When it comes to decorating a rustic home, natural beauty is the name of the game. Rustic style is all about creating an organic space, often featuring laid-back, aged elements. This means that rustic decor lovers aren’t shying away from distressed materials and patinated metals. The more the merrier for our rustic homes.
Like its decor, the rustic style is rough around the edges and without firm boundaries. Popular design styles such as farmhouse, Tuscan, and coastal all draw from rustic design themes. If your mind and mood boards are full of modern farmhouse spaces, you might be a fan of rustic design and not even know it!
Whether you’re a rustic decor devotee or just dipping your toes into the charming style, our unpretentious, country-chic decor ideas are sure to please. Scroll through our tips below, and with these ideas in mind, your home will look good and feel even better, like an airy tree house, sleepy yet stylish cottage, or cozy, candle-lit cabin.
Go For A Neutral Paradise
In 2023, bright and bold colors were all the rage. However, these vibrant shades don’t really speak to a rustic abode. Instead, rely on classic neutrals as a foundation to build upon for the country home of your dreams.
Opt For Natural Materials
From floor to ceiling, natural materials abound in this cozy, rustic living room. The inclusion of wood at every eye-level, like the log side table, basket of firewood, and ceiling panels, brings the outdoors in alongside materials such as bamboo and flowers.
Install Barnyard Doors
One set of barnyard doors in the home is spectacular, but a double dose of barnyard doors like in this wonderful living room is just too perfect for us to handle. Doors like these are a stylish nod to their rustic barn origins and have become a staple of Modern Farmhouse decorating.
Try A Tree-House-Chic Porch
Replicate the coziness of a treehouse by decking out your porch in charming wood. This outdoor living area is welcoming, nostalgic, and packed full of rustic cues everywhere you look.
Invest In Warm Color Ways
If a true rustic room is your goal, avoid stark, bright whites and cool tones. Instead, open up the space using warm beiges and other welcoming colors that are cohesive rather than striking.
Go All-Rustic In The Kitchen
We adore this kitchen because even though it’s chock-full of modern appliances, it still manages to have a relaxed and cozy feeling. This is due to rustic design elements, like various shades of wood, warm paint on the cabinets, and more ideas you’ll find further down our list.
Light Some Candles
Not all the candles in this divine dining room are real (the ones in the chandelier are electric!) but we love them all equally. You can’t beat the sweeping serenity of a candle-lit room, but we also appreciate the help from modern lighting solutions.
Display Jars Upon Jars
It might take some extra elbow grease, but storing your food in jars is just so much more attractive than their store-bought containers! Re-home your sugar, cereal, and anything else you wish into lovely mason jars or whatever kind of re-sealable glass jar you can get your hands on. This idea especially shines if you’re working with open or glass shelves for food storage.
Mix New With Vintage
Old and new is a winning combination for a rustic home. Incorporate vintage decor with contemporary furnishings to add buckets full of depth and character.
Layer Textures In Your Spaces
A rustic bedroom like this one is infused with texture all around. Combine multiple patterns and materials to create a layered look, especially with natural materials and textures.
Embrace Natural Lighting
The sun shining in makes every room more compelling. If a rustic room is your goal, then bright sunlight has an additional layer of meaning as it brings even more natural elements into your space.
Rearrange Your Open Shelving
We have a love-hate relationship with open shelving. On the one hand, it’s stunning. Open shelves are a wonderful way to display prized china and cookware; However, if you need to use them for storage, disorganized open shelves can be a calamity. Embrace open shelves if you have an appropriate amount of other storage space and some serious organization chops.
Lean Back In A Rocking Chair
There’s something so classic about rocking chairs on the porch. Choose wooden or rustic-style chairs to boost curb appeal and have a scenic spot to lounge outside all summer long.
Opt For Cozy Cabin Style
No matter if your home is in the mountains, in the plains, or by the beach, an interior that evokes a comforting wooden cabin will always reign supreme. How one approaches this style can vary: Embrace a laid-back, no-frills look or welcome a luxurious retreat full of rustic elements.
