rustic Archives - Page 33 of 45

Spending quality time with your children at the dining table

According to Royal Family protocol, children don’t sit with their parents at a formal meal until, allegedly, they are able to ‘hold polite small talk’ and ‘know how to act’.

Whilst this may suit in a more formal situation that the Royal Family find themselves in, psychologists and child-rearing experts all agree that the daily gathering around the reclaimed wood dining table at the end of a busy day is the perfect time to sort through issues, raise concerns but also to laugh and bond as a family.

But how do you spend quality time at the dining table with your children? We took a look at what the experts suggest.

Make it routine

Weekdays can be super busy, from a rushed bowl of cereal in the morning to all kinds of after-school and sporting activities. When you all finally arrive home, the temptation to slump on the sofa watching your favourite soaps can be overriding rather than sit around the static, but no less beautiful reclaimed wood furniture in the dining room.

However, gathering around the dining table can give you ample chance to talk. And communication is key in any family.

But rather than the normal question of ‘how was school?’, try;

·What made you laugh today?

·How did somebody help you today? Did you help someone?

·What games did you play at lunch?

It’s also a great time to check what practical stuff you may need to help them with too. But you need to make it routine and that means instilling it as part of your family life that you all sit down to eat and talk together around the dining table.

Making food together is just as important as eating together

Preparing food is, in many cultures, a key feature of community and family life. But in the UK, we tend to be caught up in the health and safety trap – children shouldn’t be in the kitchen for fear of burns and scalding. We can encourage them into the kitchen without compromising on their personal safety.

By watching you prepare and cook food, your children will pick up on some great habits. However, kids running through the kitchen is not a great idea so create a child-friendly area in the corner of the kitchen.

Keep them occupied with tasks and activities, while sitting on the dining bench as well as chatting about their day and what they are looking forward to doing.

Even having them sit at the table on the dining bench whilst you cook up a storm brings an inclusive feel to your home and eating area.

Ban technology?

We love and hate technology in equal measure. It is an integral part of our lives but it can overtake everything that we do.

A mobile phone at the dining table, scrolling through stories on Instagram or tweets from the day isn’t creating an inclusive feel to meal times.

But, sitting around the dining table on your beautifully upholstered dining chairs – or even wooden dining chairs -is a great time to talk about technology, especially what’s happening on the social sharing sites that children and young people lend so much weight too.

You may not allow your children to have profiles on these platforms, but they may still find that they impact their friendships and relationships.

How often do you sit around your reclaimed wood table together?

Get the look – the industrial rustic office

Industrial rustic is a pleasing landscape in the office. We often think as workspaces as being utilitarian and functional because, we can’t have anything distracting us can we, as we toil at our desk?

Leave the corporate look behind, the barren landscape of matchy-matchy furniture and welcome the industrial rustic look to your home office with reclaimed wood furniture. And here’s how.

The key elements

MATERIALS

Natural materials sum up this look, sitting side-by-side with the coolness of steel or aluminium. It can be a highly polished, mirrored stainless steel or it can be the dark, broodiness of black steel.

But don’t think that means waving goodbye to colour either.

THE DESK

The Oldman industrial desk is one of our best sellers because not only is it functional and stylish, but it is made to measure and customisable too. Choose your frame size and colour and there you have it – your own piece of unique industrial office furniture.

With your home desk in situ, you need an office chair that is comfortable for you. Fortunately, there are many examples of stylish industrial rustic office chairs too, where the chic coolness of leather meets metal.

THE STORAGE

The remainder of the office landscape also needs to serve a purpose, whilst retaining the industrial rustic style.

We are often taught in school and college that a workplace setting should be ordered and tidy because a tidy desk signifies a tidy mind. So what does an empty desk signify?

Creativity knows no bounds. Slowly, we learn that what matters most in our work is us, our creativity and how the office environment supports us and our work.

