Country Colours

Whether or not you live in the country, you can enjoy a simpler way of life by decorating your home in a modern country style and one of the key elements of doing this is through use of colour.

Modern country colours are natural, muted and subtle - think of the shades that are found in nature sage, moss, slate, clay, duck egg and chalk.

Grey

Qualities - Cool, Clear, Fresh

Grey is a versatile neutral colour to decorate with in the home and comes in many shades from Dove to Slate. Teamed with pale blues it looks clean and fresh or alternatively with taupe it takes on a warmer, earthier look. Furniture and panelling painted in pale grey take on a elegant Scandinavian look.

Green 

Qualities - Organic, Restful, Natural

The colour of freshly emerging leaves or muted sage, decorating with green in any shade is like bringing the outdoors into your home. Green is restful and rejuvenating, use apple green for a fresh summery look or olive for a rustic, autumnal feel.

Oatmeal

Qualities - Warm, Comforting, Relaxed

Calm and comforting, oatmeal is a perfect neutral base colour. Add white to keep it fresh and modern and plenty of texture to offset the muted effect. Honey tones and rich browns will add depth while tones of stone and slate will cool it down.

Blue

Qualities - Cool, Crisp, Clean

Cool blue creates a clean and crisp colour scheme, think blue and white stripes in a classic seaside beach house. Often seen as a cold colour add ivory or oatmeal for warmth or add pure white cotton and paintwork to keep the look fresh and modern.  

All pictures from Design Seeds

The Basics

Simple basic design is timeless. There are some great household staples out there that have been around for ages and whether in response to difficult financial times or a desire to embrace traditional values the trend for nostalgia is becoming increasingly obvious in the home.

At Homes & Dreams we love the aesthetics of good old fashioned kitchen classics. Take the humble wooden scrubbing brush! There is just something pleasing about using a natural wood and bristle brush rather that its modern plastic counterpart.

Practical and durable, a pressed glass lemon squeezer is a great tool to have in the kitchen for producing small amounts of citrus juice. Its not surprising that this age old design is still being used today!
There are some wonderful vintage classics out there still being produced. Take the glass Kilner Jar - both utilitarian and smart, they look and do a great job of storing dry goods or for preserving as they were originally intended.

These pared down, functional basics still do the job that they were intended to do when they were designed many years ago and in our opinion should continue to do so for many years to come.