23 Ways to Place Your House in Hipster City

Most of us have that one hipster friend using a style that’s easily way more creative than our own. However, without spending our time and money at thrift shops, taking art classes or magically bending the space-time continuum to return and create our parents have cool furniture which we may now inherit, what can we do to make our houses look cool?

After sifting through heaps of houses, I’ve landed 23 spaces with cool design methods which everyone can benefit from.

Laura Garner

Choose sensibly. A couple of well-chosen bits can oftentimes create a bigger design statement than attempting to force harmony among all your belongings. Montreal couple Marie-Laurence Tailleur Tremblay and Johan Högdahl are cautious to hold off buying any supplying unless they both know it is the ideal piece. “I know it when I see it,” Tailleur Tremblay states. “If I find something that I love, I won’t think twice about it.”

Watch more: Vintage Cool Style to get a Montreal Apartment

Lucy Call

Kick it old. The older, more beat up and from date a bit is, the more hipster possible is available. Fashion boutique co-owner Ian Wade and freelancer programmer David Kamp mix a reclaimed wood dining room table, midcentury modern furnishings and DIY approaches — such as repurposing an old ladder as bookshelves — to create a potent recipe for hip decor. “My decorating style is one which adheres to usefulness,” Wade says. “I really don’t like clutter, and I don’t like things to be there with no real function.”

Watch more: Eclectic Repurposing Fits First-Time Homeowners in Utah

Jeff Jones Snap It Photography

Go retro. Josh and Veralynn Kaiser, daughter Saoirse and puppy Calvin of Toledo, Ohio, have one keyword you’ll need to know before embarking on a hipster overhaul: retro. Checkerboard floors, ’50s-diner-inspired furniture and also a repurposed picket fence all nail the hipster profile. “Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong age,” Veralynn states.

Watch more: Retro Fun Brings an Ohio Home to Life

Lucy Call

Buy industrial. Any space that was a former industrial something is the perfect hipster haven. That is why communications pupil Spencer Steed and his fiancée, Alex Tovey, a college admissions adviser, shack up in an old automobile garage.

Additionally, consider leaving things unfinished for a carefully orchestrated “Who cares?” look. “The appeal of living in an old automobile garage and designing with that aesthetic in mind was different and fun,” Steed says. “We likely won’t ever reside someplace quite enjoy this space again. It is our first place living together, which we’ll always remember.”

Watch more: From Deadly Space to Hip Home in a Converted Utah Garage

Lindsay von Hagel

Display everything. Framing is not only for family photographs. Use small, big and medium frames to mix up everything from landmark photographs, old-timey portraits, little modern artwork pieces and collectibles. Then create a graphic wall along with other items and shelving. This VW-van-driving family paired their wall using Victorian-style chairs to get a winning mix.

Watch more: Swanky Vintage Style in Texas

Jeff Jones Snap It Photography

Get a cool pet and paint a portrait. Danielle Herrera painted a number of the artworks inside her family’s home, for example, portrait of the pet parakeet, creating an eclectic, indie-art-gallery vibe.

Watch more: Quirky Art and Oddities Intrigue within an Ohio Lease

Lindsay von Hagel

Add decorations and toys. Brian Gibb and his wife proudly exhibit a limited-edition toy collection in their home, such as these characters, which were created by Gibb to portray himself and his wife.

Additionally, they have a chandelier within their chicken coop. Enough said.

Watch more: Toys and Art Make Merry in a Texas Home

Madison Modern Home

Find the proper words. Slightly provocative signs within an oversize font provide a hint of casual hipsterness, as in Angel Quintana’s home.

Watch more: Bohemian Elegance in a Little Space

Rikki Snyder

Get a cat. The accession of a cat immediately raises your hipster intelligence capacity (HIP) with a factor of 3. However, you have to consider the way the cat’s color will fit in with your decor. Here, Caitlin Mociun and cat Judas perfectly complement the monochromatic, minimalist space.

Watch more: Eclectic, Minimalist Brooklyn Apartment

Alex Amend Photography

Blow it up. Oversize black and white photographs of hot landmarks create a stunning focal point that states two things: You are creative and you’re well traveled.

“I love Paris and Rome and nearly moved to Paris before deciding on San Francisco,” states Jason Galloway, shown here on the right. “It could be better to be in love with Paris than reside there, I guess.” Concerning the mural, he states, “I believe it really defines our space. The Eiffel Tower steel beams amidst trees and old buildings is my design.”

Welcome to hipsterdom.
Watch more: Comfortably Modern in San Francisco

Emily Campbell

Chill out. Kicking back is exactly what a hipster home is all about. So you can never have enough cushions, blankets, rugs and beanbags. (A hookah is discretionary.)

