Cosy Home – Discovering Rustic Interior Design

You’ve travelled. I’ve travelled. We’ve all travelled. Recently something struck me about the meaning behind the saying ‘the whole point in travelling is to return home and know the place for the first time’. I think that might be a genuine quote, in fact, or close to it. Anyway, to me the meaning behind that phrase is that the homelier you make your home, the bigger the reward when you come back to it after time away. I want that appreciative feeling. The feeling of home.

The problem is that ‘home’ doesn’t come from catalogue furniture or matching supermarket lamps. How does one actually go about making a house a home? The answer, surely, is personal style. Taste. Class. Making your mark. One type of design trumps all others when it comes to helping you to find yourself regarding personalised interior design – rustic themes.

Discovering the Rustic Look

At first glance, ‘rustic’ seems to be the word we use when describing warm colours mixed with wooden floors, wooden beams, liberal amounts of glass, and bare rock. It looks super expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. Here’s the three things you need to pull it off…

1. Let’s start with lighting, and let’s kill two birds with one stone – those of warm colours and glass. If you haven’t heard about rustic looking oversized filament style LED lights, you’re missing a trick when it comes to rustic cosy styles. See LED Hut for inspiration. You’re also going to need a bronze or copper table lamp to complete your two-piece lighting ensemble (tip: stick to natural colours for the lampshade – washed out stone colours work best).
2. Next you need furniture. Think Oak. Not entirely oak, of course. Even with the biggest cushions in the world you’re bound to touch the cold wood with your bare skin at some point when you’re settling in for the night. Get imaginative and shop around for wooden legs and arms mixed with comfortable fabric seats and seat-backs. To give you an idea of the perfect balance between wood and fabric, plus for a good understanding of the colour tones involved, see this time lapse a rustic looking wood and fabric couch being made.
3. We’ve got the bare glass and lighting essentials covered. We’ve got somewhere to sit. What’s left? The final piece of furniture that you need to really transform your living room from a run of the mill ordinary room to a rustic style homely masterpiece is a wood table. Try a long wood table with knots and wavy bends visible on the table surface. Perfect.

That’s it, folks, a rustic living room on a budget. Lighting. Seating. And a matching coffee table. If you have the funds to invest in hardwood flooring and a faux animal skin rug, all the better. But for now, I think I’ll be happy returning from travelling to find a warm and cosy rustic living that’s got my personality stamped on it, and all for the cost of a couple of bulbs, a couch, and a table. Now go get comfortable!

Photo credits: lightbulb, bench