With furniture and fittings ever more mass-produced thanks to enormous stores like Ikea, homeowners need to become increasingly inventive with the interior design of their homes in order to make them really stand out.
Vintage clothing has been loved and worn to death by hipsters the world over. However, it seems that vintage and thrift store-style lighting is creeping into homes in a bid to create a look that is totally unique.
In the restaurant sector, Talenia Phua Gajardo - part of Makemei, the Singapore-based design team behind award-winning industrial loft designs at the Town Hall Hotel in London - told the Financial Times that vintage industrial-style lighting has been a feature in many eateries for quite some time. "Now we have clients who are bringing industrial-style lights - both vintage and modern reproductions - into their homes," she added.
Simon Heath, owner of Elemental, a vintage store in Spitalfields, London told the newspaper that his business takes old items and brings them back to life, further adding value to an old object that would have otherwise been lost and forgotten - and the same can be said of, and done to, light fittings.
Doing so is better for the environment as it means less wastage. However, it may require a bit of work in order to make these lights more environmentally friendly, as generally the fittings will not have been created with ecological responsibility at the forefront of the designer's mind.
Especially in rooms like the bathroom where lighting could be in danger of becoming extremely generic, even just an old hanging lantern over the centre of the room might give it a completely unique feel, while people can still include more simple bathroom light fittings - for example, over the mirror.
In the hall or sitting room, a fixture such as the Oaks Butterfly Tiffany Wall Fitting might add not only an antiquated edge to the design but also a splash of colour to the room.
