These 20 brutalist living rooms prove that raw concrete, sharp angles, and unapologetically rugged textures can create a stylish – and even cozy – place to curl up with a good book!
Sure, at first glance, some of these spaces might remind you of a Cold War bunker or an abandoned parking garage, but look a little closer and you’ll find charm that’s as captivating as it’s unconventional!
Brutalism is all about embracing the beauty of the raw and unrefined, showing us that sometimes, it’s okay to leave things a little rough around the edges.
Who needs warm wood and soft cushions when you can have cold concrete and exposed steel beams? It’s time to explore the bold, brutal,l and totally livable side of design!
1. Integrate the Structural Elements
Similar to the industrial style, the brutalist movement appreciates exposed structural elements like support beams, plumbing, and unfinished surfaces!
This gives the space a raw look and brings in lots of character!
2. Light Plays an Important Role
Light is a powerful tool when used right! It plays a very important role in all spaces, but in brutalist interiors, light is manipulated to create a stark contrast in the space!
Strategically placed light emphasizes the shapes of the furniture and gives depth to the room!
3. Mixed Materials
The most commonly used materials in brutalist living rooms are concrete, glass, and steel! You can always mix it up and add other materials like stone or marble!
Wood can also be used, but brutalist interiors often strive for coldness and wood brings warmth!
4. Mind the Color Scheme
The palette for brutalist spaces is usually very cold and muted! The most prominent colors are black, white, and gray, since these colors reflect the color of the materials used in the space!
However, you can always bring in more colors, just make sure they’re muted!
5. Repetition
One way to make your living room more brutalist is to repeat the materials used and certain patterns and shapes that will mimic the materials used in crafting these spaces!
6. Soft Brutalist
If you like some of the principles, yet the style might be too harsh for you, or just impossible to achieve, you can always go softer!
Switch out the concrete floors for natural wood finishes, but do keep some of that harshness in the walls!
7. Big Spaces Big Furniture
Brutalist spaces are often very vast and large since the mimic abandoned buildings and factories! It’s natural for such large spaces to be filled with large furniture!
These large pieces of furniture are placed strategically so that they don’t appear cagey!
8. Focus on Geometric Forms
Shapes are everything in the brutalist design style and you can notice them in everything! The shape of the room, the layout, the furniture!
These shapes will create a cohesive space and will create that repetitiveness we mentioned before!
9. Mix Textures
Don’t be afraid to bring new textures into your brutalist living room! No one said that your sofa has to be made out of concrete! That would have definitely been a nightmare!
10. Bring in Color
Even though a brutalist living room often calls for neutral colors, it won’t cost you anything to take a tiny little risk!
After all, this brutalist living room retained its style even though it’s painted a lovely coral color!
11. Opt for Functional Decor
When decorating brutalist spaces, it’s not only important to fill them with oversized furniture and decor! It needs to be functional as well!
The decor pieces can range from minimalist sculptures that double as bookends to industrial light fixtures that look like vases!
12. Concrete Walls as a Feature
Concrete walls are staples of brutalist design, so make sure to clad your whole space in concrete, or at least leave out one concrete wall that will alone bring the brutalist into your living room!
13. Pick Modular Furniture
Furniture pieces like modular bookshelves and sofas are exactly what you need in your brutalist living room!
These pieces are especially useful since you can arrange them in any shape you like to fit any space you like!
14. Warmer Brutalist Living Room
Even though the materials and color scheme want colder tones, this is still your space and you can do whatever you want! Bring in warmer colors and some wood into your living room to make it cozier!
15. Brutalist Industrial Style
These two styles are like very close cousins! They stem from the same idea and they mostly have the same principles!
Both of these styles embrace raw materials and open spaces, so why not combine the two? The industrial style allows for more materials to be brought in which will pair nicely with brutalism!
16. Gray and Green Color Scheme
Brutalism loves neutral and muted colors, so bringing in some green won’t do any harm!
17. Raw Fabrics
Apart from loving raw materials, brutalism also loves raw fabrics! Don’t be shy when picking out a heavily textured sofa or rug!
18. Bring In Some Plants
Plants are universal and can fit in any space! They can make a home out of a shoe box if needed! Plants will automatically give your space more life and brightness!
19. Large Frameless Windows
Much like the industrial style, brutalism loves having large windows that let in lots of natural light and mimic large factories!
The frame should be almost non-existent since brutalism likes simplicity and minimalism!
20. Polished Concrete Flooring
Lastly, polished concrete flooring will go great with your exposed concrete walls! Place a textured rug over it and you get the floors of your dreams!