|
Country Style Decorating
Organic and timeless, country style decorating offers a level of comfortable living that other styles cannot match. This style can enrich any home with beauty, warmth, color and texture.
Country decor gives you a sense of place and comfort. Always is present as an authentic link with the natural surroundings: either a farmland, woodland, or a rocky coast.
At its beginnings, everything in a country house had a purpose - to provide shelter and warmth, and often it was seen as an extension of the workplace.Interiors have a certain sturdiness. This quality is found out in furniture: painted farmhouse cupboards, rockers - all with a handmade touch.
The dual purpose of the country houses is seen in everything: romantic low beamed-ceilings will make the rooms smaller, but conserve heat; huge fireplaces - used for heat and cooking.
As an overall characteristic, country homes have a sense of history time passing, with each generation adding its own taste in decorating by layering on top of it rather than replacing.
Achieve A Country Look
Elements of Design in Country Style Decorating
- Wall Treatments: walls might have tongue and groove wainscoting with double purpose: protection of the wall and preserving the heat.
As a decorative painting technique stenciling is used the most and replaces the expensive wallpaper used in a traditional setting.
If walls are painted, the palette for country style decorating uses pale colors like creamery butter, and plae blue or green.
- Most popular wall hangings used in a country decor are samplers, needlepoint pictures, quilts, as well as objects, such as handcrafted boxes - many created by people with no artistic training.
- The hub of the country house - is a big and welcoming dining room with painted or pannelled wainscoat and wood beams ceilings.
- Being comfortable is grown out of function more than the need for luxury. Furniture might be repainted and salvaged as a family heirloom; country people often shop at tag sales, antique stores or thrift stores.Chairs are often reupholstered or slip-covered.
- Mudrooms are essential in an original country style douse. They have painted floors and a row of closet doors that hide a broom closet or a shoe storage shelves.
- Born out of frugality, patchwork is heavily used in country decorating style, so fabrics associated with the country look include unbleached linen, cotton ticking, denim and classic calico prints.
- Printed cotton chintz is heavily used because its practicality: it is dust resistant.
- Lots of color and pattern are found in country decor( and not always matching!) and contradict with the "keep it simple" philosophy.
Souvenirs and keepsakers are memory makers and are displayed for everybody to see and admire.
 |  |
Accents for Country Style Decor
- Kitchens have whitewashed walls, hand painted tile walls or painted rough plaster for an old look.
Tiled walls in kitchens make them easier to be cleaned and an old fashion look that is given by the hand-made decoration on them.
For dining-rooms, walls might have protective tongue and groove wainscoting or paneling up to chair level, shoulder level or even up to ceiling.
Bedroom get simple wallpaper with vertical lines, or a floral motif.
- The ceiling most of the time has wood beams with the natural of the wood left untouched.
- Lighting: in many country dining rooms there are wall sconces on the walls, sometimes backed with polished metal or mirror glass or with glass hurricane shades. Star-shaped or rugged looking small metal or wood chandeliers are also used. Kitchens have porcelain, glass or shiny metal lighting fixtures.
- Typical pictures include landscapes, animals, botanical prints, portraits, family photographs.
- Collection displays: Dining rooms have built-in cupboards antique looking platters and pottery. The shelves are arranged symmetrically.
Kitchen have head fronted overhead cupboards. Polished copper kettles hang from the wood beams of the ceiling or walls along with skillets and copper pots. Wall shelves have vintage tins, coffee grinders, wall plates with the blue and white willow pattern, or china.
Sometimes windows offer on opportunity for display: blue pressed glass or pottery on glass shelves with iron shelf brackets.
Pantries have wall shelves up to ceiling holding vintage china and bowls.
- Flooring in kitchen is either terra cotta, slate, wood boards, polished cement or linoleum.Bathrooms have painted floors.
- Floor coverings range from rag rugs, to hooked rugs and well worn orientals.
- Curtains are made of antique looking printed cotton, flowery chintz or unbleached linen.
Did you find what you were looking for in Country Style Decorating? Try the power of Google:
|
Want More Wall Decor Ideas?
Sign-up for "Wall Decor Lovers" - our FREE monthly newsletter. Get inspired, get ideas and stay connected!
Add To Your Social Bookmarks
Enjoy This Site?
Then why not use the button below, to add us to your favorite bookmarking service and social networking?
If you don't see what you are looking for, be sure to drop us a line via our Contact Form or check back again soon.We're striving to improve our site and we want to hear from you!
|
