If you enjoy cooking and entertaining, your kitchen will be one of the highest traffic areas of your home. So, you’ll want to make sure that you build it and decorate it in a way that meets both your style needs and your functionality needs.

Why Farmhouse Style

Who doesn’t love the warm and inviting aesthetic of farmhouse style design? It’s simple and homey, and in most cases the style prioritizes practicality (those all-white designs being the exclusion – honestly, who’s that practical for?) over everything else. That’s why this style is the perfect fit for a kitchen that will be used often for family meals, friendly potlucks, and gathering for weekend football games or book clubs.

Farmhouse style can mean so many things to different enthusiasts, but there are a few standard options we’ll go through in this article.

Natural Elements

The biggest key to any farmhouse interior is incorporating natural elements into the home. Think rustic woods for the kitchen cabinetry and for a butcher block to cut your meats and vegetables. Hardwood floors will also give you a farmhouse feel for your kitchen. Or you could take a simpler approach and put a couple fresh flowers in the kitchen window or in a vase on the counter.

Neutral Colors

Farmhouse style is often muted in color with a lot of whites, grays, earthy greens, taupes and beiges. But it’s anything but boring! Choose a color palette that will allow you to keep a serene and tranquil environment with limited pops of color, such as from fresh flowers, your backsplash if it’s not too large, or a hanging sign (we’ll talk more about signs later in this article).

Window Coverings

Every beautiful kitchen has plenty of natural light. Natural light is another one of those keys to farmhouse style as well. Capture as much of it as you can with light linens to decorate your kitchen windows. Valances or kitchen tiers (or both!) are the preferred window treatments for letting in as much natural light as you can while also maintaining your privacy. This is not the room for your heavy blackout curtains.

A Practical Setup

For a farmhouse kitchen with space to entertain, you will need a practical setup. This means you will have plenty of open counter space (always put away any unused small appliances and other clutter) at your disposal for food prep before guests arrive and for putting out plates and trays for when they do arrive.

Another staple of a farmhouse style kitchen is a large sink for rinsing and cleanup. If you have a dishwasher, it should be near the sink. You should have plenty of space to move throughout the kitchen, so don’t go for a huge island if it will make it impossible to walk from the sink to the refrigerator. And be sure that all of your cabinet doors can fully open and close without hitting something else in your kitchen. Pay specific attention to all the cabinets in corner positions.

Depending on the size of your kitchen, you should also think about in-kitchen seating. This could be in the form of a nook in the corner, a full-sized dining room table or a couple of bar stools off the center island.

Kitchen

Farmhouse Patterns

When it comes to the type of decorating you’ll do with linens of any kind, such as your window treatments, kitchen towels, dining placemats and napkins, chair pads, etc., we recommend going with ether stripes or plaid (or a similar gingham check or Buffalo check). These are subtle patterns that are not specific to a particular season and that play well with others because they don’t take over the space. A less subtle but also very common choice among farmhouse enthusiasts is old vintage barns and barnyard animals like roosters, cows and pigs.

A Unique Sign

Fans of farmhouse style will tell you no space is complete without the perfect sign. Be sure to choose a piece of wall art that fits the scale of the room. A tiny 8-inch by 10-inch sign on a huge open wall will look silly, but so will an enormous sign on a smaller wall. Getting the right size is the biggest key here.

Don’t clutter the room with 15 different signs strewn about the wall. Pick one or two to really bring your entire design together. This is a finishing touch rather than the piece to decorate around. A standard option would be something with a word like “EAT” or “WELCOME” or “KITCHEN”. Something less obvious might be your family’s surname. Whatever you choose, to fit the farmhouse look it should look handmade and somewhat vintage.

Conclusion

A farmhouse kitchen is always in style. It’s always welcoming and comforting at the same time, so it’s perfect for entertaining your guests. Use the tips above to create a cozy and welcoming space for your family and guests to gather and enjoy good food and even better company.

About the Author:

Kim Foerst is the digital marketing manager for Lush Decor, the flagship brand of Triangle Home Fashions. She’s very interested in writing about home decor and interior design and loves to redecorate and photograph various spaces in her home every chance that she gets.