As a new homeowner, it can take a little while to feel out what your home’s design aesthetic should be. Having never really been able to decorate your past living spaces, (darn those ‘no hole’ apartment policies!) you’re not sure that you even have a decorating style. All you know is that if you have to keep staring at the white walls in your house, you’re gonna go crazy, fast.

You’ve figured out that you like warm colors and hardwoods. Bouquets of flowers bring a living element into the home, and soft throws provide a sense of comfort. So, you like natural elements and being cozy. The design aesthetic that best suits your interest is what folks in the industry like to call rustic country.

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by Lands End Development – Designers & Builders

To help you get started in on the interior decoration of your home, check out these three easy ways to design for rustic authenticity!

Paint it Brown

Before you judge the idea of painting a room brown too harshly, know that it comes highly recommended by Country Living. The colors most associated with rustic country chic are white or a pale shade of gray. The magazine writes that “it wasn’t so long ago that brown, in shades ranging from beige to copper to chestnut to chocolate, was a neutral choice for interiors.”

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by High Camp Home

As brown is considered a neutral color, it can better help your décor pop or it can help to calm the space down, depending on the function of the space. Freshome notes that brown, being a neutral color, is more flexible than other paint colors, such as crimson or mustard. If you want the room to come alive or to be more subdued, you can do it through accessories; the chestnut-brown colored walls will help to frame the space, however you want it.

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by Locati Architects

Update Fixtures

You can’t achieve the rustic country style you’re looking for if your fixtures don’t match the theme of your space. Rustic chic fixtures always include a multi-tiered matte chandelier like the Paper chandelier designed by Moooi, a DIY coffee table made from a recycled palette, and a farmhouse ceiling fan that functions as light source, cooling agent and sculptural element. Have you seen the quorum windmill ceiling fan? It’s a perfect spinning miniature version of actual windmill blades. Though some might consider that getting fixtures that resemble things found on a farm (like the windmill fan) kitsch, it’s your home—you can style it any way you want to!

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by Copper Leaf Interior Design Studio

Play with Natural and Industrial Materials

Question: Would you wear an outfit that was all one color? No? Then why would you dress your living space in all one material? What’s most exciting about the world around us is the vibrancy of the colors, textures, sounds and sights. Why not bring this adventurous spirit into our rustic-inspired country interiors?

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by ACM Design

Mixing materials in the home provides a visual contrast that will keep the space feeling alive. Freshome shares that as human beings, “we tend to gravitate towards spaces that give our eyes multiple elements to examine within a cohesive whole.”

Achieving a Rustic Look: 3 Ways to Make Your Home Country Fresh

Photo by marco castelletti studio di architettura

Natural materials such as wood and stone provide a stark and visually appealing contrast with industrial materials like steel and iron. Not only will mixing and matching these materials play well off of each other visually, “your interiors will always be on trend,” says Freshome. Often when redecorating, people tend go for just that: what’s on trend. By mixing and matching materials, you never have to worry about your rustic home looking outdated; your home will always look like it’s ahead of the trend!
Are you ready to decorate your home? You betcha!