Rustic Furniture

For some, the phrase “rustic style” suggests a house like “La Pitchoune,” the late chef Julia Child’s cottage in Provence, with its exposed wooden beams and well-worn antique furniture. For others, it prompts images of a place like the Lake Placid Lodge in Upstate New York, with its stone fireplaces and knotty pine paneling. Indeed, rustic design takes many forms: twig furniture, a plank trestle table, a hand-stitched quilt, a chandelier made of deer antlers.

     Rustic design is perhaps mostly about texture and humble materials: hand-hewn wood, woven rush seats, wrought iron, coarse stone and weathered metal. As a decor, it exudes warmth and honesty, while a single piece of countrified design adds an intriguing visual counterpoint in a sleek, modern environment. As you can see on these pages, rustic wares offer no end of inspiration.