How to Style Farmhouse Furniture

If you’re in the process of redecorating, you have plenty of options. But if you’re following the latest trends, one of the most popular looks is a farmhouse theme.

So, how do you style your room with farmhouse furniture? Let’s talk about this hot home trend, and how you can bring it home to your own living room.

How to Style a Room With Farmhouse Furniture

The core of the farmhouse style is simplicity, charm, and utility. Normally, you’re dealing with a lot of white, a lot of wood, and a more open floor layout.

This is not about literal farm décor, like a butter churn or a rooster statue. You can choose rural décor if you like, but that’s not necessarily the case.

You can have a farmhouse entertainment center, a farmhouse laundry room, or a farmhouse bathroom. It’s all about the colors, and about building a practical room without a lot of clutter.

But that’s a bit vague. To really understand the farmhouse style, we need to take a more detailed approach. Here’s a more thorough guide to decorating your space.

See What You’re Working With

Before you start decorating, take a look around your bare room, and take in the existing colors. Oftentimes, you’ll find attractive features that you want to bring out.

If you’re lucky, you’ll have rustic details, such as a brick interior wall or exposed wood beams on the ceiling. These are the kinds of things you want to highlight, and they can inform your color scheme and furniture layout.

Color Palette

The main thing to remember when choosing your color palette is to keep things simple. For one thing, unless your walls are brick, you’ll want to paint them white or off white.

As for the rest of your colors, stick with muted pastel tones, and avoid mixing and matching too many colors. Bright, colorful highlights should be few and far between. If you’d like to mix and match furniture, read our guide on how to mix and match furniture. 

Materials

When it comes to materials, stick with natural ones. Wood furniture and fabric or leather upholstery are in. Metal and plastic décor are out.

Create a Focal Point in Each Room

Choose a piece of furniture that’s at the core of your room. Which piece this is will depend on the nature of the room.

In a living room, a big couch or a broad coffee table could be the center of attention. In a dining room, the obvious center of focus is the dinner table, or the dining chairs that surround it. A bedroom could revolve around an oversized headboard or a large bureau.

When choosing your furniture, stay away from anything that’s overly ornate. A little scrollwork in the wood is just fine. But for the most part, every part of the design should serve some practical purpose.

Add Details That Work Well With Your Focal Point

Now that your room has a main piece of furniture, you can start to build around it. The key here is a balance between variety and cohesion. On the one hand, it helps if you have a blend of different colors and textures.

On the other hand, you don’t want to go overboard with too many details. Everything still needs to be cohesive, and you don’t want to clutter up the room with too much furniture.

Use Pieces You Already Have

Don’t feel like everything has to be brand new. In fact, a farmhouse décor scheme is a perfect opportunity to reuse older furniture.

So go ahead and break out grandma’s coffee table, or reuse your antique chest of drawers. It’s a great way to add character to your new room!

Add Dimension

Just because a farmhouse room is meant to be simple doesn’t mean it has to be boring. So add texture and detail to your background by changing up the walls.

The most obvious way to do this is to hang some paintings or photos in frames or add a rug. But you can also get creative by using shiplap or stucco instead of sheetrock. And if you want something more functional, some homemade storage shelves are a great idea.

Use Farmhouse Style Light Fixtures

Nothing will ruin a beautiful farmhouse-style room like an ugly modern light fixture. Look for something that’s metal and glass, and stay away from plastic fixtures. In a larger room, you can even make a statement with a big chandelier.

Use the Distressed Look

If you’re using wood – which you should be – think about bringing some distressed wood into your design. This is a classic element of farmhouse design, and it’s the kind of detail most people love.

One nice thing about distressed wood is that you can often obtain it for cheap, or even for free. Old pallets are a great source, although you’ll need to stay away from pallets that are too badly split. You can also check out how to paint farmhouse furniture here. 

What Are the Best Farmhouse Colors?

When you’re choosing colors, you want to stick with lighter and more neutral tones. These colors will make the room feel larger, as opposed to darker and bolder colors that tend to shrink the space.

Good examples include tan, white, brown, or beige. Pastel blue, yellow, and green are also great options if you want to liven things up with a little more color.

Avoid primary colors wherever you can. If there’s any bright, bold color, it should be a small highlight that’s designed to attract the eye.

What’s the Difference Between Rustic and Farmhouse Décor?

Farmhouse style is often confused with rustic style, and it’s true that they have a lot in common. Both styles make wide use of natural materials, particularly wood. They also put a lot of emphasis on simplicity and open design.

That said, in farmhouse style, the materials are normally painted, whether in white or in pastel colors. Rustic décor, on the other hand, is normally left unfinished.

This natural wear gives rustic décor a lot of character, since each piece will age in a unique way. On the downside, natural wood needs to be oiled regularly, or it will dry out and get cracked.