Distress Your Space
Wear and tear isn’t always a good thing. However, when it comes to rustic decor, a little bit of fraying, patination, or discoloration can actually add to your home’s charm.
Embrace The Architecture
If you’re able, follow your home’s lead. Working with the roots of an older home’s original architecture, like authentic floors and ceilings, can have stunning results. Combine these classic structures and features with vintage decor from similar time periods or create contrast by embracing more modern styles.
Decorate With Earth Tones
In addition to including nature in a rustic home, we absolutely adore decorating with smooth, earthy colors. Welcome greens, browns, and beiges for a space that is ever-so natural feeling and an ideal base for rustic decor.
Enjoy Plaid Galore
Plaid and tartan accessories make any home instantly more stylish, in our opinion. These patterns are dripping with a warm coziness that sets a beautiful tone for the whole house.
Add A Stone Wall
This rock wall isn’t for climbing. Instead, using stones to cover a complete surface is a stunning way to create a statement wall. Juxtapose a gorgeous, heavy stone wall with light and airy elements like sunny windows, bright whites, and florals.
Hang A Speckled Mirror
Mirrors are classic pieces of decor that go beyond functional spaces like the bathroom or vanity. In living areas, glass mirrors are intended to be more decorative than anything. A speckled appearance like that of a mercury mirror won’t disrupt any practical use and speaks to antique roots, building character and history into the room it adorns.
Feature Nods To The Country
There are no rules in interior design. You can do anything you want! This means that mixing and matching styles is open season. For example, we can’t get enough of this kitchen vignette that includes western longhorn busts, a patinated pot, and modern elements like sleek metal finishes and a cool color palette.
Hang Cafe Curtains
Lovely, easy-going curtains are an attractive touch for any windowed room. These are light and airy, filtering rather than blacking out, letting some light trickle in.
Include Rattan Elements
Wicker’s indoor cousin, rattan, is a pleasant addition on multiple levels. Rattan is interestingly textured and knotted. It’s also a product of natural materials, which we’ve established are a staple of gorgeous rustic homes.
Install A Farmhouse Sink
An apron or farmhouse sink is the pinnacle of rustic chic. Choose a bowl-front sink that matches your specific slice of rustic style: sleek white, colorful, metallic, stainless steel, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Mix In Black Metal
Dark, moody metals and light, bright scenery are a dynamic duo that we’ll never get tired of. From chairs to finishings and light fixtures, wrought iron or blackened metal has the power to center and ground a rustic room.
Choose A Rustic Bedroom
Rustic style is hardly reserved for the main living spaces. Without including an abundance of furniture or elaborate decor as you might in a living room, small spaces like guest bedrooms can be adorned with rustic elements through layering on texture, natural materials, and a subtle farmhouse charm.
Expose Decorative Wooden Beams
If your home doesn’t already include handsome paneling or beams, there’s no rule against adding them yourself. Rather than being structural, these rustic, wooden ceiling beams are purely decorative.
Embrace Cottage Core
Curate a home base that’s warm and cozy as can be with soft neutrals and light woods like this one. The next step is a bit of whimsy. Charming woodland animal china art displayed as decor is both playful and rustic.
Add A Stone Fireplace
Nothing sets a cozy mood quite like making use of the fireplace to light a calm fire and wisps of smoke billowing from the chimney. With a stone fireplace, the effect is tenfold. This dreamy look is attractive whether on a floor-to-ceiling fireplace or a shorter one.
Hang Your Pots And Pans
Instead of hiding your cookware away, put it proudly on display. Copper and cast iron pots and pans are enticing as kitchen decor hung by the stove or over a kitchen island.
Display Your Cutting Boards
Pretty and practical, cutting boards wow as decor in addition to their usual, practical use. Display them on your counter solo, piled together, or with other decor items, rather than tucking them away in a drawer.
Add In Reclaimed Wood
This rustic home idea combines multiple other ideas that we love so much. Wood is a rustic decor feature, and reclaimed wood is like the vintage version that is often decorated naturally with beautiful wear and tear from its past lives.
