It’s time to connect with your pioneer pastime and natural side. Maybe your ideal getaway is a cozy cabin in the woods amid picturesque mountains and winding forest streams…welcome to rustic style (one of my faves). 

Rustic style revolves around embracing the past and connecting to your roots. Elements of design are simple, unpretentious and evoke a home-style feeling of straightforward comfort. So put on your comfiest flannel best and let’s explore rustic style. 

Tip#1: Wood and Beams: Be it a skeletal web of rough-hewn beams, stacked log walls or panels of bark, wood is the most integral element to achieving rustic style. Wood panels or beams can be used to accentuate your ceilings, doorways, fireplaces or walls. Go wood crazy with your furnishings, cabinetry and accessories, all in it’s most organic, unpolished form. 

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Tip#2: Textural Textiles: Sturdy fabrics that have worked a day in their lives belong in rustic territory. Wool, burlap, linen and cotton should be chosen over silks and satins. Patterns that show appreciation for Native Americans or Western films can be winning particularly in earthy tones as well as stripes, ikat and patchwork. 

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Tip#3: Salvaged Pieces: Hello my DIY friends, this is your calling. Like the “good ‘ole days,” rustic style perpetuates simplicity as well as making do with what you got. Repurpose objects that you love, lanterns for light fixtures, rustic pales, shutters and wooden crates. Like industrial style, rustic appeals to those who like to salvage. 

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Tip#4: Distressed and Weathered: Get your patina on! Patina is that oxidized look of copper or the sheen on wood produced by age and polish. Embrace your tarnished materials and distress your accessories (either accidentally or on purpose). Rustic style is rooted in history, so objects should show the wear, tear and battle scars they’ve gained over time. 

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Tip#5: Earth Tones: We are working to connect with nature here so warm, earthy tones like greens, deep blues, red punches and golden oranges and yellows are your friends. Forget the neons, pastels and bright splashes. 

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Tip#6: A Natural Connection: This should be an obvious one, but incorporate the nature around you into your structural design. What can be viewed from your window should be reflected in the design of a space, rustic style is an extension of the environment surrounding it. Make sure windows are large for sweeping views and build doors to make the outside easily accessible within. 

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Tip#7: Woven Accessories: Time to break out your baskets, woven trays and containers. Accessories out of burlap, wire, twigs and hemp are all in play. Rustic style is about sturdy, hardworking accessories reminiscent of simpler times. 

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Tip#8: Pioneer Pastime and Old Western Appeal: Howdy there partner! To get your rustic look stick with pioneer or western themed accessories and furnishings. Think red, patriotism and nail head furniture, basically that Old Saloon look you’ve always wanted to emulate. 

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So we have covered Traditional, Hollywood Glam, Eclectic, Contemporary and Industrial. Up next is Modern. 

Until we meet again,

Jenn