Category: rustic

In order for your Airbnb to appeal to parents with young children, it needs to tick many boxes. But what are they and how can you style your living room so it is appealing to the family-focused traveller?

1 Style and character…

… but that doesn’t mean you should leave personal items scattered about the place. Family-friendly rentals are those that offer style and functionality, without losing all its character. Just like the rest of your home, consider continuing your style to give your home a cohesive finish. The rustic style is perfect – functional, robust, warm and welcoming, reclaimed wood furniture is perfect for any Airbnb property.

2 A space to lounge

When creating a family-friendly living room in an Airbnb rental, you want it to be a space that oozes in informality, welcoming your guests to relax and unwind after a busy day sightseeing.

There are many ways to do this;

• Seating – a deep, sumptuous sofa is essential, as you would expect, with options like a brown leather sofa is ideal for not only keeping clean but withstanding the rigour of use. Alongside the sofa, armchairs are a must. The traditionally styled wingback armchair declares an instant sumptuous appeal. Opting for a brown leather armchair brings the same benefits as the leather sofa.

• Layers of light – adding different lighting options adds layers of light for your guests to use. Softer lighting is perfect for movie night or for helping the kids to relax after a fun-filled day but there are also times when the need for bright light is essential.
• Wi-Fi and technology in general – from controlling lights with voice command to making sure that everyone has access to Wi-Fi is also a welcome detail that guests like to have taken care of in the Airbnb family-friendly living room.

3 Dress to impress

The assumption is with anything aimed at families, that the detailing doesn’t need to be as stylish as in other settings or that parents aren’t looking for the extra hints of luxury and opulence.

But the opposite is true. Adding textures is perfect for adding a sense of luxury to the living room because, without it, it can look flat. Build the family-friendly living room with beautiful living room rugs, making sure you opt for one that is the optimum size for the living room.

Use other reclaimed wood furniture to frame the pieces in the room such as a reclaimed wood coffee table that is smaller than the overall length of the brown leather sofa you have opted for.

4 Choose reclaimed wood furniture pieces that sing…

… because that way you can use these pieces on your social media platforms, highlighting just how wonderful sumptuous, welcoming and family-friendly your living room is. Statement pieces such as a bookcase with doors is perfect for the living room, adding a ‘certain something’ to the landscape that oozes appeal, a great place, we think, to offer books and leaflets on what to do in your local area, activities that are perfect for families with small children and so on.

Getting your property ready for Airbnb guests may take a little time and effort, but it will be worth it when all the fantastic reviews come in – making your property the place to stay! What special treatment does the living room need to make it into the stylish and welcoming haven that guests are looking for?

Your home is already the epitome of style with reclaimed wood furniture in the living room and beyond. Marrying perfectly with all interior design styles from the modern to farmhouse chic, modern rustic and the industrial style, there are few changes you need to make. But there are some tips that stand you in good stead for creating a living room that will make your home is more attractive to guests.

1. Declutter

Guests don’t mind small or infrequent personal possessions around the place, but if you leave a whole wall of family photos and personal items in drawers and on display units, they can become uncomfortable. Clearly, this is your home, but when you agree to rent it via Airbnb to guests, there is still an expectation that it will be ‘fit’ for guests. And so declutter the lounge of personal possessions.

1. Add touches with your guests in mind

With your personal items carefully put away, you need to think as your guests would do. If you were visiting a rental property, what would you expect to see?

• Guides – local guides on where to eat and what to do lined up on the slim bookcase in the living room is a great start.
• Leaflets and flyers – tourist boards as well as local businesses produce flyers, some of which contain discounts for visitors to use, and these are great for guests. Keep them tidy by either putting them in a folder or keeping them neatly in the drawer of your reclaimed wood coffee table.
• Your own welcome letter – as well as local information, welcome your guests with a letter introducing yourselves, as well as where they will find all the essential items in your home (as well as instruction on how to work the TV!)

Style is still important

You want to create a living room that is appealing to the eye, as well as practical for your guests. In some ways, how you build your living room style doesn’t change. From the comfortable two seater sofa to the wingback armchair, you may have the furniture sorted, but what about the positioning?

