Traditional country kitchens have many distinct architectural qualities - natural wooden floors, low ceilings, heavy beams - but creating your dream country kitchen look in a more modern home is very achievable.
Bringing the outdoors in with natural materials, plants, and vegetables, choosing a quintessential country colour palette, and embracing the country maxim of 'more is more' when displaying your kitchenware, are all key to creating your desired outcome.
Read on for more tips to achieve your dream country kitchen.
Bring the outdoors in
A key component of the country kitchen is a visual proximity to the outdoors. A kitchen that looks out onto lush countryside scenes is a gift, but it’s not a necessity in creating a country look.
Use natural materials as far as possible – wood and stone are the country essentials – and display bowls of fruit or a basket of vegetables, keep fresh or dried flowers, hang herbs in bunches, and pile logs onto shelves or in unused corners.
Raw finishes, such as exposed brick or concrete, rough timber, or brushed metals, can add posterity to a design scheme, creating the allusion of time-weathered country kitchen.
Display your wares
Country style is characterised by its charming mismatch of furniture (inherited and new,) a love of busy print and pattern, and the casual way in which trinkets and accessories are displayed.
In a country kitchen, this means open or glass-fronted display units to store pans, crockery, and linens. For any bits you want to hide, attach a rod and curtain to keep the contents out of sight, or source rustic apple crates or willow baskets to store items in an organised fashion on shelves – you can mix and match sizes and shapes depending on the space available.
Include decorative displays too - a simple hanging rail for pans and utensils, a wall-mounted plate rack, or industrial-look pigeon-holes. Mounting chopping boards and cooking utensils on the wall creates an interesting display and saves valuable drawer space.
Go green
No other kitchen colour can evoke countryside scenes quite as well as green.
Tom Howley, Design Director at the eponymous kitchen company, says: ‘Green kitchens are having something of a moment right now. As a colour we associate primarily with nature, this grounding shade has an incredible way of reconnecting us with our surroundings, creating moments of calm and positivity.’
Green is a brilliant compliment to clean-lined carpentry such as classic Shaker panels, and the choice of shades is many and varied, like this soft sage green kitchen at Neptune, or Tom Howley’s own earthy olive-green Serpentine.
Consider a darker shade for the base units and a lighter one for the wall units. This helps create a natural horizon and will increase the feeling of space and openness in your kitchen.
Add comfy furniture
This is a rather wonderful feature of country kitchens. As the unofficial gathering spot of family and friends, a country kitchen requires additional seating to accommodate lounging, studying, working, or socialising.
This is a great opportunity to soften the practical materials and hard surfaces required in a kitchen, and the perfect way to introduce print and pattern, colour, and personality.
Add a sofa under a window, an armchair in an unused corner, or even bar stools at a counter - whatever your space allows – and accessorise with piles of cushions, throws, and a rug underfoot.
Invest in a kitchen island
A classic kitchen island can come in many forms depending on the size of your space. Large or open-plan kitchens allow for practical built-in islands that can be used to conceal appliances such as ovens and fridges. They are also ideal for creating sociable cooking, entertaining and dining areas if they include a useful breakfast bar and stools.
Smaller spaces can feature a refectory-style table or a butcher’s block on castors that can be wheeled away when not in use.
No matter the size, the defining characteristics for a true country kitchen island is the artful mess on top – mason jars, recipe books, bowls of fruit, cutting boards – anything goes.
Zone your space with a carpet
An open-plan kitchen-diner is a total gift in a country home, and clever zoning can create both a physical and psychological break between the prepping and cooking that takes place in a kitchen, and the more sociable or relaxing aspect of enjoying a meal.
Carpet is not traditionally the first choice of flooring in a kitchen, but a hardy carpet designed for high traffic areas is a perfect way to zone your open-plan spaces. A creamy neutral wool or fun striped design will add texture and warmth to your space, and be more pleasant underfoot when you’re sitting down to socialise.
Consider carpet in adjacent spaces too, like your utility room, to soften an otherwise purely functional design scheme.
Essential accessories for a country kitchen