Watch more: Ultimate Live-Work Space Adapts to the Needs of the Day

Sarah Greenman

Show people what you love. The type of music you enjoy speaks volumes about your character. Dallas couple and avid music lovers Joseph Rogers and Felix Lopez show some of their favorite recordings to add a dash of character to their living space.

Watch more: Eclectic Coziness in a Dallas Studio

Heather Merenda

Go highbrow. By all means, hang whatever art you desire. However, every home should have a minumum of one art piece that reflects a hint of elegant taste. Sandra Zovko and Simon Woodcock added a wall screen of Helmut Newton photographs.

Watch more: Vintage Charm in Vancouver

Becki Peckham

Be cool as a household. A glowing and well-organized playroom is a hallmark of a hipster home. And this Canadian household understands a thing or two about being hip. Eight-year-old Brennen has skulls on his sweater, so therefore he is cooler than you by default. So is their greyhound, Rumble, who has a skull-print collar.

Watch more: Universal Design Makes an 8-Year-Old texture at Home

Theresa Fine

Be sociable. Where’s the TV, you ask? Not only in this living area. Noelani Zervas, such as most hipsters, opts for much more social areas, where hanging with friends and participating in conversation trumps staring at a flat-screen all evening.

Watch more: Antiques Mingle With Modern Style in a 1920s Tudor

Sarah Greenman

Mix it up. “I think for us the largest challenge is avoiding this generic impression on a tight budget,” states Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. “Nobody wants to feel like a McFamily in a McNeighborhood.” Her layout success stems from blending hand-me-down bits and original art so everything is not matchy-matchy.

Watch more: Deadly Character in 1,000 Square Feet

Lauren Mikus

Add yarn cupcakes. Show me a knitted dessert item and I will show you a hipster’s home. “From the minute you walk in to my home, you can sense my adoration for cupcakes,” states Denver resident Caylin Engle. “I have gathered quite the collection through the last few years and love showing them in miscellaneous nooks.”

Watch more: Color and Cupcakes in a Denver Loft

Sara Bates

Expose that brick. Gritty, raw elements balanced with comfy, lighter accents create a exceptional style blend. Philadelphia couple Percy Bright and Tara Mangini removed a large cabinet system in their bedroom, revealing a brick wall using cracked plaster. Instead of plastering over the wall, they must work with a chisel.

Watch more: DIY Efforts Transform a South Philly Row House

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Be a kid. Sometimes being stylish is as straightforward as celebrating your childhood. Laura Lee Gulledge channels her inner child within her Brooklyn, New York, flat, complete with a tiny Alice in Wonderland–recalling doorway. “Everything in my flat is inspirational. It’s fine, because writing can sometimes feel like a solitary endeavor. When I’m here I’m surrounded by imagination,” she says.

Watch more: The Antidote to Dreariness, in One Little Brooklyn Apartment

Lauren Mikus

Keep it in your family. Comedian Adam Cayton-Holland attributes what he cals his “tenured professor’s workplace” style mainly to family heirlooms and his father’s library in the house they grew up in. “My father had only festooned the area with treasures — Indian arrowheads, old flashes, garudas from Indonesia, Persian carpets, old bulbs,” Cayton-Holland states. “It’s very diverse, but everything has the sense of being a treasure. I’ve always wanted to emulate ‘the library’ in the living room”

Watch more: Travel Treasures Personalize a Denver Comedian’s Home

Corynne Pless

Can it yourself. The easiest way to have a space that truly reflects who you are is to design it yourself with custom-made bits. That is Kate Roebuck’s philosophy. She spiffed up her and her husband’s lease in Mississippi with various textiles that she made herself.

“With almost any rental you have to be imaginative to cover exactly what you don’t want anyone else to see,” Roebuck says. “You can slap pattern and something sparkly on anything, and it is immediately better”

Watch more: Artful Character Colors a Textile Designer’s Home

Cynthia Lynn Photography

Don’t overdo it. “Don’t rush into all your renovations all at one time,” says Chicago resident Susie Daly. “Spend a good deal of time thinking about different styles, layouts, colours — you just get one opportunity with a great deal of renovations you’re going to do, so make sure that you’re going to appreciate it.”

Watch more: Color and Vintage Style Jazz Up Tradition in Chicago

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Surround yourself with you. Don’t be afraid of embracing the things you treasure. Displaying knickknacks that remind you of an awesome holiday or a dear friend will make you much happier. That is what New Yorker Amanda Barlow does in her home using “things that really reflect me and create the space a bit more personal,” she states. “I feel like this is the weakest space in New York.”

Watch more: Color and Pattern Create a Manhattan Apartment Sing

Your turn: Show us your hipster pad!

See related