Celebrate nature in your lodge decor
Whether you live in a lodge or just wish to decorate in lodge style, the core element of the aesthetic is to celebrate nature and natural surroundings. Give your living room a quick lodge look by integrating rustic wooden pieces and plants, or invest more time and money in a full living room makeover. Personalize your lodge-style living room with art and photographs framed in rustic wooden frames. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Emphasize your lodge living room's features or integrate architectural elements that characterize lodge style. Large picture windows and bay windows afford views of the surrounding landscape, while skylights allow natural light to pour inside. Exposed wooden wall posts and ceiling beams in dark or distressed wood give the living room rustic charm. Wood panels, wide plank wooden floors or a prominent wooden mantle over the hearth extend the look.
2. Paint your lodge living room to emphasize the colors and textures of natural materials. Features such as a stone wall, brick facing or exposed wood look best left in their natural and even unpolished state, though you can subtly brighten the living room by painting them with a thin coat of milk paint or antique whitewash. For walls, stick to light and neutral hues such as cream, faded earth tones, pale yellow, stone gray or warm rosy gray.
3. Choose furnishings that evoke the great outdoors. A tree stump base on a coffee table or log frames on a couch work well in a woodland lodge setting. For a mountain lodge, you might consider pieces that add warmth and texture, such as nubby woolen rugs on floors and and patchwork quilts as throws on the couch. A beach lodge may include a weathered gray picnic bench by the window.
4. Illuminate your lodge living room with multiple fixtures. Avoid overhead fluorescent lighting, which flattens the textures of lodge interiors. Instead, use rustic fixtures such as copper lanterns, brass candlesticks holding pillar candles or a wrought iron chandelier. Flank the entry or the fireplace mantle with wall sconces to add some up-lighting.
5. Hang artwork that has a nature theme. Landscape paintings, still-life paintings, nature photography or botanical prints may adorn the mantle, floating shelves, bookcases or walls.
Tags: living room, living room, your lodge, lodge living, lodge living room
