Rustic Decorating Isn’t Only For Log Cabins

If you love the comfortable and unique look of rustic decorating but though your home wasn’t the right "style" for it, you couldn’t be more wrong! In fact, you can get a great rustic look in any home and I’m going to show you how.

Color

The first thing you need to think about is the colors you are going to use. The rustic style is outdoorsy and woodsy so you want to use colors from nature. Browns, tans, sage green, muted reds - these all work great with this look. Think about painting your walls in a darker color to make your furniture and accessories stand out.

Window Treatments

You don’t want anything to frilly on your windows. I like the look of plain tabbed curtains, but you should choose a plain solid color in an organic type of fabric like canvas or cotton. Another thing that works great is wooden mini blinds since the wood helps contribute to the rustic outdoorsy feeling.

Flooring

Nothing goes better with rustic decorating than wooden flooring, but what if you don’t have it and can’t afford to put it in? You can use area rugs to "hide" your wall to wall carpet if you do it right. Choose rugs that have an organic feel - or you could go with oriental rugs to add some color and interest. The key here is that you have to buy a rug big enough so that all your furniture fits within it.

Furniture

This the fun part of getting a great rustic look since the furniture is really cool. You can buy furniture log shaped arms and legs that has a great outdoorsy look. For the kitchen, you can get tables made from rough sawn wood and chairs with log sides and legs. For rustic bedroom decor, they make bed frames with the rough logs too. Also, consider furniture with animal hide fabric and horn or antler embellishments.

Lighting

You can buy many different styles of rustic lighting - lamps with animal or duck silhouettes, lamps made from creels, lamps with rustic shades but perhaps my favorite type of lighting is that which is made from antlers. You can get chandeliers as well as table lamps and they add an interesting focal piece to the room.

Accessories

To pull your rustic decorating style together you want to load your home up with great accessories. There are many interesting rustic accessories that you can buy new, but you can also buy vintage items that add unique style to your home. Shop at flea markets and yard sales for old creels, snowshoes, rustic rough wood frames for pictures, items made from horn, old skis and even old garden watering cans and benches to add interest to your decor.