By Dan Goodman

 

When deciding how to furnish your home or business, you need to ask yourself how safe you want to play it. It’s easy to find cheap furniture, even free if you know where to look. It’s much harder to find a conversation piece. I’ve become a repeat customer at a bar called Red Truck Clubhouse in New Orleans strictly because the interior was so artistically designed. Beautiful murals, wall hangings, and custom made furniture turned a typical French Quarter bar into an extension of an art gallery that serves pizza and beer. http://redtruckgallery.com

Nothing against the traditional wood and brick barroom aesthetic. I’m a big fan of the industrial look, but it’s become a little stale. Every American city has a been sprouting the same identical craft breweries in recent years. How familiar does this interior look to you?

How about this?

I find myself having deja vu every time I enter a new trendy bar, flashing back to the last hip steampunk looking brewery I found myself in.

Raw brick, concrete, wood, steel, it’s all fantastic. These elements should be balanced by an element of ornamentation, however, or they become indistinguishable from actual warehouses with chairs and booze. Trends don’t last. Remember, there was a time where this was popular: