Rustic home decor adds a comfortable and unique look to a country home, and there are several ways to accomplish this look. The homeowner can choose a specific style of furniture, such as Mission furniture, that features straight lines and simple designs. Wood grains should be prominent, and either natural or artificial aging of furniture and accents will add more rustic quality to the decor. Using natural items can add to rustic home decor as well; using pine cones or raw pieces of driftwood as accents in a room can give it a more natural feel.
Perhaps the most common type of rustic home decor is unfinished log furniture. Tables, chairs, bed frames, and other pieces can be made from logs that are not cut to angles or planes, but are instead left raw and, in some cases, with bark remaining on the wood. This rough-hewn type of furniture gives the impression that the wood was freshly hauled from the forest and cut for utilitarian purposes. Such wood tends to age well, improving aesthetically as the years go by. Some of this furniture can be bulky, however, and it may not always fit the desired aesthetic.
Other types of rustic home decor are more finished, featuring cleaner lines and straighter angles. What makes the furniture rustic is the finishing: deep colors and prominent wood grains give a rustic feel, and in some cases, the wood may feature knots, cracks, splits, or other imperfections that create a rustic look and feel. Knotty pine, for example, is a softwood that features many imperfections known as knots; these knots give the pine a distinctive look that is more eye-catching than consistently grained woods. Generally speaking, leaving the wood unpainted will increase the rustic quality, as the wood grain and imperfections will show through more easily.
Pieces of furniture that are designed for functionality rather than aesthetics complement rustic home decor nicely. Simple designs with little or no creative flourishes may look plain and unattractive on their own, but when combined with the overall rustic aesthetic of a home, they will look inviting and interesting. Adirondack chairs, for example, feature a distinctive and simple design that creates a comfortable sitting location as well as an eye catching conversation piece. The original designs of the Adirondack chair were even simpler than more modern designs that feature more creative cutting. For a real rustic experience, the original design of the chair will work wonderfully.