Alongside your wooden desk, an industrial rustic display unit is perfect for your files and books, but don’t be too ordered. Cluster your books in ‘unkempt piles’, enjoy a plant or three in your office too, their lush greenery picking up the tempo of the industrial rustic style.

Allow your creativity to flow and that means not hiding everything away or trying to be ordered, with everything in its ‘proper’ place.

THE COLOUR

The reasons why the industrial rustic home office style has remained so very popular are many and varied. There is a growing range of industrial home office furniture from which to choose, its quality and stylish credentials no longer in doubt.

But it is the fact that as styles go, the industrial rustic look us unique from one person to the next. Eclectic it may be, but it is not overly quirky meaning its ‘shelf life’ as a style scheme is short.

Industrial style furniture itself can be found in different colours and finishes, as can the colour scheme of industrial rustic office space.

Opt for cool neutrals or even a light grey. Or go all out, opting for an earthy green or dramatic navy. The Pantone colour of the year 2018, Ultra Violet could work too.

From one room to another

It is also a style that moves seamlessly from one room to another. The display unit in the office would look equally as stunning in the living room, or the industrial sideboard would make for a fantastic office cupboard.

Who doesn’t love the versatility of the industrial rustic style?

5 Inspiring ideas to fit a work station in a small space

A spacious home office is a luxury for those who skip the commute and can work from home. But in modern homes, space is at a premium, and we must find clever ways to work in the space we have. But a makeshift office in another room can still look stylish and inspire productivity.

It goes without saying but a neat and tidy working environment is the most productive, removing distractions and allowing you to concentrate. When you are trying to come up with a workspace solution which works in a small space, this should be one of the focusses. Make sure you maximise on storage in order to keep clutter off the desk. A display unit is a great way of creating an enviable amount of storage whilst often taking up limited floor space (if you opt for height instead of width). Alternatively, make the most of your wall space with built-in reclaimed wood shelves either above or below your desk.

When trying to work out where to place your reclaimed wood desk, make sure to use all available space – you might have nooks in your living room or dining room which would be a perfect spot for a small desk that you hadn’t even considered.

The recessed spaces on either side of a chimney are often a great size for popping a small desk (and also provides the perfect space to put up floating shelves above). Alternatively, if you have an open staircase, you may have room for a desk beneath. You may even use a bay window which is not being used as effectively as it could be (with the large windows being fantastic for keeping you awake and inspiring productivity all day long)!

If you are working in a unique area, you might find that a bespoke desk is the perfect solution, being built to fit the exact space you have to play with. Not only will opting for a bespoke desk cut down the hours you might otherwise spend trying to fit a desk that will fit, a perfectly fitting piece of furniture creates a clean, sophisticated look which is just what we need in a small space in order to keep the room looking as large as possible! Our Oldman range can be made to order and is the perfect way of adding a modern touch to a room featuring reclaimed wood furniture.

If you are really struggling for somewhere to place a desk, consider whether you have a hallway wide enough to home a desk and chair. Your landing is often quieter than many of your downstairs living spaces and is the perfect spot for a home office where you don’t feel trapped.

Also think about stepping away from office furniture, which can sometimes feel a little restrictive and may not offer you exactly what you need. Using a console table is a creative solution if you need a narrow desk. A console table is more likely to fit in your hallway or on your landing with just enough room to place a computer or laptop and desk lamp and often comes with a drawer or two which will provide a space for storing desk essentials you don’t necessarily want on display in your hallway.

A few final tips…

It’s very easy to get carried away and think our current setup isn’t working and we need to change it all. But before you start hunting for something better, think about whether you can work with what you already have with a simple reorganisation. You might find you are using other storage spaces ineffectively, or that simply by moving your desk to another space in your home, it makes your living room feel far less cluttered.

In a small space, measuring is key if you don’t want furniture turning up only to discover your beautiful new desk doesn’t fit. If you are unsure, map out how much space it will take up with newspaper on the floor, and you can even do this carefully on the wall to get a good idea of the height. It may be worth leaving the newspaper where your desk would sit for a weekend, just to get an idea of whether you can still easily move around your room.