• Frame it – group furniture in pockets of threes but always start with living room rugs as the platform for creating a living room landscape that ‘makes stylistic sense’.
• Focal point – don’t make the TV the focal point of the room. Instead, choose another feature, preferably an architectural feature such as the fireplace.
• Nooks and pockets – if you don’t have an immediate focal point, the room can lack direction. Thus creating ‘nooks and pockets’ create order. Thus, pull together the living room two-seater sofa with the wingback chairs by using a rug, as well as other items of furniture that contribute to this pocket, such as a side table.

• Zones – by creating what is an obvious seating and lounging area, guests will understand how to use the room. Using reclaimed wood furniture to zone room also helps with the order of things. For example, instead of a small sideboard sitting with its back to the wall, why not move it, so that is it at the back of the sofa, great if you have the floor space around it. It just adds a sense of yet more style and design to already stylish living room.
• Lighting is very important

From a statement hanging pendant to atmospheric lighting with lamps on side tables, adding different layers of lighting will add different levels of ambience to the living room.

Perfect for when you want you guests to be wowed by your home…

Just how do you choose a sofa for a small room that doesn’t dominate or impose, that doesn’t look and feel like a giant, shoehorned into a room that is clearly too small? We have some suggestions…

How will the rest of the room be styled and furnished?

There are all kinds of hints and tips that can help a room to feel bigger, but when it comes to physical space, you must consider what else you plan on adding to the room along the sofa.

As a rule of thumb – and it is by no means set in stone – you need to consider leaving a pathway of at leads one metre in width around furniture. When we don’t create pathways that are easy to move through, the room feels cluttered and overbearing.

And so, before you consider your sofa options such as whether a two-seater sofa or 3 seater sofa will fit in the room, consider what other reclaimed wood furniture you need in the space.

You still need to frame the sofa

When dealing with smaller rooms, it is easy to throw out the styling rule book, assuming it doesn’t apply. Surely, you think, framing the 3 seater leather sofa with a rug, reclaimed wood large coffee table or even a nest of side tables is reserved for those with huge living rooms? The answer is no, your chosen sofa, no matter what shape, style or size still needs to be framed within the space.

Framing it means it has a boundary, a setting within which it looks like it should be there. A well-chosen rug in terms of size and colour is helpful in making the room feel bigger and choosing a reclaimed wood coffee table that is smaller than the sofa creates a point of reference within the room’s finished layout.

A large coffee table may be practical but if it contributes to the room feeling cluttered, it’s time to opt for a smaller one.

Tip – consider using a round reclaimed wood coffee table in a smaller room to encourage ease of movement.

Choosing the right pieces – material

Reclaimed wood furniture is a sheer delight no matter what room it resides in. in the smaller room, reclaimed wood is the ideal choice for many reasons. It allows you, for example, to bring a uniqueness to the space because no two pieces of reclaimed wood furniture are the same.

The warmth and natural beauty of reclaimed wood are also perfect for the bijou space, with the romance of its past life certainly adding something different to the space.

Versatile, it also lends itself to any style too. In the industrial style, the fusion of reclaimed wood with metal is not only expected but essential. Within the rustic and farmhouse styles, reclaimed wood furniture is also an expectation, as well as being the perfect foil for any sofa you choose, be it a comfortable brown leather sofa, or something more striking.

Be practical

Be realistic and practical about what fits in the smaller room but also what is functional. And don’t forget to measure the door to make sure your chosen sofa, small armchair and reclaimed wood furniture can actually fit…

The rustic style is a popular choice. Bringing comfort and style to a room, there is a bold familiarity to it that makes a rustic living room a delightful space. Supporting rustic notes and details is the reclaimed wood furniture, and the armchair, which is an important piece. Just how do you get the right shape, style and colour to enhance the rustic look?

Think nature and natural for material and colour

The rustic look is based heavily on what materials and colours were available to furnish and accessorise a home. The modern rustic style has barely moved away from this and so opting for colours and materials found in nature is the right stylistic step to take.

Ditch modern ‘plastics’ and other highly processed materials, instead opting for leather and wool. The Cerato leather armchair has the charm, colour and shape that is ideal for the rustic living room. Its traditional styling bears the hallmarks of its pedigree and with such beautiful supple leather, its no wonder that for anyone creating a rustic styled room, this is the go-to small armchair.

