Home Decorating- Country Style

What is Country Style? The primary characteristic of Country Style is an ambiance of coziness and comfort. There is a feeling of being welcome that begs you to relax, be still, at peace. It conjures up memories of a simpler time, of cookies being baked, and bed sheets fresh off the line. These qualities are the very allure of Country Style and responsible for its ongoing popularity. One would think that to achieve this atmosphere would be very difficult. However the relative ease of achieving Country Style décor is another major reason for its mass appeal.

What features distinguish Country Style from the others? Overstuffed sofas and chairs, throw pillows to lean into, footstools that say, “Put your feet up, stay a while.” Country Style breaks all of the rules. It says, “anything goes”. Country style is mix and match, plaids with stripes, stripes with florals. Colors that once were considered “clashing,” fit perfectly in the Country décor. Colorful throws and lap quilts that beckon you to use them, all are a part of what makes up Country Style.

Although Country Style breaks all of the rules, there are some basic design elements that are common to every well designed room. First and foremost, while putting together all of these various patterns and designs, it is vital that they all be tied together in some way. If your favorite floral print is in greens and you have a wonderful plaid also in greens that you want to use with it, make sure that the backgrounds in both prints are the same. That is the thing that will bind these patterns together, and serve as the unifying thread creating a harmony throughout your room.

Another important thing to consider in any décor is the focal point. What is the first thing that your eyes are drawn to when you walk into your room? Whatever that is, an architectural feature or an unusual piece of furniture that your eyes light on, that is your focal point. In many rooms the natural focal point is the fireplace. The reason for this is its size and its position in a room. If you don’t have a fireplace, however, you can create a focal point. Look about your room and ask yourself, what feature, what cherished antique, or object of art, do you want to make stand out the most, to become your focal point?

Once selected, how do we make that fireplace or unique object stand out and become our focal point? There are several ways this can be accomplished. If it’s a favorite painting, then consider using indirect lighting directed onto it to draw the eye in that direction. Another way this can be accomplished is the creative use and placement of interesting objects, and the use of color. Is your focal point a special table perhaps? A colorful floral arrangement would be just the right touch. You might use a floral arrangement that has your rooms selected color scheme in it, with an unexpected splash of another color as well. I enjoy using a dash of purple in any room that I am designing. That touch is often just what I need to create a point of focus.

When decorating a fireplace, using an asymmetrical placement of pots and other unrelated objects can draw the eye right to your mantel. If the Victoria era has a special place in your heart, and you want to capture a bit of that moment in time, your fireplace mantel is just the right spot to do it. Having lace trimmed doilies hanging over the mantel’s edge, antique glass wear, an antique lamp with a fringe trimmed shade surrounded by old pictures, pewter or brass items, All could do their part to speak to the place in time that you are trying to recreate.

Some other suggestions that you may consider are the taking of unexpected objects and using them in an unexpected way. A picnic basket filled with greens, a tea pot with some flowers from your garden. Antique milk can for holding umbrellas, or a big pot for kindling wood on your hearth.

Go on a treasure hunt through your house. You never know what you may find. A trip to your local junk store will often yield those one of a kind items that will supply just the touch you need. As you go about the junk store, ask yourself, “how else could that item be used?” Picture whatever it is that catches your eye with a coat of paint, or filled with greenery, or flowers. That old birdhouse with the roof that lifts up placed on the entry table for mail, or keys. What about magazines sticking out of an old breadbox in the bathroom? Would that be scandalous? Not at all! It’s that sometimes outrageous composition that is the epitome of Country Style and the special unexpected quality that we are striving to achieve.

Again, in Country Style, anything goes. These small unpredictable touches that seem to capture another moment in time, all help to create the very effects that we are striving to establish.

This process of choosing what feels and looks right to us makes Country Style so amazingly inviting and very personal. As you select objects to display and colors to use, that very process is what makes your rooms, your home distinctively you. It’s how your personality is displayed; your creativity and even your sense of humor are demonstrated. We’ve all heard it said that our homes are a reflection of our personalities. That is never more true than in a home that is decorated Country Style.