There are many important aspects involved when you set out to create a cozy, rustic kitchen design. Each of the factors that go into creating a look that echoes the earthy feel of nature is important. In fact, each aspect has specific things to keep in mind if you are putting together a rustic kitchen design. Let's consider a few of them.

Tips for Rustic Kitchen Design

There are a number of ways to approach designing a rustic kitchen. The elements however, are consistent no matter which approach you take. From lighting to fabric choice, each texture, color and overall look and feel contributes to finished design. Let's briefly consider some aspects of designing a rustic kitchen.

Metal Can Be Rustic

Perhaps metal does not readily come to your mind when you ponder which elements to incorporate in your rustic kitchen. Yet, if the proper metal finish is selected, the results can be compelling. Not all metal fits in with a rustic kitchen design. For example, chrome is too bright and shiny. However, brass, bronze, or antique copper are all magnificent choices for a rustically designed kitchen.

A Rustic Look Is "Rough Around the Edges"

A great looking rustic design has a rough look to it. And while it is still pleasing to the eye, it feels somewhat like the natural outdoors. It often has roughly textured surfaces and an earthy feel. It conveys a sense of raw material with a sense of elegance that just feels right.

Color Selection In Rustic Design

Because good rustic designs have the feeling of nature in them, often times great rustic designs use neutral tones and earthy hues from the color spectrum. Natural stone and wood are great surfaces to use in a rustic theme. Rich colors make wonderful accents for such materials. The contrasts that can be tailored by carefully using color and texture in creative ways produces absolutely outstanding designs.

Rustic Kitchens - Not Soft, But Rugged

The central concept when creating a rustic design is to successfully blend elegance with the raw, natural components found in the outdoors. As a result, surfaces will look less polished, but not sloppy or neglected. For example, the image above features an exposed brick wall to create a rustic atmosphere. And even though the wall has the unfinished and raw appearance, it still conveys a clean and complete feel.

The "Fabric" of Your Rustic Design

You may be thinking that since rugged kitchens exude roughness without overdoing it, that you should not use fabrics in the design. Well, that is not completely true. Fabric can in fact be used a rustically designed kitchen; the image above is a good example of an area with a rustic theme. You can see in that there is in fact some fabric present. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when you incorporate fabric into a rustic design. First, there should not be a lot of fabric. And second, the fabric should be coarse and not too soft.

Rustic Lighting - Not to be Taken "Lightly"

When it comes to lighting in rustic kitchen design, the most natural feeling light is sunlight. So, the more light you can allow in from the outside, the better. Even if your kitchen does not offer the space for large or numerous windows, perhaps it allows for skylights or other methods for getting light into the room. Other options include light fixtures that have a primitive style or resemble lanterns or oil lamps.

As previously stated, a rustic kitchen design is a popular design style that brings raw natural elements together with an order, organization or structure to produce a clean, yet rugged feeling. This can be enhanced by using fabric, lighting, metal, color, and stone to highlight texture and the outdoors. So if you are in the process of putting together a rustic style kitchen, why look for ways to make good use of one or more of these techniques?