Decorative iron and steel making a comeback in home design

After a couple decades in the business, Ossi Ayala is used to these types of calls. A celebrity isn't too happy with an interior designer's work on her Las Vegas home and would like to know what Ayala can do to help.

The founder of Ossi's Iron Works checks out the situation and finds a barren wall with six approximately 2-foot-by-2-foot windows. The space is difficult for hanging art of any kind, and Ayala ends up using his decorative iron expertise to create a vinelike design roping its way between the windows and beneath them. It's another satisfied customer for the craftsman who started in the decorative iron and steelwork business in the 1990s.

"I like residential work. I like the details, the art, to it," the soft-spoken native of Argentina said. "Sometimes people call and just ask, 'What can you do?'"

Metalwork is back

Ayala and others in the decorative iron and steel business are happy to say there's plenty more work going on locally, something that hadn't been the case for some time, especially during the recessionary years.

"With the recession, builders were removing the ironwork feature. It was an option that kind of started going away. But now we're starting to see it all coming back," said Pete Aguilar, director of operations for Steel Partners, a steel and ironwork manufacturer and installer in Las Vegas.

Interior design professional Sandye Abele, president of SAS Designs in Las Vegas, said she is incorporating iron and steel into her designs too. "I think it's kind of a hot trend again right now, not so much in the past few years, but right now I think it is," she said. "I'm using it nonstop."

In addition to the custom requests, Ayala said, more people are asking for security gates. He does plenty of courtyard entry gates and other gates set close to the front door that allow homeowners to keep some distance from anyone approaching the door.

"It's a subject that is getting more attention every day. People want to protect themselves," he added. "They want to keep people away from that front door."

Trending away from traditional

It's not uncommon to associate wrought iron or steel work with plenty of curly scrolls found in classic or more traditional designs. You will still see a lot of that older look out there, but bolder modern designs are emerging too.

"I think people are going from the antique, Old World-looking iron and switching to contemporary. You're seeing a lot more straight lines," Aguilar said.

The pro has fabricated some bold, heavy steel doors for custom home entries, wine cellars and gates.

Blending materials is also becoming more common. For indoor railings, he likes to use steel or iron for the frame but then wood for the top of the railing.

Abele likes to tie iron or steel into crown molding at the top of cabinets. She also has used iron and steel on toe kicks at the bottom of cabinets, as well as on headboards.

Also popular for Aguilar is backyard fire pits made of a metal-formed bowl. His company also does plenty of iron and steel decorations found at city parks. Some of those concepts even bleed into home designs, he said.

"We see requests for a lot of shade structures in the backyard … railings and animals like birds, lizards and trees they'll see at a park," he added.

Abele also likes to mix old and new design elements. Some clients request barn doors, but instead of using only wood, some might be made of steel, or have wood as the primary material but still plenty of steel or iron touches.

"It's a fun way to update things and mix in that industrial look. You'll see lots of glass, metal and wood mixing together today," she added. "It's modern meets industrial and that old world."

Unconventional uses

For Tyler Jones, a principal with custom homebuilder Blue Heron, steel and iron bring subtle but noticeable touches to his custom homes.

"Our version of decorative ironwork is probably very different from other people's. We don't do things that are that ornate," he said. "It's more about simplicity and functionality, clear lines and simple forms."

Jones' design team is very deliberate in the unique ways it does use the materials. In a Blue Heron home, you may find steel or iron on a minimal edge outlining a mirror on a wall or even as an outline on a fireplace.

"It seems like it's hidden at first, but it's a really creative way to detail something," Jones said.

Blue Heron also likes to use locally sourced materials in its homes, such as rock and stone, but instead of using mortar to put the rock into a wall, Jones' team will create a gabion wall, where steel or iron bars are used like a mesh to hold the loose rocks in place.

Coatings, colors

Powder coatings can bring another unique twist to decorative steel or iron. Perhaps more importantly, Aguilar said coatings, particularly for outdoor iron or steel, can mean the difference between a job that lasts decades or significantly deteriorates within a few years.

"The desert can be just as hard on iron as constant humidity would be," he said.

Often, liquid paints not uniquely formulated for steel or iron will oxidize in the sun on an outdoor railing, gate or door and diminish to chalk once a hard rain comes. Bare metal or iron will start to get a washed out look as well, Aguilar said.

"During the construction boom, there was a lot of exposed iron where the resins just corroded and deteriorated," he said.

With a powder coating method, the coat is sprayed on and heated to give the steel or iron a finish similar to an automobile, one that can stand up to the sun better.

For the do-it-yourself customer, he says there are powder coatings specifically made for metal and iron. One of the more well-known ones comes from Sherwin Williams, he added.

Coatings can also add to aesthetics. Abele lets clients know that metal or iron doesn't translate to settling for one particular color. She has called for all type of colors on steelwork in her designs and is open to experimenting with different textures. But she's also noticing interior metal finishes, in general, are trending more towards polished chrome and nickel again.

"It seems like everything is kind of going shiny again," she added.