How to Blend the Rustic and Modern in Your Home

Blending rustic and modern elements in the home is equally confusing and endlessly creative, simply because it opens up a world of choice of how you can design your interiors. Personally, it’s my favourite style of design and has become increasingly popular for people looking for the state-of-the-art without losing a sense of soul. With some simple starting points, here are a few ways that you can create the perfect blend between natural and chic in whatever home you own.

Textures The essential aspect in both rustic and modern design is simplicity. Modernism will bring a minimalistic feel with cold, hard surfaces in polished stone or artificial materials. Bring in natural elements like bare-brick walls or reclaimed wood furniture to contrast this and add complimentary textures that balance each other.

Colours For furnishings, walls and fabrics pick a colour palette that blends cooler neutrals like grey and white with deep, rich tones like brown, sunburnt orange and aubergine. This way you get the best of both worlds and can use the warmer rustic colours as feature highlights that set a theme for accessories like candles, cushions and ornaments. As a general rule, keep things neutral as you want plenty of natural light to be able to bounce around each room but add cosy tones for homely comfort. A good tip is to pick a perfect in between shade like cream or putty as a base to build from.

Shapes Modern shapes are designed to be aesthetically ‘perfect’. Smooth, finished and refined, most modern designs aim for a flawless look. The rustic ethos is somewhat contradicting to this. Perfectly summed up by the Japanese ‘wabi-sabi’ philosophy, rustic design is ‘the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.’ I suppose we can either look at these two styles as contradictory or complementary. The key is to not have too much of one or the other. In a cold, modern kitchen, that battered fruit bowl could look out of place. Give it some company by having a chalkboard for shopping lists and recipes or stacking your colourful crockery on open shelves and hanging racks.

Touches Although it is key to keep things simple, no home is complete until it has been lived in and given those all essential finishing touches. For rustic décor, nature is always best so pick up some pine cones the next time you go for a walk and place them on your window sill or fire place. Better still, nurture some understated and peculiar succulent plants that are a blend of modern perfection and rustic naturalism.

There’s plenty of inspiration out there to keep your mind ticking over with ideas. Come out with a clear plan for each particular room to establish the perfect personalised theme throughout your home.