You know your goal is to create a space that feels lived in and a bit rough-and-tumble. “Urban chic” is the type of vibe you expect to experience in a chic loft – modern sleek meets casual and laid back. Fortunately, you just need a few guidelines to help you get there.
  

   

Your Colour Palette

While you may be under the impression that using paint as a reflection of the nitty-gritty, cement-and-asphalt urban landscape means saturating your walls with grays and blacks, you have much more leeway.  The key to creating an urban chic condo is choosing a delicate colour palette that includes more than one hue.
 
If you're a fan of soft colours, stick with light paint but skip all-white; instead, choose tints and pale de-saturated tones. Think muted yellow-green, soft gray, light blue-gray, light antique green or buttercream. Feel free to play with several colours in one room. For bolder tastes, avoid painting an entire room with a vibrant colour and simply choose a single accent wall. Visualize three green-gray walls with a single pumpkin orange wall.
 

Clean Lines

Round furniture tends to elicit a sense of mod decor, organic shapes bring to mind mid-century modern spaces and anything overstuffed or ruffled screams shabby chic. Maintain clean lines in your living space and you'll reach your urban chic goal in a heartbeat. Whether you're adding a dresser to a bedroom or a sofa or coffee table to your living room, search for geometric shapes with corners and few curves. Triangles, rectangles and squares are your new best friends. By adding a few square nesting tables, a rectangular coffee table, a structured sofa and squared-off column lamps with square shades to your living room, your space offers a minimalistic, no-frills, super-sleek appearance which mimics the geometric visual of a cityscape.
 

Mixed Media

Country spaces are full of wood, wrought iron, cotton and wool ... shabby chic spaces are packed with nearly anything that looks distressed, linen and ultra-soft fabrics. So what are urban chic condos comprised of? Keep the city in mind when you're pulling materials together -- for fabrics, gravitate toward sleek, sturdy and resilient picks. Think tweed, leather and microfiber. As for your other pieces, choose wood in deeply stained colours, glass, Lucite and metal. Imagine a leather sofa with microfiber pillows. Just in front of the sofa is a Lucite coffee table which is joined on the opposite side by two tweed armchairs. On the wall hang a mirror surrounded with an aluminum frame next to black and white photographs in chocolate-stained wood frames. Very urban and perfectly chic.
 

Sleek Floors

When you go super sleek with your floors, your urban space springs to life immediately. However, the eclectic nature of an urban chic condo space gives you the ability to personalize your space to your taste.
 
If you're a hardcore fan of glossy smooth floors, go with hardwoods, cement, cork or laminate flooring for a smooth surface. For carpet enthusiasts, think Berber or carpet with a short, tight pile in order to maintain a super-clean visual impact. For those who prefer a combination of hard floors and carpeting, indulge in throw rugs. Again, keep the carpet sleek and tight and realize this is a great opportunity to add colour and pattern to your space. Go for a solid hue or a retro or contemporary print for a bold effect.
 
Remember to have fun by mixing things up. Like the various threads you might see on a crowd of people walking down a city sidewalk for the morning commute, and the wide array of materials used on buildings and city fixtures, the beauty of the urban experience is in its diversity. Follow these guidelines while allowing your taste to shine through for an urban chic condo that's a true reflection of your personality.
 
By Tarah Damask