Have you found a genius place in your home for your study? Let us know.

How to fit a small desk in the bedroom

Fitting in a workstation in your home can seem like an impossible task, or, for students, squeezing in a desk into a small bedroom at student digs or halls of residence is an even bigger ask.

There are some basics requirements you need to follow, but with clever design and style solutions, you can fit a home desk into a bedroom, a small desk, mind, and not have the bedroom looking cluttered.

Here’s how;

The desk

Before you get carried away and order the smallest desk you can find, you may be surprised at just what you can fit into the room.

But first, you need to measure the room and draw a plan, noting any nooks, crannies and recesses. Which of these can be used?

For example, a tall, slender bookcase or unit like a ladder shelving unit with a slender width of 48cm would make the best use of the space and offer plenty of storage in the bedroom too.

You may not always want to be looking at your work however, and thus, a foldaway narrow desk is the perfect solution. The lighter tone of wood also means it fits perfectly within a smaller bedroom without overtaking the space.

The chair

Office chairs have a tendency to be large and cumbersome, with high backs and a boxy style. It may be ergonomic design but that doesn’t mean there needs to be ‘more chair than you’!

Most people prefer a chair on castors to sit on at their home office desk. For a slimline finish when you are not at your desk, consider a desk chair without armrests to slip under the desk.

However, the right desk chair depends not just on your own preference but also on the work you do. Designers and artists will often work on a stool, supporting them in an almost-standing position at their workstation.

The storage

A wooden desk in a bedroom is all well and good but you need adequate storage. The last thing you need is a messy, cluttered desk in your eyeline as you fall asleep and wake up.

A desk with storage is an ideal solution but many can be too large to squeeze into the bedroom. The solution is separate storage that can be used for both work items and bedroom items too.

As well as the ladder shelving in a recess, why not consider adding a beautifully stylish low-height shelving and cupboard sideboard? By opting for lower height items, you can be sure it won’t overpower the space. Plus the fact, it doesn’t look like a home office item which means you don’t have to worry about a corporate feel in the bedroom…

The position

And finally, if the bedroom dimensions and shape allow, you need your desk to benefit from as much natural light as possible. Banish shade with a desktop light, choosing a similar style on your bedside tables to bring a sense of cohesion to the room.

How to create the perfect home office, study and homework area

From kids’ homework and projects to your paperwork to working from home, the modern family home has to offer so much to so many people.

But we can’t always be moving walls and neither can the household budget always afford to replace furniture.

And so, with space and budget in mind, we take a look at how to create a space in your home with reclaimed wood furniture where ‘work’ is done, whether it is your latest work project or your kids needing to get their homework done.

Vibrant and stimulating (but not distracting!)

This is the mantra that needs chanting as you create a study space in your home.

A homework area needs to be stimulating and vibrant, a comfortable space where your kids will want to do their homework and other projects but at the same time, not provide distractions that prevent this happening.

You also need to make the best use of space because, as every parent knows, the pain of homework on a reclaimed wood dining table can, in many cases, be made even more of a trial with wails of “he looked at me!” or “she’s touching me!” … Far better to get a home desk that provides enough space for both of them to work together – or separately. Along with industrial shelving that works to separate everything they need into their own spaces.

Repurpose furniture

When the budget is tight, spending may not be an option. Rather than trying to kit out the whole space and thus, compromising on the quality of items, invest in high-quality, essential pieces.

For example, a reclaimed wood desk is the ideal base for a homework area and can afford you plenty of personal space between warring siblings.

Repurpose a lightweight, low height bookcase, giving it a spruce up with paint and adding a basket or coloured plastic box for each child to keep their stuff in.

If you want to replace your dining table and chairs, this could be the ideal solution;

·Use your current dining table and chairs as the new base for the homework area. Paint the chairs in the same colour and reupholster the seat pads too to give them a different look and style. Create name tags to hang off the back of each chair so there are no arguments that someone pinched someone else’s seat…

·Invest in a new dining table and chairs for your dining room or kitchen/diner!

