7 Ways to Create a Country Kitchen
Whether you are living in the countryside or in a town or city, many families want a kitchen with a more rustic feel.
It’s not just our primaeval yearning for a more natural lifestyle surrounded by fields and woodlands, but a sense of style too.
The country kitchen summons up images of home baked bread, ingredients plucked from the garden, summertime, and simplicity. In today’s busy, tech-heavy world, a little bit of simplicity goes a long way. But, how do you get your dream country kitchen? Consider these 7 ideas:
Rustic Materials
Think of a country kitchen and you think of certain, simple and natural materials. This means wood and stone. This is why we specialise in bespoke wooden cabinets where we do our best to use local, British woods like oak. Furthermore, granite, stone or wooden countertops add to the rustic feel. We would also suggest looking into stone floors which are cool in summer.
Natural Fabrics
Rustic kitchens are all about tradition with simple, more natural materials compared to ultra-modern science derived products. This includes fabrics. When thinking about curtains and tablecloths for example, look to natural fibres, wools, cotton, and linen. Patterns tend to be simple too, so think of single colours or stripes, gingham, or small nature motifs.
Rustic ColoursAlong with natural colours – stone and woods, and simple designs, go with more rustic colours. These tend to be more subtle, white, pale colours – pastels, light blue, light green, lots of browns – natural woods, and so on.
Your Storage on View
There’s no harm in having your storage items on view for the world to see – well, not world, but anyone visiting your home. Of course you can go for upper cabinets, but rustic kitchens often forego these for shelves. So if you’re going to have open shelves, fill them with jars of stuff. Put your cereals in jars, pasta, salt, pepper, sugar, flour, spaghetti etc…
Reclaim, Recycle and Reuse
As the above subtitle suggests – rustic kitchens are known for their practicality. That means finding unique items on eBay or at bring and buy sales, salvage yards, jumble sales, or from your own house/neighbourhood. Many things can be reused and recycled.
Technological Minimalism
As we have seen in this blog before, technology is everywhere and never more so than in the kitchen. Gadgets are always being invented to quote unquote – make life easier. But are they really? A rustic kitchen pares back on the smart coffee machines and sandwich toasters, and would never consider a IoT connected mobile phone controlled modern appliances. Keep it simple, low tech, and low electricity!
Freestanding Pieces
One of the traditional elements of a rural kitchen is freestanding pieces. This is the opposite of the normal suburban or urban kitchen which is fully fitted. This gives a more relaxed feel to the room. We would suggest a mixture – sure a freestanding table instead of a kitchen island or a freestanding aga for cooking, but having most of your cabinets fitted is a good idea for their longevity.