Dress Up Your Sink With A Skirt
A skirt is the sweetest way to dress up a sink in the kitchen, powder room, or laundry room. It’s a distinctly old-school look that’s rebounded back into style and is reminiscent of a cottage or farmhouse.
Unlacquer Your Brass
Interior designers love unlacquered brass much more than its more processed cousin—the lacquered kind—though they warn that it needs some extra care because it will patina. In a rustic home, however, we’re embracing that imperfection.
Expose Your Brick Wall
Another way of embracing the bones of your home is by showing off any and all brick on the interior. An exposed brick wall teeters the line between industrial and rustic, but either way, it is absolutely lovely.
Whitewash Brick
Another way to show off a brick wall in the home is to spruce it up a bit. Rather than completely covering it with a layer of opaque white paint, give it a little TLC by whitewashing it with a water-paint solution.
Go For Eclectic Charm
At Southern Living, we believe that no one is ever truly done decorating their house. Over the years, our houses become home to the things and memories we pick up along the way. Display your collected treasures loud and proud for an eclectic and character-filled utopia.
Add Some Birds To Your Space
Birds are a classic motif to have around the home. We’re partial to retro roosters in the kitchen, and we equally love sparrows, songbirds, or whatever-have-you as art subjects for framed portraits and gallery walls.
Hang A Rustic Roman Shade
A laid-back and daintily patterned Roman shade is undeniably so sweet and serene in a humble home. Here, the same curtain fabric is used to adorn bar stools nearby.
Include Touches Of Leather
Whether it’s a whole couch or a smaller addition here or there, leather is a rustic-style cornerstone. Warm-toned brown leather in particular hits the bullseye, but black leather can be dazzling, too.
Bring Back Burlap
Finding a way to incorporate uber-rustic materials like burlap can be a challenge, but the payoff will be well worth it. This handsome burlap light fixture is a darling centerpiece that uplifts the whole bedroom.
Include Hunting Lodge Hints
Take cues from hunting lodges to spin into details in your rustic home. Hang taxidermy trophies (or artificial, artistic versions) and welcome in lots of warm, rich wood decor.
Choose Dark Wood Finishes
Homespun yet chic, dark wood has the power to elevate any and every space it graces. While pale wood can be lovely, darkly stained wood is grounding and rich when balanced with light and bright surroundings.
Try Textured Walls
Clean and smooth walls can be stunningly sophisticated, but textured walls, like limewash, are infinitely more interesting—not to mention more rustic. This coral dining room is very simply decorated but owes its esteem to gorgeous, abstractly textured walls.
Install Rustic Light Fixtures
From the sconces to the overhead chandelier, this guest room sings with rustic charm. Simple adjustments to light fixtures, like uncomplicated shades in warm palettes and textures, transform an ordinary light into one that adds to the story of the room.
Skirt The Table
Like sinks, a table looks its best when dressed with a modest skirt. Unlike your average tablecloth, this statement-making table skirt decorated with sweet hydrangeas is maxi-length.
Relive Shabby Chic
Shabby chic style has seen exploding peaks of popularity off and on over the years, but we’re still loving this design trend in moderation. True to shabby chic design, embrace well-loved furnishings full of wear and tear (it’s intentional—we promise), and decorate your artfully disheveled pieces with sophisticated adornments like glassware or art for contrast.
Take Some Equestrian Cues
Animal prints are always in style, but horses usually aren’t included in that mix. In rustic homes, it’s horses’ time to shine on art, throws, and other bits of decor.
Reuse A Treasured Trunk
Repurposing furniture—especially vintage furniture—for unexpected uses is unquestionably a cool design move. If your decor is begging for some additional interest, use an antique trunk as an entry table, buffet, or bedside table.
Buy A Farm Table
A tried-and-true farm table is simple: just a smooth plank of wood on straightforward legs. And yet, not only will it make a brilliant design statement, but it will also host many memorable family meals to come.
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