Design a rustic kitchen for your home with these 6 tips

Lily Cichanowicz Lily Cichanowicz
Proyecto decoración de un txoko tradicional en Getxo., Urbana Interiorismo Urbana Interiorismo Kitchen
Loading admin actions …

Incorporating rustic elements of design into your house is a sure fire way to cultivate a true sense of home. Rusticity may conjure thoughts of your own childhood, or culminate the idea of childhood and cottage living despite your own personal memories. Fundamentals of rustic design like hardwood, exposed brick, eclectic tableware, and the like are bound to make the house feel cosy and inviting. One of the best places to go rustic is the kitchen. It is a place where people gather and enjoy nourishing meals together. It is the heart and traditionally, the hearth of the home. Taking special care to decorate in a rustic fashion will help to create a place of warmth and set the perfect backdrop for memories made with your own family. Follow these six tips for planning a rustic kitchen.

Think about kitchen fronts

The kitchen fronts take up a lot of space in many of our kitchens. Oftentimes, rustic décor is inspired by farmhouse or cottage aesthetics. Echoing elements of these places is a great guideline for going rustic. Aim for semi-finished hardwood kitchen fronts with variations that work with the existing colours and textures in the space. Dressing up rugged or knobbly cabinets with more elegant metallic handles will create a rustic chic look. Another trendy idea is to mimic the look of a barn door in your kitchen fronts. This kitchen by Lavka-Design ДИЗАЙН БЮРО is a wonderful example of how to best execute this. Putting your own personal spin on repurposed remnants of a wooden barn will also create a nicely refined, rustic look. The dusty blue stands out beautifully against the log home’s wooden interior.

Rustic countertop look

One of the best ways to cultivate the rustic chic look and to obtain the right balance of hardwood is with the countertops. If a large portion of the surface area of your kitchen is covered in hardwood, go with marble, ceramic, granite or slate to offset the wood. This kitchen depicts an excellent example of how to do this. The countertops contribute beautifully to the eclectic feel of this particular rustic kitchen. There are multiple tones of wood going on here in the walls, floors, chairs, and wooden beams. The neutral countertops help to keep things simple in this kitchen, another important element of rustic design. Alternatively, if you’d like to add more wood to your kitchen as your walls and kitchen fronts are made of a different material, then wooden countertops could actually be the tie that binds your rustic kitchen together. Be sure to choose natural looking hardwood.

Create a seating corner

The rustic seating area should feature an antique, farmhouse table as the focal point. Again, wood is the way to go with this one. A substantial, thick wooden table would fit better in the rustic kitchen than perhaps any other form of design. Imagine gathering around this kind of table and enjoying a hearty home cooked meal with family. This is the sort of thing you should be able to envision at the table in your rustic kitchen. A twist on this image is to take a more delicate vintage table like the one in this kitchen and paint it in a soft, pastel tone. This table looks beautiful with the morning sunlight radiating in from the lush outdoors. It adds the perfect pop of colour to the grey, brown and white interior. Painting furniture is another way to keep from overdoing it with the hardwood.

Think about the flooring

The right floor can easily add texture and rawness to the kitchen. Hardwood could of course work here too, but let’s consider some alternative options. Stone flooring can bring balance and sturdiness to the room. You can even try brick flooring in the rustic kitchen. Not many other styles of design will afford you the option to work with such materials as the rustic kitchen will. Using tiles with a matte finish like the ones in this kitchen are another option than the hardwood floor. These ones work as a more understated version of the wall tiles, for instance. It’s a great look and certainly a creative variation of the rustic kitchen. Eclectic styles add to the authenticity of the rustic look, so don’t be afraid to mix it up with the materials and colour tones you choose to incorporate through the flooring.

Create themed splashbacks

Speaking of eclectic, the walls are a great way to add some variation and to work with combining colours and textures in ways that you find pleasing while still fitting within the rustic theme. Take a twist on the porcelain tiling that is common in a country kitchen by creating your own pattern and combination of tiles. This pattern of beautiful blue and white designs draws the eye and adds a lovely pop of colour to this truly rustic kitchen. Combined with the unfinished adjoining stonewall, the tiling works splendidly with the whites and wooden hues of the countertops, and even the metallic hardware. This kitchen’s eclectic culmination of styles, all of which fit under the umbrella of rustic design, keeps the place from looking kitschy. Wooden beams can also look nicely on the walls or ceiling of a rustic kitchen.

Choose a theme for your tablewear

Create a natural look with your tableware by choosing a variety of ceramics. The items should appear sturdy and functional for a true rustic look. Going with an eclectic collection also brings an element of authenticity. Further, be sure to keep a mix of glassware in your collection. Using mason jars for storing foods make for a perfect rustic touch. Opting to keep your tableware exposed on shelves is another common trend in the rustic chic style. This collection of ceramic pieces transforms this space into a rustic minimalist kitchen. They are stacked in a practical manner that only adds to the utilitarian appeal of rustic styles that makes us love them so much.

To summarize, the key to the perfect rustic kitchen is to incorporate natural colours and materials in a tastefully eclectic way. There are many different styles and levels of rusticity depending on your preferences. As we’ve seen with this tableware, you can make a space more rustic simply with the kitchenware you choose to include. If you like this rustic minimalist look, check out this introduction to minimalist living.

Need help with your home project?
Get in touch!

Highlights from our magazine