Give your kitchen the rustic look of a log home.
Log home d cor is a mix of rustic-lodge, Southwestern and American-country design. It draws its essence from centuries-old pioneer cabins with rough textures, handcrafted furniture and natural elements. Today's log homes, whether built from kits or crafted by hand, offer every amenity available in other architectural styles, including contemporary kitchens set against log walls. If you don't live in a log home but long for the inviting warmth of one, you can still achieve this rustic look in your kitchen. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Lay a wood-plank floor. Choose a soft wood such as pine that weathers quickly for a rustic, log-cabin vibe. Or, opt for more durable hardwood or tile for a country look. Warm the floor with an oval braided rug or an Oriental area rug. Use nonslip backings to avoid taking a fall.
2. Clad the kitchen island with bead board. Paint it a country color like gray blue, barn red or mustard yellow. Top it with butcher block. Substitute your kitchen island with a vintage chopping block or weathered farm table.
3. Light the space with a chandelier crafted from deer antlers, one made from black wrought-iron complete with lights designed to look like candles, or pendant lights with punched-tin shades.
4. Install a farmhouse style sink, deep with an exposed apron. Couple it with wood countertops. Install a brick or punched-tin backsplash.
5. Switch out traditional cupboards for open shelves fashioned from logs or pine planks. Opt for free-standing antique storage pieces such as pie safes, or jelly or Hoosier cupboards.
6. Camouflage your appliances with custom-made wood panels designed to blend in with the rest of the room's d cor.
7. Dress the windows with curtains made from material featuring country designs such as stars and hearts. Go more primitive with a piece of burlap or linen tacked to the window frame and tied back with twine.
8. Surround a farm table with bentwood dining chairs. Soften them with cushions sewn from a vintage quilt or Indian blanket. Center the table with a wooden bowl filled with balls fashioned from rags like those used to make rag rugs. Opt for a basket filled with pine cones or dried hydrangeas.
9. Hang bunches of dried herbs from ceiling beams. Add baskets and vintage wrought-iron frying pans. Highlight the walls with framed prints in old-West themes. Lean a kiva ladder, such as those found in Southwestern d cor, against the wall as open storage for dish towels and aprons.
Tags: your kitchen, farm table, fashioned from, filled with, island with, kitchen island
