When it comes to designing your home’s interior, the architectural style of your house will largely dictate your choices. If you have a midcentury modern home, you will probably lean toward sleek and modern. A bungalow might be filled with Shaker style furniture and craftsman details. And if you have a home in the country or in the woods, then you can’t go wrong with a rustic design motif. These designs conjure up images of aged building materials and the oranges, yellows and browns of autumn. Here are 10 tips to help you design your rustic dream kitchen.
Because rustic design is often aligned with the region where you live, bringing the outside in is a great way to add rustic flair to your kitchen. Consider installing cabinets made from wood of the surrounding area. The same goes for your choice of hardwood flooring, if there’s a good match available. If your kitchen has nice views of the flora outside, try matching the interior paint color to the dominant flowers within eyesight. Southwestern rustic might call for some cacti and deep reds, greens and browns. A country style rustic palette should feature lighter blues, oranges and yellows.
Hickory, alder and cherry are all wood that will work in a rustic kitchen, but none represent the charm of rustic design more than pine. Heart of pine flooring, which is made from the heartwood of the tree, can range in color from dark brown to deep orange. Pine is also a great choice for the cabinetry, butcher block countertops and kitchen islands. When it comes to rustic charm, the knots in the pine are a plus, so when seeking out your materials, the knottier the better. In fact, just ask the manufacturer for knotty pine.
Many kitchens in other design styles feature tiled flooring, but if you’re going with a rustic design, hardwood is the way to go. To keep with the rustic style, it’s optimal to choose flooring with a non-glossy, natural finish. Any kind of wood choice works, but pine is always a great selection for rustic charm.Pine is soft, though, so if you have an active household, you might end up with dented floors. Look for wide plank flooring that recalls Old World charm.
If you’ve ever envied exposed wooden beams on the ceiling, we know the feeling. Many rustic kitchens already have support beams and buttresses exposed. But if not, you can add them for a minimal amount of money. Retrofitting the structure of your kitchen with the real thing isn’t cost-effective or even necessary. All you need are some prefabricated fake support beams. They look like the real thing, but aren’t created to be load-bearing. Most are three-sided and hollow and install much like prefab crown molding. Keep it green and look for faux beams made from reclaimed wood.
Rustic charm is all about retaining a natural look. This is whyhardwood floors are a better fit than tile or linoleum. In addition to wood, use other natural materials to bring the design full circle. Stone is a great choice for your countertops, and there are tons of colors and patterns to choose from. Wrought iron fits with the rustic look, so incorporate some of it into your kitchen design with pot racks, recipe book stands and baker’s racks. Clay and terracotta are great ideas if you’re going for a Southwestern rustic look.