A farmhouse kitchen embraces the nostalgia of everything that draws our hearts toward home. Farmhouse style focuses on natural and reclaimed materials, light colors, and a balance of textures. The decor leans a bit unpretentious and casual but can trend toward elegance if the designer uses high-end finishes. Open work surfaces and room for plenty of people to gather are also hallmarks of farmhouse style.
Farmhouse decor is simple enough to allow many unique interpretations of its meaning. Browse our favorite classic, modern, and other farmhouse kitchen ideas. You’re sure to find plenty of farmhouse kitchen design ideas to replicate in your own home.
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1. Embracing Timeless Farmhouse Kitchen Ideas
A farmhouse kitchen gives off a spacious, welcoming feeling. Walls are often white or another pale color, and they may have accents, beadboard, or shiplap. An apron sink is a classic farmhouse design feature that also serves a practical purpose. Its roomy interior allows you to clean big items like pots and cooking sheets, and its bumped-out edge means that any rogue splashes drip to the floor, protecting your wood cabinets from water stains.
Farmhouse kitchens often include quality hardwoods, such as cherry, oak, maple, or pine. You might find wooden cabinets in natural wood finishes or painted white. Classic, long farmhouse dining tables often feature a bench on one side. Furniture may include a variety of stained and painted wood finishes or touches of metal.
2. Elegant and Refined
While farmhouse kitchen ideas trend toward casual, comfortable decor, you can incorporate higher-end materials for a classier look. Instead of rustic wood chairs around your farmhouse table, purchase chairs with plush, tufted beige upholstery. A quartz or marble countertop conveys a classy, contemporary feeling, more so than butcher block.
Certain embellishments also heighten the classiness of your farmhouse kitchen. For example, get a kitchen island supported by contoured lathed columns instead of a bare shaker cabinet island. Replace plain cabinet hardware with glass knobs and add detailed molding accents on the ceiling or walls.
3. Optimizing Space
A galley kitchen design has a long central walkway with kitchen cabinetry, appliances, and countertops lined up on each side. It’s usually a long and narrow room, although sometimes there is enough space for a kitchen island in the middle. Although most modern farmhouse kitchens are spacious, with a dining area and a large island, farmhouse style also works well in a galley kitchen.
Keep your kitchen colors light to broaden the space. A pale grey granite countertop is better than a wood kitchen counter if you want a narrow kitchen to feel open and airy. White subway tile adds room-widening horizontal lines. Open shelving also makes the room feel more spacious.
4. Subtle Sophistication
If a white kitchen feels too sterile for your kitchen design preferences, grey is the next color to consider for farmhouse style. From pale dove grey to a deep charcoal, you can use a spectrum of grey shades in a farmhouse style kitchen.
Install a grey-finished laminate or hardwood floor and paint any exposed beams dark grey or black. If solid grey feels too cold, use a diluted grey wash on your kitchen cabinet doors to allow the wood’s warmth to break through. Check out this video for tips on grey-washing a cabinet door.
5. Elevating Comfort
If you’re accustomed to luxury finishes, enjoying farmhouse design doesn’t mean embracing a simple lifestyle. Cover a plain range hood with a wide, mantel-style enclosure that blends with your farmhouse cabinets. Or replace the hood with a tall, curved model in copper or black metal. Adding a coffered ceiling and oversized crown molding is an elegant farmhouse kitchen decor idea.
Choose the best quality stainless steel appliances you can afford. Go for the six-burner industrial range and a French-door refrigerator. Replace a dull wood island with a marble waterfall-edge kitchen island and hang impressive pendant lights above.
6. Contemporary Farmhouse Delight
Modern kitchen design and farmhouse style combine well in the kitchen. A mostly white kitchen, pale wood flooring, and natural materials are elements seen in both modern and farmhouse design. Your best modern farmhouse kitchen ideas will nod to both design styles. Glossy white subway tile is a perfect example of a material that merges the two styles.
Modern farmhouse style offers a fresh take on classic, country-inspired farmhouse kitchen decor. It incorporates a city or industrial vibe instead of a rural or suburban tone. A modern farmhouse kitchen mixes old with new, sleek with weathered, and cool with warm.
7. Efficient and Stylish
If you live in a condo or apartment, you may find yourself with an unusually narrow kitchen floorplan. Whether it’s an actual galley kitchen or half the size of one, know that modern farmhouse kitchens can fit into any size room.
