Using Commercial Fabrics (and More) at Home

Commercial fabrics, furnishings, flooring and art have to withstand a lot of wear and tear. If you’re looking for creative ways to make your home more durable and livable, take few notes from the MDI team about how they make commercial spaces beautiful and enduring.

Upholstery

Just because commercial fabrics are durable doesn’t mean they have to be boring. In this modern medical office we used Zip It in Sandstone by Pollack on the perimeter chairs. It is high performance, bleach cleanable fabric suitable for heavy upholstery.  The chairs in the middle are in Pollack Flex in Sandstone, also high performance, bleach cleanable and suitable for heavy upholstery.  The love seats are Maharam Scuba in Chincilla.  They look like leather look are 100% polyurethane and cleanable with a diluted household bleach or water based cleanser. The carpet is a commercial carpet tile from Interface.

Flooring

Believe it or not, we used Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) for the flooring. This is Siena USA, Sparrow and it looks rich enough for a luxurious home, but because it’s LVT, it can stand up to high traffic. There are also new kinds of ceramic tile that look so much like hardwood that you won’t be able to tell them apart just by looking. Wood grain ceramic tile great choice for laundry and bathrooms because it’s nearly indestructible and the warm tones bring a coziness to an otherwise neglected area.

Art

No matter how rambunctious your dogs, kids or house guests are, every home needs art. In commercial spaces, we assume the art is going to be touched.  You can have art that is  durable as well as beautiful, like these wall tiles from ceramist Barbara Zech. You’ll notice that art in commercial spaces is also very soothing – that may be something to note if you’re trying to bring more serenity into your home. Zech says she often uses nature as inspiration for the works she places in healing environments because it’s a proven source of calm. Who doesn’t want more of that?

(For more information on how art can affect mood, check out Kalisher’s Healing Art research and The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine’s research on visual art in healing spaces.)

Furnishings & Arrangement

Notice the furniture arrangement and traffic patterns in this beautiful Bishop Gadsden senior living community. The seating arrangements are cozy but there’s plenty of room to move, and it’s obvious where you should walk. You may also notice that commercial furnishings are more compact than furnishings designed for private homes. If you’ve got a small space, consider looking into space-friendly commercial versions of chairs, sofas and tables.

<Get more commercial inspiration for home decor in MDI’s portfolio.>