Taking an old warehouse or Mill floor and making it magic? These have got to be some of our favourite commercial interiors briefs.
Old industrial spaces are one of the most exciting blank canvases on offer to us designers, bursting with raw character and original features like exposed brick, steels and ducting, soaring ceilings, gigantic windows and aged factory finishes.
These once-utilitarian buildings provide a strong foundation for innovative design ideas, offering us a chance to unleash the best of DesignTonic’s creativity and create dynamic and inspiring environments that honour their past while shaping their future as thriving commercial and retail hubs.
Lucky for us then that we’re based in Leeds, a City whose rich Industrial past is still evident at every turn, and whose community recognises the importance of protecting, celebrating and renewing these fabulous old buildings for the modern age.
Our location has meant that we’ve been fortunate enough to transform lots of these stunning old Industrial spaces for our commercial clients.
Here are just a few of our favourites.
DesignTonic X Phoenox Textiles
Phoenox Textiles
Dilapidated mill floor to open plan office project? Yes please.
Our team were thrilled to be asked to bring this fabulous space back to life, with a sympathetic design that brings out all the very best of its original features.
Now unrecognisable from the dull and dingy original, the yellowing steels and scuffed flooring have been replaced with pale woods and clean tones, concrete-effect tiles and comfy banquette seating in a rich, joyful ochre.
DesignTonic X Phoenox Textiles
Despite its expansive windows, this is a space whose corners can tend towards the dark and uninviting.
And so our team used partitions and dividers that break up the space without interrupting the flow of natural light, and enhanced that feel throughout with unobtrusive ambient lighting that blends perfectly with the ceiling’s exposed steels and pipework.
Crittall-effect glazed doors keep meeting rooms and quiet zones private, while the brilliant multifunctional modernity of Cubeform units combine the practical (zoning and storage) with the aesthetic (display space, room for planting).
In the reception, banquette seating in a happy yellow is backed with a timber backdrop for a warm and friendly welcome, and the whole space is finished in natural hues and gentle neutrals - lightening, brightening and lifting this stunning office interior to new design heights.
DesignTonic X North Brewing Co at Springwell Leeds
North Brewing Co at Springwell Leeds
When our good friends at North Brewing Co asked us to help them transform a colossal former tannery into their new HQ and brewery, we were on board instantly - the combination of warehouse vibes and an innovative client with immense design nous of their own being far too good an opportunity.
Working alongside graphic design house Refold, our team set to work to transform this sleeping giant into a space that is light and bright, modern and multifunctional, serving as part-office, part-brewery, part-taproom and part-community hub.
A blank canvas of rough plaster walls, original brickwork and exposed pipes, our brief was to steep the shell of this fabulous place in North Brewing Co’s unmistakable brand DNA, linking Springwell to their other bars, like the legendary North Bar (renovated by our team a short while before).
We contrasted the warmth of the brick with lots of Scandi-toned woods - from the massive, custom-built staircase/seating area to the dynamic angled panelling that’s a feature of their interiors; the parquet flooring of the offices to the bar and tabletops of the taproom.
We ensured that all interior fittings sit perfectly alongside North's incredible stainless steel fermentation tanks, bringing visitors right into their Craft Brewing heart at all times.
And we introduced plenty of impact, with strong, on-brand colour pops that take North’s electric blues and vibrant reds and splash them across both feature elements (like the exposed steels) and entire walls for maximum effect.
The result? A thriving contemporary community hub steeped in North’s DNA where the building’s newest craft is celebrated front and centre.
Looking for your own Taproom transformation? Drop us a line
Amity Brewpub, Farsley
During the Industrial Revolution, the mediaeval village of Farsley became one of the most important cloth producing regions of Leeds and many of its beautiful old Mill buildings still stand proud today.
Housed in one of them, you’ll find the brilliant Brewpub, Amity Brew Co, whose ethos of “community, friendship and good beer” is one we’ve endeavoured to weave into every element of the interior scheme we designed for them.
With its bare brick walls, exposed lighting trunking and overhead beams, the space’s rough edges needed a soft design touch for that cosy ambience that will entice drinkers to linger and lounge, and so in came the squashy leather sofas and comfy chairs, the pale wood flooring and the subtle downlighting.
Craft brewing is a design-led world, and so we needed some strong looks to offset all the industrial vibes.
So we chose tubular chairs with pops of brights in shapes that echo the tubing of the brewery pumps and the space’s exposed features.
And we custom-crafted a showpiece bar, its on-trend mermaid tiles lit by integrated strip lighting for extra visual impact and with a retro backsplash in square aqua tiles that create a cool contrast for the chalkboard menus.
Dive deeper into this design here
Things in Bread, Leeds City Centre
While we won’t pretend that this was the same kind of blank slate project as some of the others in here, the new site chosen for Things in Bread was definitely not dressed to be the home of Leeds’ sandwich Mecca.
In fact, this unit was a retail shop in its previous life, so our involvement began with a complete strip-out and continued with its complete reinvention to create a space fit to be the City’s best lunchtime haunt.
What followed was the creation of an interior as classy as its offering - with a fresh, neutral palette that oozes contemporary cool and stands out from the crowd amongst its neighbours, sticking in the memories of diners and drinkers across the streets in the Trinity Mall.
The bright, airy palette amplifies the natural light from the magnificent windows, bouncing it effortlessly between the stylishly earthy plaster walls and the white ceiling, whose exposed pipework gives off industrial vibes galore.
And the bespoke counter keeps up the crisp minimalism, perfectly positioned for the smoothest of customer flows and with its clean lines highlighted by integrated lighting.
Time to design your own perfect commercial space? Let’s chat
DesignTonic X The Alternative Board
The Alternative Board (TAB) at Marshall’s Mill
Now central to the vibrant heart of a dynamic and creative Leeds business community, Marshall’s Mill is a beautifully restored Grade II listed building that was once one of the largest factories in the world.
Still steeped in the heritage of 18th-century industry, it is now home to a whole range of fabulous office spaces - each one offering a wonderful combination of original heritage features, flexible, modern space and a cutting-edge digital infrastructure.
All in, it’s the perfect home for our fifth and final pick - the gorgeous new office we designed for The Alternative Board (TAB).
Our first port of call was to make the space unmistakably theirs.
We ticked every brand identity box, incorporating TAB’s brand colours throughout the entire area, from the cloud-shaped acoustic baffles (from our brilliant friends at Agile Acoustics) to the glass manifestations that provide playful privacy for the meeting rooms.
Then we made sure to work with the space’s original features - like the tall, structural columns - combining them with clever furniture pieces to divide areas and provide the extra practical storage every open plan office needs.
The finishing touch? A healthy dose of employee wellbeing.
A luxurious breakout area decked out with plush velvet seating brings a home-from-home vibe that gently softens the tough industrial edges of this beautiful space.
Feeling inspired for your own interior transformation? We’d love to chat.
Drop us a line and let’s see what commercial design magic ourTonic team can weave for you.
