Creating a Neutral Farmhouse that Flows Through Your Home
Hi Friend, Welcome to Postbox Designs, Interior E-Design! Around here I work exclusively with Online Interior Design, and get to work with the most fabulous clients all over the country.
Probably once a week I get an email from someone who is looking to tackle multiple rooms of their home all at once. It could be one of a couple situations:
They are building a dream home but are completely overwhelmed at the idea of furnishing it.
They recently moved into a home and need a do-over. Maybe their existing furniture doesn’t work, or they need to work with some of it, but need help to finish off each room.
They want a home that flows together, and feels polished and cohesive. But they don’t know how to achieve it.
But you know the underlying factor that all of these wonderful people bring?
They are completely overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. They want to do it once, and be D-O-N-E with it, so they can just enjoy their beautiful home.
Let’s Tackle Four Neutral Room Designs
How do you tackle multiple rooms at once? Just like an elephant, we take it one bite a time. I actually offer a Multiple Room Package Discount for all of my clients who are doing three or more rooms at once with me. And I always suggest doing only ONE room at a time. We start with my client’s most important room (usually a Living Room), and work on that room exclusively until it is done. Once we have that room completed, we move onto the next room…and do it all over again.
It is that great feeling of actually crossing something off your To Do list.
Doesn’t that sound a lot easier than trying to figure out what sofa you want while also worrying about dining room chairs and bedroom pillows? Of COURSE that is overwhelming!
So let’s walk through this Warm Rustic Farmhouse Makeover…one room at a time!
Warm Rustic Farmhouse Living Room Design
As I mentioned above, I always suggest to start with the most “important” room of the home to start with. In this house, the large Great Room was open to the majority of the first floor. So I wanted to set the right tone in this room first.
My client already had the large leather sectional sofa…but that was it! To work with this huge sectional sofa, I paired it up with this rustic Restoration Hardware coffee table. Then we lighted up the dark leather with oodles of neutral Farmhouse pillows (#14-17). Adding a combo of solid colored, large pattern, and small pattern pillows will fill up the sectional sofa and also give a warm, rustic look. Pillow #6 adds some earth colored tones to the mix.
We layered in other vintage, “found” style pieces like this Pottery Barn console table (#10) and this gorgeous earth toned rug (#3) to help ground the space. Because of the open floor plan, there wasn’t a ton of wall space for artwork. So I chose these two neutral rustic wall decor prints (#5 and #12) to make an impact on these two walls.
Finally, because this Living Room was open to the adjacent kitchen, we used two of these Arhause table/bench (#4) combos behind the sofa. These can double up as a sofa table and a snack area for the kids when they are watching TV.
Rustic Farmhouse Foyer Design
It may sound obvious, but your Front Foyer is the first thing your guests see when you welcome them to your home! So this small but mighty area is a great place to set the tone for the rest of your house. I gave my client a couple of warm, rustic rug options (#2 and #3) both from Magnolia, as well as this rustic Farmhouse chandelier from Pottery Barn (#1).
If you have room for a console table in your Foyer design, it is the perfect landing spot for you and your guests. I gave her two Pottery Barn table options (#8 and #9) and added some simple decor with these rustic galvanized bins (#4) and faux plant (#5). This metal mirror (#6) gives you one last change to check your lipstick, or make sure you don’t have baby spit up going down your back!
Neutral Farmhouse Hallway Design
Whether you have an open floor plan (like in this house) or not, it makes such a big difference to have rooms that flow into each other. That way your home feels cohesive and finished. So in this home, she had a looooong hallway that needed some love and attention. She had a long bench in this area, but we finished off the look with some farmhouses pillows (#9 and #10) and these farmhouse style prints (#7). A Pottery Barn sisal runner (#8) made that space feel complete.
This home had a second “foyer” area, but you can use this below design for your foyer or back hallway area! A modern Farmhouse Pottery Barn buffet (#2) gives lots of extra storage. Then we topped it off with this rustic dough bowl (#4), mercury table lamp (#3), and this oversized modern map print of her city (#5) hung over it.
Modern Neutral Teen Hang Out Space
And maybe this wouldn’t be the type of room you would expect us to tackle in this whole house Neutral Farmhouse makeover, but we added a Teen Lounge space into the project. When you have older kids, they need a place to hang out, study, or watch TV, but they want a modern, grown up look that is very different from the Playroom of their elementary school days.
And when you have girls and boys, you need a gender neutral look that will make EVERYONE happy. So we started off with this swiss cross black and white rug (#4) and modern low slung gray sofa (#7). Then we piled on some fun pillows (#11 and #12) to make their sofa comfy. But my favorite part of this room were these rustic letter side tables (#3)-you can use these to spell out a word, like they did in this Restoration Hardware room (Item #1).
Fun wall decor that fits the tween/teen lounge area makes their space feel personalized but still grown up. I found most of these prints on Etsy and the “Relax” light up sign (#6) from PB Teen.
Creating a Whole House Neutral Design
So when you are moving into a brand new home, or you are wanting to tackle a whole house makeover, remember these rules:
Start with one room at a time. Finish that room before you move on.
Start with the most important room to you-usually a Living Room or Family Room.
Choose an overall style (modern, cottage, farmhouse, eclectic, boho, etc.) and let that style flow through each room.
Pick an overall color palette but try to mix in a few “pops” of color that are unique to each room, so your spaces don’t feel boring.
And if you are feeling stuck with YOUR whole house makeover, I would love to help you out! You can check out all of my ROOM PACKAGES & PRICING, including my Multiple Room Discount. And you can even take a Sneak Peek into a Postbox right here at How Interior E-Design Works
Want to See Other Whole House Makeovers?
Here are two other projects where I helped my clients with a “whole house” makeover. For this first project, I paired up with this wonderful client and she built her dream home in Colorado. We had her entire home designed before she even moved in. Talk about taking the overwhelm out of a project!
Farmhouse Kitchen, Dining Room, & Living Room Makeover
And for this project, I paired up with the company Sonder, who offers short term rentals all over the nation. I decorated this 700 SF rental top-to-bottom so it would be guest ready! (You can also check out the separate blog post with the Bedroom Makeover)
Whole Home Makeover: Living Room, Dining Room & Home Office
Have questions about anything you saw today, or questions on how Online Interior Design works? Just drop me an email at kristin@postboxdesigns.com and we can chat!
Cheers,
Kristin
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