Give it a distinct design appeal

Cute accessories

Wall art is never a wasted invested but that doesn’t mean everything has to come in primary colours or look like an extension of school. In fact, you want the opposite style.

As children grow, they appreciate being treated less like children and more like young people, so turn your eye away from anything that looks too school-like and opt for home-style instead.

For example, a small chest of drawers no longer in use in a bedroom or another room can be easily re-purposed for the homework area. Sand it down and use chalk furniture paint to give it a pleasant and stylish finish. Replace the drawer handles to give it an updated look too.

A tall chest of drawers can also work with the slender drawers being perfect for pens, pencils as well as for keeping crafting material such as A4 sized paper and card.

Lighting

As well as stylish accessories, you will need to consider lighting. Not only is it a practical need, lighting also helps to create the ambience to a space.

This is just as important in a homework area as it is in the rest of the house. As well as table lamps and floor lamps. Hideaway LED string lights behind furniture to provide a warmly illuminated backdrop.

What kind of homework area would your kids like?

Are these the best bedsides for small bedrooms?

Effortlessly framing the bed, bedside tables are essential in the bedroom.

But this doesn’t mean it should be devoid of style. What we wanted to know was which bedside table works best in the smaller bedroom. And so we asked a question…

We Asked, You Answered

We took to Houzz and polled our followers on whether the bedside table should be a simple yet chic table or one that offered extra storage. There were four options to choose from;

·the Winchester rustic wooden bedside table

·the Dulwich three-drawer bedside table

·the Onslow reclaimed wood bedside table

·and finally, the Luna 1-Drawer Bedside Table.

The votes were divided but there was one clear winner…

The Winchester

With its refined rustic charm, this wooden side table has everything you could possibly need. Three, deep drawers and a handy pull out sliding surface for when you need a little extra table top space, maybe for your morning tea.

Available in a pair, they offer all this storage without grabbing at the eye. Maybe, it is the simplicity of its design and its fascia that attracts people. Unpretentious and unfussy, it makes an ideal addition to any bedroom.

Rustic it may be, but we think the Winchester bedside table fits well in any bedroom style or design. A beautiful example of reclaimed wood furniture, it will remain the top choice for some time, we feel.

Dulwich Reclaimed Wood Bedside Table

In second place, and not far behind the Winchester bedside table, was the Dulwich reclaimed wood bedside table.

Again, full of rustic, unpretentious charm, this drawers and shelf combination is a popular choice.

The handy drawers allows for smaller items to be kept safe and the shelf is perfect for piling those must-read bestsellers and paperbacks. Its painted façade is also perfect when considering the range of on-trend decorating ideas for the bedroom.

Onslow Reclaimed Wood Bedside Table

In some ways, we take a complete departure from the previous two example, with the sleek styling of the industrial-inspired Onslow Reclaimed Wood Bedside Table.

At home in the bedroom or the living room, this delightful piece offers simple storage – a table top. It may look unassuming, but just look at its highly polished leg frame and the appeal of the rustic reclaimed wood!

A versatile piece, if ever there was one because, where in the rulebook of interior design does it say that a bedside table or occasional side table can only be used in the bedroom or the living room?

Luna 1-Drawer Bedside Table

Oak bedroom furniture is increasing in popularity and in our opinion, its no wonder. A slow growing tree, oak is a dense, strong wood that takes on a sheen, unlike any other timber we work with.

And it is this pedigree that people love about the Luna 1-Drawer Bedside Table. Tt offers simple storage and again, it mimics Scandinavian furniture with its simplicity. Beautiful rounded legs, its pretty but functional drawer and the smaller expanse of tabletop is ideal in a bedroom where minimalism is required.

This piece doesn’t snag the eye which, in a smaller bedroom, is important in avoiding the overly-cluttered look.