If you want a simpler style – and sometimes, with the rustic style, simpler is better – remove the detailing with the streamlined appeal of the Barkby leather armchair. Unpretentious, the simple styling of this piece makes it ideal for sitting alongside your 3-seater sofa and other reclaimed wood furniture in the living room.

Dimensions

The rustic look may have a raw edge to it, a slightly less refined finish than that of the farmhouse or even the industrial style but that doesn’t mean it has to be brash and unfinished. Essentially, the dimensions of the items used need to be in keeping with the space that is allocated to them.

The original rustic style of old would have been bespoke and so its no wonder with ready-built items it can be tough finding furniture that ‘fits’. Simpler and smaller can be the successful way forward thus if you are grappling with a smaller living room, you need an armchair that is less imposing, more present.

Combining the sublime warmth and quality of wool and the cool touch of leather, the Granby wool and leather armchair has presence but its smaller dimensions and shallower height means it doesn’t smother the space you have.

Of course, if you have space – don’t forget you need a pathway around the front of the armchair and other items close by of at least one metre (around three feet) – then opting for the very traditional wingback armchair would fit perfectly within any rustic living room.

Again, we chose to combine two natural materials – leather and wool – in the Kensington wingback armchair. The height of the back and the larger ‘wings’ make this one of the most recognisable shaped armchairs, not unlike the pleasing rolls and curves of the Chesterfield armchair.

The practical lessons

It looks fabulous in the showroom, but will the must-have brown leather armchair of your dream fit into your home? And when we say fit, we mean manoeuvred through the doors?

We’re one step ahead. Most of our armchairs, including those with a rustic leaning, have legs which can be removed making it a much easier task to fit through doorways. Easily assembled, however, you’ll have the perfect armchair in situ within minutes.

Is it an awkward-shaped room or a stylistic challenge that allows you to play with detailing, colour and textures? Sometimes, the best course of action is not to fight against the shape of the room, but to embrace it, perhaps even to emphasise the quirkiness of it.

1 Focus on the key features

An L-shaped room can afford you two or more key features. It could be an expanse of a wall around the corner into the nook in the room and the sweeping window into the garden or the large fireplace and so on.

Look for the positives in the room and work with these, taking care not to make them competing focal points.

2 Identify the ‘obstacles’

The power points in the ‘wrong’ place, a door that opens the ‘wrong’ way, the eave that drops into the corner… every room has them but for some reason, in shaped rooms like an L-shaped dining and living room, they can become more of an obstacle as they dictate what we can and can’t so in some instances.

Change what you can and work with what you can’t. Moving an electric socket, for example, may be too expensive but instead of a stand out white plastic plug face, change it for a more stylish option that melts from your vision.

3 Storage is key

Before you start shopping for your statement velvet sofa flanked by a matching small armchair and side table, you need to consider what storage options the L-shaped room afford you.

If ceiling height isn’t an issue, a large, tall oak bookcase with matching smaller units are a great start. If you are concerned this will hem in the space, opt for slimline storage units including a slimline console table with a small, slender sideboard that gives you versatile storage solutions.

Rather than trying to choose reclaimed wood furniture with the exact dimensions, choose items that frame the room – for example, a coffee table with storage that frames the sofa by being smaller than it or a sideboard that frames a wall by sitting within its centre.

4 Use rugs to zone the space

Fighting against the L-shaped room won’t yield results. Sometimes, defining the use of areas within the L-shape space is the best move in terms of not just style but maximising the use of the space too.

Clearly, different furniture items will contribute to this. For example, a stylish reclaimed wood dining table flanked by dining chairs and a dining bench says, ‘this is the place to eat’ and the sofa in front of the fire says, ‘this is the place to relax’.

Emphasise this note change with rugs. Choosing similar colours and patterns, opt for the correct size of rug for the spaces they will furnish and then step back, and watch the room be instantly transformed with colour and texture.

5 Adjust the lighting

Lighting brings ambience to a room. It helps to set the atmosphere. It brings comfort to a room or area – especially softer, golden lighting – just as it brings functionality – think bright, white light for food preparation areas. Just like rugs, use layers of light to add function and style to the L-shaped room.

A dark corner doesn’t have to stay dark. In fact, with a floor lamp, a comfy small armchair, and a small display unit, would it make a fantastic reading nook?