rustic adventure

By revering the natural world and avoiding anything formal, quaint, or matchy-matchy, rustic decorating imbues a house with laid-back, put-up-your-boots comfort.

Close to Natural Settings

A rustic house is most at home in a rustic environment. You'll find them perched on the edge of a mountain stream, skirting a national park, or nestled among a forest of aspens. If you can't pick your surroundings, you can certainly pick wide-plank wood floors, weathered ceiling beams, and paneled walls. These architectural features go a long way toward creating a pleasing rustic shell. Avoid painting wood surfaces. This decorating style prizes wood in its natural state, mixing the textures of knotty pine with quarter-sawn oak and rough birch bark, for example, to emulate the feeling of living in a tree house.

Dramatic Complements

Because the wood-clad shell of a rustic home has such drama and presence, dainty or precious furniture can get lost. Instead, choose furnishings that are large in scale and in visual weight. This is the place for an ebony leather sectional, a canopied four-poster, or a dining table that seats 12. Look for elements that use rough-and-tumble materials, such as rugs made from braided rags, a kitchen island with a butcher-block top, or light fixtures with punched-tin shades. Layers of fussy patterns can makes these interiors feel too busy, so go for bold, simple designs in textiles, such as the buffalo plaids and mattress-ticking stripes that derive from the wagon-train era.

Warm Welcomes

A rustic home wouldn't be complete without a fireplace. Hefty river rocks, polished and stacked from floor to ceiling, make just the right statement. But you can achieve other nature-made looks by incorporating a mantel of hand-planed wood, a hearth of slate tiles, or a painting that depicts a wooded glen. Gain the element of fire in other ways, too: Amass candles inside the firebox, or gather chairs around a patio fire pit, for example.

Found Objects

Rustic decorating can be easy on the pocketbook. Suitable decorative elements might be found (or appear to be found) on a walk in the woods. Twigs, tree stumps, dried leaves, nuts, acorns, and strips of bark can be used as accents, centerpiece materials, or focal-point details. Snip fern fronds from the garden and fill a vase with them. Mound pinecones in a bowl. On the other hand, some natural finds can be tricky or even illegal to collect, such as antlers and some seashells, so look for good look-alikes. Faux cowhide rugs are just as impressive as the real thing, and they're easier to obtain.

Defined, rustic style is a design emphasis on rugged, natural beauty. It embraces nature-inspired textures, simple and earthy colors, and ultimately an unpretentious, organic warmth.  While rustic style in its most traditional sense might appear heavy and dark today, a contemporary rustic style has emerged over the past few years that feels both fresh and real, light and grounded.  If that appeals to you, here are the top 25 elements of rustic style for a gorgeous yet genuine nature-infused home. Some of these may not be possible to implement in your current home; don’t get hung up on what you can’t change. Focus on what is possible to create the charming, rustic space you’ll love to live in.

A setting close to nature makes the transition from outside to in (and vice versa) that much easier. Whether nestled in among the mountain pines or perched beside a lake, rustic style just makes sense in a rustic setting.

Raw natural elements are probably the most important component of rustic style is the raw natural materials used in architecture and décor alike. The more natural these elements appear to be, the easier it is to find and maintain a cohesive contemporary rustic style throughout the entire space.

Because of their simple and solid appearance, wide wood planks on the floors provide an automatic and intuitive foundation for decorating in a rustic style.

Just as camping isn’t complete without a campfire, so is a rustic styled home incomplete without a warm, inviting fireplace. The fireplace surround made out of visually weighty natural elements (rock, stone, or brick) and a thick, chunky mantel is ideal in a rustic living or family room. (Did we mention that rustic style is as fabulous outdoors as it is indoors?)

This architectural touch provides a cozy surround for you to enjoy your rustic style.

If you aren’t able to work paneled walls into your rustic interior, no worries. White walls provide an excellent “blank canvas” for you to work your rustic décor magic. White walls are bright, cheerful, and incredibly versatile in helping to create a fresh rustic feeling.

Not exactly a canopy of tree branches, but wood beams on the ceiling are evocative of nature at its finest. Often, ceiling beams are large, chunky beams that are an excellent reminder of the great outdoors.

While nature has its fair share of gorgeous vibrant hues, the typical rustic style is best served with nature’s more muted tones. Think sand-colored-furniture, rich mud-brown walls, or pine green accents – these colors are soothing and evocative of the earthiest of Mother Nature’s masterpieces.

Rustic style tends to favor the masculine, hearty side of décor. Dainty, feminine pieces will get lost or, at the very least, feel very out of place within a rustic styled space. Opt for nature-inspired details that provide distinct presence and drama.

Of course, snakeskin and crocodile bumps are animalian, but they aren’t the best choice for a rustic setting. Consider the hides that would naturally be found on, say, a form. Like zebra or cowhide rugs and sheepskin throws.

While wood is a gorgeous component of rustic décor, it would seem pretty somber and heavy if not balanced out with some lightness. White furniture, paint, or accessories are important in creating that pleasing balance and lightening things up.

Rustic style embraces the natural state of things, and the opportunity to see and feel the knottiness of wood, its grain, and its natural tones is a big deal. This helps to keep the textures of a variety of woods (pine, oak, walnut, birch, to name just a few) separate, individual, and interesting.