The Industrial Look: Classics Never Go Out of Style
Fads may come and go, but classic designs live on forever. Products on your kitchen shelf like the chrome ziggurat Waring blender and the heavy-duty KitchenAid mixer are as appealing today as they were over 50 years ago. The same can be said for Formaspace’s line of high-performance industrial office furniture, tables, and workbenches – kitted out with high-quality maple butcher block counter tops. These heavy-duty, hand-assembled tables, desks, and workbenches – originally designed for manufacturing facilities and laboratory research centers – bring a true authentic industrial look to offices and residences alike.
The Industrial Designs Help Establish a Sense of Place and Identity in the Office, Retail Environment, or in the Home
Formaspace Design Consultants also report that our customers are increasingly seeking authenticity in today’s built environments.
People are attracted to durable, handmade products that harken back to the early industrial age – when people worked with their hands to build honest, strong (even over-engineered) designs crafted out of heavy-duty steel and natural wood.
Furniture with this industrial look helps establish a sense of place and identity, whether at the office, in a retail environment, or in the home.
In California, you can find 600 of our Industrial Sit-to-Stand Parson’s desk at a large office. This year 91% of their employees said their facilities “contribute to a good working environment” and 95% said the office has a “great atmosphere.”
These aesthetic choices are reflected in the popularity of industrial work furniture that you can find in urban settings all across the world – from trendy start-up offices in Berlin and San Francisco, to artisanal bakeries and wine bars in London and Los Angeles, to mid-century modern revival studios in Brooklyn and Palm Springs.
Form Follows Function: The Rise and Rise of the Industrial Look in Interior Design
Over the years, the industrial look for office furniture has become more and more popular. What may have started out as an aesthetic design sensibility – stemming from converting old stock warehouse spaces into modern offices – has grown to be a significant design movement which can be found in places ranging from tech startups and live/work loft spaces to new construction buildings like offices, coffee shops or even residential installations.
Why are industrial designs so popular?
One big reason: industrial office furniture is adaptive and cross-functional.
Customers like the fact that our industrial style of workstations can be converted and used in different settings. For example, you can easily use the same bench as a repair station or an office desk at work. At home, the same bench design can be used as a workstation or a kitchen island.
Reclaimed Materials Give the Industrial Look a Timeless Appeal
Another trend that ties in with the industrial look is the movement toward green construction and up-cycling – which takes recycled materials like wood or other construction materials and turns them into new, useful products.
Quite often Formaspace customers come to us with antique wood or other recycled materials they would like to incorporate into their furniture. The result is unique, one-of-a-kind designs that not only look good – they’re good for the environment as well.
The result is a 100% recyclable product that can qualify for LEED energy efficiency building credits because the steel material is sourced locally and can be recycled again into new products – along with the countertops.
Hand Made Construction Makes Our Industrial Office Furniture More Authentic
Another important aspect of choosing industrial styled furniture from Formaspace is that it’s handmade to order at our factory here in Austin, Texas.
It’s like the difference between buying something that’s meant to be thrown away and investing in something that will last a lifetime.
This provides a visceral connection back to a time when all products were made with an authentic process, built to last for generations – not just a couple of years.
Customers who purchase industrial multi-functional furniture from Formaspace also value the fact that the furniture, made by hand in our Austin facility, uses raw materials, like steel and maple, produced right here in the USA.
Strength in Numbers: Formaspace Loading Capacity (1000+ LBS) and Guarantee (12 Years)
If you’re going to invest in the industrial office furniture for your project, be sure to get the genuine article.
First and foremost, Formaspace furniture was designed for heavy-duty use in industrial manufacturing facilities long before it started going in offices and homes.
Only later did designers seeking original industrial chic designs come to Formaspace to purchase our workstations, desks, and tables for use in offices, retail environments, and even home kitchens, offices, and garage workspaces.
While it’s unlikely that a Formaspace workbench or table that starts its life at a ball bearing factory in Milwaukee will ever be moved to a coffee shop in Minneapolis, it could happen! That’s because we build all of our furniture to the same high-quality industrial-strength standards.
Unlike other furniture products, which are meant to look like industrial furniture but don’t really perform that way, Formaspace furniture is designed from the get-go to be heavy duty. Our furniture can support at least 1000 pounds of weight in the standard base configuration. If you need something tougher, you can order stronger versions of our tables, workstations, and desks with thicker gauge steel and upgraded fittings that can support even more weight.
And, unlike other look-alikes, industrial style furniture products, we know that our furniture is going to last. That’s why we can give it the longest guarantee in the furniture industry, a full 12 years warranty (including labor) which is unheard of in the furniture industry.
Tough Enough to Land a Helicopter On and Escape Unscathed from a Transformer on the Big Screen
Formaspace industrial office furniture has the genuine industrial aesthetic thanks to our heritage.
Want proof?
Our workbenches, tables, and desks are used in heavy-duty industrial manufacturing at facilities run by Dell Computer, Apple Computer, Boeing, Ford Motor Company and NASA –to name just a few.
Want an example that shows off how tough our products are?
Watch a video of our Formaspace Founder and CEO, Jeff Turk, land a helicopter onto two of our standard workstations – that’s how strong our furniture really is.
Want more?
You should check out our article on the Formaspace furniture in Hollywood we wrote a few weeks ago. In the box office smash hit Transformers 3 Dark Side of the Moon, Formaspace furniture stood up to the monster “Driller” character – a gigantic mechanical snake-like robot with spinning blades, knives, and teeth.
So if you want the genuine article that’s strong enough to land a helicopter on, take on Hollywood monsters, or enhance your own work environment, drop an email to one of our Formaspace Design Consultants today, and we can start hand-crafting a piece of industrial-strength furniture just for you.
