The Practicality of Steampunk Interior Design

Sara over at The Steampunk Home blog was interested in steampunkifying her interior design. Soliciting an interior design company called Design by Photo that attempts to attract business by taking a photograph of an existing room and Photoshopping it according to the customer's specifications, they pitched her the design above.

I was most interested by Design at Home's comments on the process. They hadn't heard of steampunk before, but they saw in the aesthetic some very practical interior design motifs:

Looking at the steampunk thing from a designers angle it makes a lot of sense. A basic design theory is called opposition, where elements of the room work together due to their differences rather than their sameness. I think that is the appeal of steampunk. The strong contrast between Victorian refinement and industrial grit, old technology vs new etc. makes it very interesting. It's also a green concept as we need to stop buying so much new and find ways to salvage and reuse.

To be fair, I'm not sure I think much of the Photoshopped steampunk output: a sepia-toned photograph of a subway tunnel's interior plastered on the bedroom wall not only isn't very steampunk, it's the garish equivalent of the 40 year old would-be lady's man who paints a Caribbean beach at sunset on his bedroom wall. But I thought her perspectives on steampunk as a practical, green-friendly choice for interior design were pretty fascinating.

The Results of... The Challenge [Steampunk Home] (via Brass Goggles, natch)