And so, it just leaves one questions – which if these exquisite pieces of reclaimed furniture is your favourite?

The bed dilemma – A high footboard or low footboard?

It is a conundrum as old as the hills, and so we decided to ask you, our discerning customers. We felt this was such an important but simple question: which would you opt for, the high footboard to your bed or a low footboard? Whether you’re looking for reclaimed wood furniture or not, this is an important choice….

We Asked, You Answered

There was a clear winner and it was… drum roll please!… the low footboard.

There were a few people who opted for a high footboard for their reclaimed furniture. And just because they are in the minority, doesn’t mean we should not discuss its pros and cons.

The high footboard bed

There is a pleasing sense of proportion about the high footboard bed, a staggering example of reclaimed bedroom furniture. For those who prefer it as an option, there is a feeling of being ‘safe’, cosseted and cocooned in its frame.

The duvet stays put, not draping to the floor and any throws that keep us snug and warm on cold, winter nights stay where they should too – on our feet!

The Standford high footboard bed is stunning but there is something we need to consider. It can’t be avoided but in the smaller bedroom, the high footboard may cloud the vision. It may look too big, too chunky, too imposing, too much.

But, every interior design decision is a personal one. If this is the look you want, then go for it.

The low footboard bed

The majority of pollsters opted for the low footboard bed for their wooden furniture. And we can understand why.

There is an openness to the low footboard that many people enjoy. And there are many pros to this style of bed;

Dimension-friendly – a posh way of saying that the openness of the bed, like the Standford low footboard bed, is ideally suited to any size bedroom especially the boudoir where the dimensions are limited and bijou. In other words, if you have a smaller bedroom, the low-end bed doesn’t prevent the eye from falling across the entire room.
Sits well with other items of bedroom furniture – when it comes to styling and dressing a room, some people feel that the high-end bed is too absolute. For example, adding a wooden blanket box at the end of a low-end bed gives it a boundary or a frame but is also a stylish addition to the bedroom (and a functional one too!)
Frame it – in fact, for many people,a problem with having no footboard or a very low one is the way that the duvet seems to migrate to the floor and the fact that the openness of it feels too lax. From adding a wooden blanket box to a pretty upholstered ottoman, adding something to the foot of the bed forms a boundary. But it isn’t permanent and can be changed.

We need to consider the focal point of a bedroom too and it is, undoubtedly the bed. It is the main piece of furniture, coming second to nothing in the bedroom.

A high-end bed demands attention. It is the attention grabber, no matter style or colour it is. The low-end bed can struggle sometimes, to have the same impact.

It can blend into the background of the style in the room or you can draw attention to it. A focal point of a feature wall at the end of the bed draws attention and then the eye can lazily take in the rest of the bed.

Which is your choice?

What options are there for reclaimed bedroom furniture?

Reclaimed wood furniture is not just available in the dark wood option. Colour and tone vary with the type of wood, as well as the finishing processes but with dark furniture set to make a comeback, we thought we take a poll of what our Houzz followers thought about the colour options of reclaimed wood furniture for the bedroom.

We Asked, You Answered

The Houzz poll simply asked which of the three options would they prefer in their bedroom – the painted pieces from the Dorset range, the delightful chunky wood style of the Beam Collection or the brooding moodiness of the Winchester Collection.

The results were interesting. A small number of votes opted for the dark Winchester suite of items whilst the remaining pollsters were evenly split between the painted Dorset range and the mid-colour Beam Collection.

How to create your own unique reclaimed wood bedroom style

Imposing, yet elegant – the Winchester dark wood look

It may not have been the most popular but there is no denying the beauty of the Winchester collection. Dark wood furniture is stunning, with a patina that affords it’s a classic elegance of its own.

Use in a bedroom with a neutral palette to really get the darkness to stand out or choose a darker wall colour and accessories to bring a sense of cohesion to the space.

