes the simple, sturdy furniture of an earlier world of commerce — brushed-metal storage cabinets and display shelves, task lamps and pendant lights with enameled shades, work tables with worn wooden tops and cast-iron bases — and couples them with aesthetic touches emblematic of energy and optimism, from bright upholstery fabrics to flowers.

The rise in prominence of the industrial style has come hand-in-hand with the residential repurposing of former manufacturing and warehouse districts throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. In many loft apartments created in shuttered factories, the architectural envelope has been left intact.

Industrial-style interiors feature elements like raw brick walls, exposed steel beams and oak floors whose history is written in every pit and gouge. Iron and glass transom windows give definition and interest to small kitchen areas anchored by kitchen islands made of marble, steel and brass, while taxidermy or vintage neon signs serve as wall art in living rooms dotted with leather club chairs. Patina is the keynote to a decor in sync with such surroundings. 

On 1stDibs you will find industrial furniture designs that wear their age beautifully — and were built to last.

Carefully chosen antique, new and vintage flooring, while not usually considered a focal point, can play a huge role in designing how a space should look and feel.

Archaeologists have identified glazed brick tiles and polished stones on historic floors and other surfaces around the world. Some of the earliest known glazed bricks date to a 12th-century B.C. facade in Susa, in today’s Iran.

Whether you choose wide planks to contrast with your modern appliances in your farmhouse-style space or understated oak for a clean contemporary look, humble wood can play a starring role when it comes to flooring. Alternately, vintage tiles can be the “it” factor in your kitchen, bathroom, patio or bedroom. Gapless mosaics forming tessellations or complicated geometric patterns can provide a bold statement, and one doesn’t have to be polymath designer Gio Ponti, for example, to create dramatic floors with these tiles. (Ponti ​​was arguably the most important figure in 20th-century Italian architecture and design, and diagonally patterned floors, meant to make rooms more dynamic, were a signature of his.)

Modern 21st-century flooring and new and made-to-order flooring come in many styles. However, choosing antique or vintage flooring or a unique pattern from innovative designers like Aimee Wilder can add an extra layer of charm and sophistication to an interior or other space.

On 1stDibs, find flooring to match a range of styles and tastes.