What is rustic style furniture and how can you achieve the look?
GF
Let's delve into what makes the rustic furniture great!
When most of us think "rustic", we automatically think "log cabin". And if you do, you would be partly right. But it's also about getting the balance absolutely perfect. This style is such a wide-ranging interior design bravura choice that it encompasses a whole host of other different styles within it, even to the point that you could be persuaded into the fact that it could actually be a hybrid style of various other design style options interspersed with each other, to form this type living. For instance, rustic seems to touch on the industrial style décor where you combine the bare blocky, geometric steel structure with bare wood, and even the traditional style that touches on a variety of textures and the use of traditional wood, to the French country style that also uses the warm colours in its palette with stone and/or brick work, much to the point this encroaches on a farmhouse style inspiration. As a general sum up of this design style, if you remember to think of these four points when planning your room; think natural, unintentional, matured and coarse, and you can't go far wrong on hitting the rustic style spot on!
How can you get this look?
If you would like to create this look in your home, the following key elements should help you on your way...
-
Natural
The more natural items you place in your room, the better. Use fabric materials such as cotton, linen, canvas or leather, whether that be in a rug, chair or lampshade. And combine with natural woodern side tables, coffee tables or dining tables, to even TV stands. It may simply be even a small piece of décor that suits this element, it all adds to the impression.
-
Unintentional
This feature pulls on its casual nature, of its uniqueness, a one-of-a-kind furniture piece. Where to keep the flow of its natural style you have to keep each piece of furniture in the room as an individual. No two items can be alike, you know, keep it casual!
-
Matured
Think of aged as a quality marker of this style, but more of the type that adds to its character over time. There are many pieces that you can pick up with a history; a story to tell just by looking at it, consider knots of wood, shown in table pieces, or wooden drawers as a deeper hidden level of maturity, a story of olden promise.
-
Coarse
The rougher exterior of an item you place in your chosen room, the better in keeping it will be with the style, try a natural driftwood candle holder, or maybe a driftwood framed mirror to hang (which at the same time will create an illusion of more space) or if you're having it in a living room, a rough exposed stonework fireplace.
The word rustic itself connotes feelings of warmth, and of an aged quality. Rust itself is of a red/brown colour and is the exact colour palette that the style relies on. Merging reds, browns, tans, to even greens and sometimes greys to encompass the outdoors, the warmth, where it combines the natural colours found outside in nature through the seasons to greys and earthy tones found in the stripped bare, exposed brickwork and stone work.
You can give any room the rustic look if you wish. But if you opt for choosing the kitchen in this style, you could be close to the farmhouse style. An office filled with furniture would be the likes of suiting a high backed leather chair or a low back leather settee, you would have a wooden coffee table in there (if space allowed) and a natural wooden desk for sitting at. Another room could be your living room, where a few key pieces would be sufficient, a wooden coffee table, or side table, to a simple settee, or reading chair. Finally, a bedroom is possible to have a rustic feel to it, by using drawers and a wooden bed, just using simple key pieces of furniture and eliminating lots of little pieces. You can complete the look of any of these rooms mentioned with using simple key pieces, such as a canvas lampshade or combine several textures into a room, a leather rug with a cotton cushion. Ensure each room has an air of keeping it warm and inviting by using the rust and earthy tones colour palette, which can also be achieved by exposing brick work or stone work, either on full walls or in part, for instance on the fireplace, like a stone or brick mantel, and keep the other walls pale cream or bright white to obtain a feel of different textures and contrast. The use of high beams, where the natural wood would be exposed is another key definition of the beautiful, warm of this style.
Be careful though as to achieve this look look can prove to be very expensive if you don’t keep your budget in check. This is purely because the look is of artisan quality, derived mainly from handmade craftspeople, this is in keeping with the natural side of the style, its focus on the material used rather than its function, keeping the shape and design simple due to the way it was made. And rightly so, as each piece of furniture is unique due to it not being mass produced.
Another con of this style you might say, is that even though it embraces a whole host of colours (it’s main colours being warm tones, with earthy tones thrown in too) this style can be found to be quite cold physically. Having the bare brickwork or stonework exposed and sometimes combined with stripped wood or stone flooring too, it will therefore naturally emanate an air of coolness as well as being cold to the touch.
