A country kitchen design means having a relaxed and friendly kitchen space with some antique or reproduction furniture where everyone can gather to enjoy wonderful meals and good conversation. Not just a place to prepare meals, the kitchen can be the most popular room in your home.
Materials - with a country kitchen design, use natural materials with comfortable rustic furnishings that are warm and welcoming. Creating unique country kitchens means using open shelves and cupboards for displaying antique or reproduction plates and dinnerware, earthenware, baskets and glass jars. Pots should be made of copper, cast iron, stoneware or even stainless steel to maintain the country look.
Materials for the cabinets would include wood materials with a natural, rough or distressed finish to add to the country style. Cabinets built of painted, distressed or naturally-finished wood can be beautiful when used in country kitchen design.
Floor and countertop materials used are important elements to maintain the rustic country look. Use ceramic tiles, hand-painted tiles, slate, stone or marble for the countertop. Popular flooring material choices could be terra cotta tiles, brick, stone and wood.
Colors - having a country look means using warm earthy colors for this style of home decor. The use of neutral colors like bone or white works well. You can also select red barn, blues and greens that will be appropriate colors for country home decor. Select plain colors for coverings for countertop materials if laminates will be used. Country home decorating can also incorporate stenciling and wallpaper. Stenciling around windows and in areas where walls and ceiling meet can add to the rustic look.
Kitchen Islands - a kitchen island is an essential part of a desirable kitchen according to most homebuyers. Having a kitchen island in your country kitchen design adds value to your home. The kitchen island reminds us of long ago when the kitchen island in farmhouses was where the food prep work was done. With limited space, choose a rolling butcher block that is movable and can be wheeled around as needed.
Furniture - use some antiques or reproductions if you have the space in your kitchen. Do not be concerned if the antiques have chips and scratches. Imperfections will add to the charm and rustic look in the country kitchen design.
Before actually starting to do the work, keep your ideas and pictures you like in a notebook. The planning stage is important and has fun going through books and magazines and searching online for country kitchen examples and ideas that you like.