Give Your Home That Farmhouse Feel
The farmhouse look continues to enthrall many homeowners who want their home to be a cozy refuge from the busy, harsh world. This wood-and-fabric design style is fairly easy to accomplish, though you may need to remodel to some extent if you really want to have a whole-house look. You can start with a few classic pieces and increase what you have in later months.
Wooden Chandeliers
While there's nothing that says a farmhouse couldn't have a crystal chandelier, if you want to stick to the concept of homey, rustic, possibly-DIY fixtures, you need a wooden chandelier. These not only blend in more easily, but they have a simple outline that does not scream for attention. They are meant for lighting, not decorating, although you can certainly get some very nice-looking wooden chandeliers.
The Farmhouse Table
The farmhouse table is a huge, rectangular dinner table made of sturdy wood. These tables differ from the typical big wood dining table because they are much larger and made of thicker planks. You can easily seat several people there, or use the table for all your food preparation needs. The wood tends to have an aged look.
External Shutters That Work
Don't keep those fake shutters that are there for show. Replace external decorative shutters with ones that actually work. You'll find they come in handy during spring and summer when you want to leave the windows open but don't want rain coming in; the shutters block the rain from the actual window.
If you have shutters on the inside of your home -- the decorative ones that just sit on the wall, not shutters that act as window coverings -- remove those. Yes, if you really like them, keep them, but if you're neutral toward them and are remodeling, those decorative shutters are visual noise. It's best to remove them if you aren't enamored of them.
Clean and Trim
"Clean and trim" isn't a piece of furniture -- it's the overall impression you need to give on top of the rustic items you have. No matter whether the table is rough-hewn wood or the couch throws are hand-knit, everything has to look neat and clean. Imagine walking into an actual farmhouse kitchen to find dust everywhere and chairs missing from the table -- you'd get the impression that the farm wasn't being run that well. Keeping things clean and neat gives the impression of efficiency and industry, as if the people in the house were constantly working hard, and the house was their sanctuary.
The farmhouse sink, color scheme, framing, and more are all additional ways to make your house look more like a farmhouse. Evaluate each option because some may sit better with you than others; you don't have to redo your entire place from the ground up. Put some pieces in your home, like those wood chandeliers, and see how much more you want to do.