5 Keys to Bring a True New Yorker Style to Your Home

Created in the 1960s, the New Yorker style was born thanks to artists living in abandoned factories and warehouses, turning these into their work studios.

This started as an urban loft-style, with a limited budget, recycled materials, and artistic elements. These are still its main characteristics. A New Yorker home showcases its owner’s personality, as a private space where the resident can express themselves.

If you’d like to give your home a New Yorker loft look, in this article you’ll find five keys to help you get there. These are open-space designs, where adding your personality is the masterstroke.

High ceilings and a few details

A New Yorker style is perfect for open spaces. It doesn’t only fit lofts, but it does require ample space. There’s an advantage to it – you can showcase your home’s structure.

These are spaces with few divisions. Your furniture and decorative elements will define the different spaces and their uses. This style’s strong industrial feature is set by the exposed construction elements, such as beams, brick walls or pipes.

Simplicity is key in a New Yorker style

Simplicity is key for a true New Yorker style. This is what sets it apart from the industrial style – its pure use of natural wood, the play of light and natural elements, like plants. The New Yorker style is about contrasting materials, which gives way to a cozy and comfortable effect.

This style needs wide windows as well as space. Natural light plays a big role.

Choosing the perfect furniture is essential because it will define the space. This style needs a different type of furniture, so it doesn´t look like it all came from the same store.

Natural light, true New Yorker style

For this style, you don’t cover windows with curtains or shades. Just like in the Scandinavian style, windows let in the most amount of natural light they can. The goal is to fill the space with a completely natural and white light aesthetic.

Artificial lights can be seen in the shape of industrial-style lamps, with metallic elements, spotlights, and several floor lamps. Because the ceilings are high it’s difficult to showcase ceiling lights.

Contrasting materials for the walls and furniture

Contrasting materials, for a New Yorker style, lets you mix white walls with brick walls. The bricks can be brown, but also white or stone tones. Wood can be mixed with leather and other types of upholstery.

Sofas will be your statement pieces. Big, large and commanding. Use white or grey shades and a chaise longue or a Chesterfield.

Artistic workspaces

Large and eye-catching works of art are endemic of this style. Choose a theme and stick with it, letting the colors match with the rest of the room.

A space of this kind is perfect for creating big workspaces and integrating them perfectly with the rest of the elements in the room. The desk can be big but simple. Add a metallic touch and keep your working materials in view.

Now, put some plants in your new space. Every New Yorker style home is filled with plants. They add an organic touch to the industrial design. This natural element is the final touch, the one thing that’ll add something natural and intimate.