The long, horizontal lines formed by shiplap paneling and subway tile help expand a narrow kitchen. Another room-expanding kitchen idea is to keep your color palette airy and light. You can still include darker or more rustic farmhouse kitchen ideas but avoid using large areas of dark colors.
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8. Captivating Rusticity
Rustic farmhouse kitchen ideas are edgy, unfinished, with an industrial or masculine vibe. A rustic farmhouse kitchen will include plenty of natural wood elements, from cabinets to furniture to a butcher block countertop. Reclaimed wood also works well in a rustic farmhouse kitchen, whether it’s repurposed furniture or a wooden pallet cabinet door.
Metal elements add a rustic edge to the farmhouse style. From a stainless steel apron sink to black wrought iron light fixtures, rustic metal finishes belong in this type of farmhouse kitchen. Upholster a bench or chair seat with leather or suede. Substitute a natural-finish beadboard backsplash for classic tile, or use natural stone or exposed brick.
9. Simplicity at its Best
A simple farmhouse kitchen design is often the best. Farmhouse kitchen cabinet design is often shaker style, hardwood or tile floors are basic finishes, and color palettes are white or neutral. Each countertop is devoid of clutter but may include a simple wooden bowl atop a galvanized metal tray. Open shelving provides basic storage for mixing bowls and mugs.
Pine, one of the least expensive types of wood, is an excellent choice in a simple farmhouse kitchen. Its knotty appearance and warm hue give your kitchen a down-home warmth.
Paint is a simple way to bring a farmhouse vibe to your kitchen. Paint walls and a beadboard backsplash white and use a pale, earthy green or blue on lower cabinets.
10. Cozy and Functional
Having a small kitchen may make you feel like you can’t fully explore farmhouse style, but that simply isn’t the case. Even just replacing a standard sink with a farmhouse model can trend the room toward farmhouse kitchen decor. Because farmhouse style can get cluttered, be sure to use all available storage space in your small kitchen.
A small butcher block island can be just as functional as a large one. If you don’t have room for a table and chairs, place barstools next to your small island. Or, install a wall-mounted fold-down table.
11. Airy and Welcoming
Old, original farmhouses usually had big, spacious kitchens. If you’re lucky enough to have a home with a big kitchen footprint, you can explore every element of farmhouse style. Go for a big island–long enough for four or five bar-style stools along one side. Consider putting your cooktop and a second sink on your kitchen island.
Install different countertop options. Have a butcher block area for food prep and a marble countertop for rolling out cookies or bread dough.
You can use darker colors in a spacious kitchen too. Make a blackboard accent wall or lay down a large dark rug. If there’s room, make a cozy coffee corner with upholstered chairs and a coffee table.
12. Nostalgic Charm
Vintage decor is perfect at home in a farmhouse kitchen. Because farmhouse style is such a classic design choice, elements that might look old or dated in a different kitchen look natural. Vintage-style farmhouse decor incorporates plenty of reclaimed and repurposed antiques.
Older baskets, retro artwork, reclaimed wood or metal signs, and flour sack textiles add that vintage feel. Open shelving was common in kitchens past, and you can paint it in a distressed finish to enhance its aged lines. Beadboard and shiplap–even on the ceilings–also enhance the vintage farmhouse style.
13. Timeless Elegance
White is probably the first color that comes to mind when you think of farmhouse kitchen design. It is the most popular color for farmhouse-style walls and cabinets. While most farmhouse kitchens include plenty of wood-tone and metal elements, some have white countertops and white furniture.
Classic white subway tile forms a perfect backsplash in a white farmhouse kitchen. Reclaimed wood open shelving in natural wood tones helps break up a sea of white. Exposed ceiling beams are fantastic accents in a white farmhouse kitchen, as they add a place to include a darker color.
14. Embracing Heritage
Traditional farmhouse kitchens exude a warm and inviting charm that harkens back to simpler times. These kitchens are characterized by their rustic and cozy aesthetics, incorporating natural elements and vintage-inspired details. Traditional farmhouse kitchens often feature open shelving to showcase a collection of mismatched dishes, distressed wooden cabinets, and a farmhouse sink that adds a touch of nostalgia.
The use of natural materials like reclaimed wood, exposed beams, and stone countertops further enhance the rustic appeal. A farmhouse kitchen typically embraces a neutral color palette, with hues of cream, white, and earthy tones, creating a serene and timeless atmosphere. Whether it’s the smell of freshly baked bread or the comforting sight of a crackling fireplace, traditional farmhouse kitchens evoke a sense of nostalgia and provide a welcoming space to gather and create cherished memories.
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