Inspiring Country Style Living Room Ideas For Your Ranch

Author: Bryn Huntpalmer, Modernize

Country-style decor can sometimes get a bad wrap. People often think of ceramic roosters from years past or glaring red barn doors. But here at Modernize, we absolutely love country decor—and we know you can achieve that rustic aesthetic with a modern twist. Here are some great tips to design the country-style living room your ranch is missing.

Bring Nature Inside

For a truly rustic feel, utilize natural wood for paneling, floors, doors or furniture. The warm colors will brighten up the space without feeling overdone, and it’ll feel reminiscent of a lodge or a modern barn.Treat wood with a stain or sealant close to the raw color to preserve its natural beauty.

You can also bring in plants to sunny areas. The best indoor plants for bright light are cactus, succulents, agave, and figs. Grow your indoor plants in rustic tins or planters to create a cohesive look.

Kick off Your Shoes

People feel drawn to country decor for several reasons, but the most common is comfort. Country colors, like rustic red, warm yellow, and shades of brown, invite guests to relax and stay for a while. Choose a chair or couch that is so comfy, you can’t walk past it without sinking in. Kick up your feet on a leather, plaid, or neutral-colored sofa or chair.

Make sure there’s space for your family and a few guests, so you can all be in the same room together. You’ll need a coffee table, too. We love the idea of building a table out of a recycled pallet, or unstained and sealed wood.

Accessories Tie the Room Together

If you’re a hunter, showing off antlers can be a great conversation starter for your living room. You can do a lot with antlers, from hanging lights, lanterns, and LED candles to incorporating them into a bookshelf, coffee table, or magazine rack.

Window treatments offer a finishing touch, but these are usually pretty simple in country-style decor. Go for a plaid or striped fabric, or install straw or bamboo blinds to add a neutral color and maintain privacy. You can even use those antlers to draw the curtains to the side and hook them into place.

Get creative with small accessories, from ammo coasters to model cars, horseshoes, and repurposed whiskey bottles. For a rug, choose a size that suits your sitting space, and bring in a pop of rustic color or a pattern that makes you feel peaceful.

Room to Entertain

You can keep your flat-screen 4K TV with no worries about it “fitting” with country-style decor. Just choose an entertainment center with doors that close to hide your electronics and wiring. Find one with shelves for Blu-Rays, gaming consoles, remotes, and sound systems.

If you love books, incorporate bookshelves into your living room to create a reading area. You can also set up a chessboard or a collection of board games for hosting guests and family nights. Choosing to split up a living room into sections maintains the cohesive, open flow while utilizing the space for multiple purposes to take advantage of square footage.

So, if you’ve been dreaming of that rustic man cave or neutral family room, now you have some ideas to help you get started on turning that dream into reality!

About the Author:

Bryn Huntpalmer is a mother of two young children living in Austin, Texas where she currently works as an Editor for Modernize. In addition to regularly contributing to Home Remodeling and Design websites around the web, her writing can be found on Lifehacker and About.com.