How To Achieve a Rustic Look in Your Living Room
The rough and lovely look of rustic furnishings can bring a burly but beautiful presence to your living room. With a few carefully selected pieces and appointments, you can give your front room the ambiance of a cabin in the woods or a lakeside lodge. If you’re not certain where to begin, here are a few suggestions on how to achieve a rustic look in your living room.
Go for the Colors of Nature
Living room upgrades usually include a paint job. Leave the bright colors and soft pastels behind and look to autumn for inspiration. Paint the walls in the reds, yellows, and oranges of mid-fall leaves, the color of pond and creek stones, the pleasant browns of the earth’s soil, and the muted hues of a weather-beaten barn or farmhouse. Echo and re-echo these colors with the pillows, blankets, slipcovers, and other elements you add to the room later.
Add a Stone Accent Wall
If you have the means and your home’s construction allows it, add a stone accent wall, or enhance the rocky look of a fireplace with extended walls on either side. Stone walls really give the organic and rough-hewn look of a pioneer’s log cabin or a class hunting lodge. If you’re handy with bricks and mortar, you can do it yourself, but this might be a job best left to an expert. For added beauty and a DIY aesthetic, you could create a bottle wall that incorporates recycled bottles of different hues. The bottles could be isolated or a part of the brick and mortar. Look up some pictures for inspiration and see what clicks with you.
Pick the Proper Furniture
Modern, contemporary ready-to-assemble furniture is convenient and even beautiful—but if you’re going for that downhome and country feel, select furniture made of all-natural materials and that’s been hewn by a good, honest, hardworking carpenter. Start with a centerpiece like a couch or a handmade solid wood coffee table, particularly one constructed from a live-edge wood slap. A handmade solid wood coffee table is a handsome piece of furniture that shows strength and solidity and sets the tone for the rest of the room. Pick other pieces that reflect this same feeling. You might have good luck shopping at antique stores near more rural parts of the country.
Rugs Add a Finishing and Cozy Touch
Here's one final tip on how to achieve a rustic look in your living room. Look for a large area rug that’s plush, warm, and comfortable, but which still has a rugged and old-time look to it. A farmhouse rug is an excellent choice. Farmhouse rugs come in unpretentious patterns and often have a slightly faded look without looking old and threadbare. Jute rugs are another wonderful choice—they have a rough and natural appearance that belies their comfortableness!