The city is a fast paced place to perch; the contrast to the countryside clear and concise. The differences are stark. You don’t even greet your friends in London streets as you pass, but when rural, strangers become soulmates over small chat. Urban boozing is all barging shoulders and elbowing for room, but the country pub is a place of respite and calm. Then there’s the air; oh, the air. The capital’s stays on your skin and in your lungs for longer than is alright. How we long for the fresh stuff.
While you may not be able to simply up sticks the moment you crave the joys of the countryside, you can still bring the pastures new to you, by giving your house a rural makeover in a few simple steps. So, here are 5 IDEAL decor ideas for a country chic look.
Carefully Cobbled Together
There’s mix and match, and then there’s mixed and matched with care. While pulling together anything from the charity shop that carries a single digit price tag may serendipitously result in a style in synergy, frankly, it’s a long shot. Having a loosely knit style in mind – such as matching lines, features or motifs – can offer a guideline for your thrifty foraging. Deliberately rustic is great, but a little focus keeps things looking carefully cobbled together.
Texture
What sets houses with designs on being rural apart from their urban cousins is the deployment of texture. Carpets rule the roost in country chic homes, bringing a comfort and colour that one associates with being away from the hectic city. Throws and extra cushions can enliven dull sofas, and outlandishly textured bedspreads feel right at home in the rural. If you want to, too, then add multiple competing and contrasting textures.
Wooden Light & Shade
Light and shade is a stylistic guideline that can be applied to most interior design, but we’d like to double down on this perennial favourite when discussing country chic.
More precisely, we’re talking wood. If you’re fortunate enough to have beams, then darken or lighten them with a little varnish to contrast with the surrounding hues. A thick and sturdy kitchen table as a centrepiece for all the home’s comings and goings should also fit this theme – light against darker background shades or vice versa.
Items which are sturdy and satisfying to touch make a worthy focal point for any farmhouse kitchen. We’re thinking a place to eat, drink and socialise here, and we think you’re picturing the same thing, too. You know the type – long, rectangular and wooden, with enough room to accommodate seating a large family; just perfect.
Read: 5 essential elements of a farmhouse kitchen
A Warm Statement Piece
Whilst we’re on the subject of centrepieces, the heating and cooking in your house should not be viewed purely from a functional perspective. While certainly an investment – both in money and prime kitchen real estate – an aga brings a real sense of the rural living. It also provides heat; a triple win, then.
Heat and a statement piece also marry together happily in the form of wood burning stoves; a wonderful focal point for those craving the countryside. Having a nicely appointed pile of firewood in the living room can really hammer the point home. Just remember to have a carbon monoxide detector installed.
You can invest in a wood burning stove this winter, but do be aware of the changing advice and regulations surrounding their use in the new year.
Read: 5 tips for ensuring your wood burning stove in safe and clean in 2023
The Force Of Floor
Flooring in country houses is a very different beast to the functional, wipe clean variety so often found in the homes of Britain’s bigger cities. Channel your inner bohemian with a patterned tile, juxtaposed with a simple, blonde wood in an adjacent room. Consider concrete to harden up those soft edges; a proud, cool material for a floor which works best when softened up by the room’s other country style furnishings like kitchen rugs. Whatever you go for, view the floor as a canvas, not merely something to step on.
And with that, we’re stepping on, too. We can’t wait to be invited round to see what you’ve done with the place!