To Go Rustic, Lean Toward Practical And Natural
Imagine you have a chance to turn your home into a bed and breakfast in New England going for an old-time, rustic appeal that blends the outdoors with the indoors – lots of wood, muted carpets, simple lines throughout.
Imagine oak trim, floors of wide cherry boards, windows with grilles, perhaps frames set so deep you can actually sit in the window sills.
Certainly, one of the beauties of an old-fashioned look is the fact that sparse furnishings work wonderfully when you are trying to encapsulate a country setting. You need not spend a fortune to define your home as an embrace of a pastoral lifestyle.
Further, you do not need to stop at just the living room or the kitchen or the bottom floor. Bedroom furnishings can also highlight colonial tastes.
There are some instant worries, of course. How do you hide the modern-looking treadmill or the 54 inch wide flat screen television or the modern kitchen appliances. Not many refrigerators actually resemble the rustic ice boxes that were in use throughout the country 150 years back. That computer doesn’t look very old-timey either, no matter how you dress it up.
In one of the more serendipitous accidents in modern design, actually, modern materials set against a rustic background works a bit like hybrid vigor. Instead of style clashing together, rustic and modern compliment each other well. A computer screen sitting on an oak desk, in fact, tends to accentuate the oak desk. It looks a bit more stable, more sturdy, more relevant. Instead of looking out of place, the computer looks pragmatic and utilitarian – a useful device. What would Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin done with a computer, anyway? They would have put it to use – that’s my bet, anyway.
There is no need to ignore the point that rustic and practicality go hand in hand. Building materials in old homes and barns were thick; floor boards were wider, beams heavier, doors solid, rather than hollow shells made of pine and plywood.
That means that adding a wood stove to a room will not detract from the rustic look, even as it takes considerable space to do so. Pegs on a wall to hang up coats can do well when there is no room for a coat closet. The good, old days might well be renamed the practical old days.
So, here’s some down-home advice for how to aim for a rustic home, adding the right touch to every room:
Kitchens
Stone-colored tile helps, as does a cutting table. Old fashioned bread boxes are a great touch. If possible, of course, take the ceiling down and give the kitchen a loft-like appearance with exposed beams and a cathedral roof. Skylights can help, or use barn lighting fixtures, an option that compliments any cathedral ceiling.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms can be given a rustic look. A toilet can be adorned with a wooden seat and towel racks can be furnished with wood, as well. Cabinets can lean toward rustic. Like the kitchen, field-stone shaped tiles can add to the natural setting.
Bedrooms
Of course, bedrooms can be rustic from wall to wall. Pleated curtains on the windows, puffy quilts on the beds, wood floors and muted colors will help. Consider, as well, fine iron work for beds and tables, to hint the hand of an old-fashioned blacksmith was at work. Instead of a central, overhead light, try to use wall sconce lighting. If you have to, simply use recessed lighting arrangements that cannot be seen; then the modern lighting does not take away from the rustic look.
Living rooms
In the living room, as in other rooms, rustic if often what you want it to be. Natural colors exposed wood elements, stone hearths or stone floors – even stone walls add infinitely to the pastoral look. Table lamps should be wooden or even clay designs. Brick walls also work and, of course, any lighting that resembles old fashioned lanterns or candelabras add to the pastoral look.
The Big Hint:
Rustic is not about rust, but it is about natural materials. So, while the oak paneling gives a rustic touch to a New England home, it is an oddity in a home in southern California or in a desert community. You should make liberal use of natural material – but it should be natural material from the same environment in in which the home is located.
