Rustic elements, when styled in personal spaces like home, take us back in time—back to the very basics. The style talks about everything from the stone age to the industrial era, bringing back their casual comfort. It kindles our innate desire to find joy in purism —the unfinished logs of wood, the unpolished sheets of metal, the untrimmed loops of fabrics and everything else that took a non-conformist approach to contemporary lifestyle. The essence of rustic decor is a simple style that highlights the beauty of muted colours, organic materials (such as wooden beams or accents of stone and clay) and cosy furniture. This adaptable design style is suitable for almost any interior space, including living rooms and bathrooms.

Relaxed and rustic home decor ideas

Punam Kalra, Interior Designer and Creative Director of I'm the Centre for Applied Arts, shared with Lifestyle some practical tips to incorporate a relaxed and rustic look in home decor.

1. Celebrating the unique textures

The aesthetic underlines the character of a space with strong textures and adds a sense of tactility to the space. Hand-finished clay accessories, handwoven cane seaters, and hand-tufted bamboo carpets with hand-crafting are celebrated, in all their glory, to give a unique look with every piece--a look that lends a personal meaning to the homebound elements.

2. Stripping off the layers

Rustic styling brings out the beauty of the ordinary. It defies the need for aesthetic layers that hide the raw beauty underneath. The artful assemblages of hardware and structural members is appreciated—the bolts and joists of benches, the brackets of framed shelves, the chains of suspended swings, the filaments of the light bulbs and more come out as bold personifications of the rustic.

3. Bringing in muted tones

The relaxed character of these styles comes from the muted palettes that are essentially a mix of neutrals and desaturated tones of reds, greens and blues. All of browns and beiges from walnut to tan come overrule the spaces and look for the pop in Pewter green, Rust Orange, Denim blue and more laid-back variations. Leather, denim, wood and other genuine material palettes speak for these colors without shying away in dyes and paints.

4. Rethinking the ceiling

Homes with a rustic persona think beyond flat roofs and false ceilings—the ceilings go taller, maybe to the duplex levels, to accommodate the trusses, beams, coffers, wood rafters and other structural elements that lay exposed to cose up the space. They also make room for attic spaces and mezzanine floors that make a space interesting while still being enveloped in a cozy overall.

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