Decorate your home in urban style with posters and modern pictures

The urban style is a particular approach to interior design characterised by a contemporary taste and a metropolitan, industrial atmosphere. It is in fact a variation on the broader modern style, from which it borrows its minimalism, simplicity and soft lines. Decorating your home in urban style lets you create on-trend spaces while keeping a warm, colourful and welcoming feel. It is a highly sought-after and versatile style today, as it works easily in private homes, offices and shops, and suits city settings as well as places far from any metropolis. Think this might be the style you have been looking for? Then read on: in this article you will find plenty of decorating tips and ideas to make your home unique. In particular, we will suggest a range of designer pictures and art prints you can use to decorate the walls of your urban-style home!

1. Decorating in urban style

Urban-style decor comes into its own in large, spacious interiors such as lofts and open-plan spaces: inspired by the principles of minimalism and simplicity, every room should feel instantly airy. To achieve a perfect minimalist interior, single open spaces are preferred, where the eye can roam freely, with walls painted in neutral tones and just a few pieces of furniture to complete the composition. One element to consider in this style is how to decorate the stairs, which are often left open to preserve the sense of openness and the minimal effect. The themes to use for urban decor are, of course, the city and the street. To decorate the walls, excellent subjects are pictures of streets or cityscape prints, like the ones we suggest below, which create a kind of window onto the metropolitan world inside your home.

The typical elements of this kind of decor come mainly from industrial-style interiors: old industrial lamps, pipes used as furniture frames or simple wall decorations, vintage typewriters or sewing machines, floor-standing or ceiling fans, old trunks or wall clocks, raw metal shelving, mannequins and stools for the bedrooms. Any object of this kind is perfect for decorating in urban style, although it is worth remembering that the decor should stay pared back, with just a few pieces, to avoid a cluttered feel and rooms that seem too cold. With this in mind, it is sometimes a good idea to include furniture from other styles (for example Shabby Chic furniture or Provençal-style decor) to create subtle contrasts and bring warmth back to urban spaces that feel too cold. We can also use prints in warm, bright colours or children’s posters and pictures to make a room livelier and more welcoming.

The typical materials of urban-style interiors are brick or concrete for the walls, exposed beams for the ceiling and tiles, resin or concrete for the floors. Unfortunately, introducing these elements involves very complex work, and it is generally best to do without them if they are not already present and no major renovation is planned. We tend to advise against the alternatives available on the market, such as wallpaper that recreates an exposed-brick effect, as the end result often looks rather inelegant.

Bear in mind that these materials can easily make a room feel too cold, so it is best to soften them with suitable touches: a wooden parquet floor, for example, sofas in warm colours or wooden furniture with soft lines. Here too, pictures with colourful images or gentle subjects can come to our aid.

2. Colours and materials of the urban style

The colours of the urban style are generally neutral and raw: white, grey, cream or brick red. As with modern style, these colours are used on the walls and floors as a backdrop for creating striking contrasts with other, brightly coloured pieces. For a bolder effect, you can also paint some walls in stronger shades to contrast with the neutral ones. When decorating the walls, prints and pictures can be used to create splashes of colour that stand out against the neutral walls: for this purpose, contemporary pictures and modern paintings are an excellent choice.

Take a look at the prints we suggest, which you can use for exactly this purpose.

The materials most widely used in the urban style are undoubtedly brick and stone: left raw or painted white or grey, exposed walls made from these materials are the hallmark of this style. For furniture, the main materials again come from urban or industrial settings: raw metal or dark wood for a rustic effect.

3. Decorating your walls with urban-style pictures

To decorate the walls of an urban-style home, a particularly fitting choice is abstract pictures by contemporary artists, or black and white pictures for a more retro touch. Below are some ideas from our Gallery.

Do you finally feel ready to give your home or shop an urban feel? If you need more specific advice, write to us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Remember that you can buy a wide range of modern pictures featuring all the images in this article from our gallery. And if you found it interesting, share it with your friends!