If you are opting for dark wood furniture, there is no getting away from its moodiness so don’t hide from it. Instead, embrace it and reward yourself with a romantic boudoir that is truly stunning.

Light and fresh – the painted reclaimed wood furniture of the Dorset range

Not just for the bedroom, the Dorset collection of pieces is exquisite and more than suitable for every room in the home.

But in the bedroom, it is sublime. The painted bedroom furniture pieces with their slightly rustic finish gently sizzle with an understated finesse, the Dorset is perfect for the bedroom if you want the painted look, but without the ‘tweeness’. Frankly, the sleigh-shaped Dorset king size white wooden bed is perfect for any bedroom.

For the on-trend look, opt for barely-grey walls or fall for the blue tones of duck egg, and marry with brass accessories but with a light tough. Don’t let anything overpower the Dorset pieces, sublime yet outstandingly beautiful.

Chunky, satisfying, stylish – the rustic furniture English Beam collection

Again, like the Dorset range, there are English beam pieces for every room and space in the home but for the bedroom, the options are just perfect.

The Sweet Dreams Beam reclaimed wood bed is unlike anything you will find anywhere else, in any other collection. Nothing touches it. Crafted and beautiful, there is a satisfying presence to it.

Complemented by other heavyset looking pieces, there is a femininity to these pieces that makes it one of our most popular rustic furniture collections.

Better still, it offers something to everyone. If you prefer the appeal of darker wood, opt for the dark wood finish. Or play it safer with the medium finish or be daring and tick the ‘neutral’ box and wait to see the unique finish and colour of your chosen piece.

Whichever colour, finish or collection you choose, with reclaimed wood you are guaranteed one thing: a uniqueness that is all your own.

How to bring warmth to your home with reclaimed wood

In the past two to three years, more people have been opting for reclaimed furniture in their homes. But that doesn’t make it a trend which will go out of style any time soon – reclaimed wood furniture offers a classic, luxurious style you’ll get enjoyment out of for many years to come.

Why should you opt for reclaimed wood?

With each piece having a rich history, reclaimed wood furniture feels particularly exquisite when placed in any room in your home. Additionally, no piece of furniture is identical. With no pieces being mass produced, you are guaranteed a truly unique piece of furniture.

Looks aside, reclaimed timber prevents unnecessary waste from entering landfills, repurposing old wood and turning it into something beautiful. It also creates less of a need for cutting down trees, essential to reducing carbon emissions and providing a home for wildlife around the globe.

A rundown of our collections

To add a little bit of luxury to your dining room or kitchen, our simply stunning Kensington collection is perfect. Something like our reclaimed wood table is a fantastic statement piece when paired with velvet upholstered chair and a pop of colour. In an otherwise-simple colour scheme, the Luxe Kensington dining table is bound to become the star of the show. For classic style, something like the Barclay collection is great – the reclaimed wood desk is a real head-turner (which will hopefully make your day that little bit easier).

If you are looking for beauty on a budget, our Standford Industrial or Farringdon collections may be just the ticket. The Standford is perfect for injecting warmth into any decor scheme with the deeper colour of the wood whereas the grey undertone of the Farringdon collection makes it enviously easy to blend in with existing furniture.

How to mix reclaimed wood with your home decor

One of the great things about reclaimed wood furniture is how flexible it is when it comes to home decor. If you get tired of the decor scheme which matched your light wooden reclaimed furniture perfectly, there’s no need to worry.

Blend classic reclaimed styles with steel for an industrial look which will work wonderfully with sleek glossy kitchens and ultra contemporary furniture, or use painted or stained wood to create a chic, country look. Painted bedroom furniture looks simply superb with crisp white bedding and soft gold accessories to create that tranquil setting you’ve always dreamt of.

In terms of colour scheme, with light wood styles, opt for subtle colours to create a calming Nordic scheme which will keep even the smallest rooms bright and spacious. With darker woods, neutral colours will work to create a classic, sophisticated scheme you’re unlikely to tire of. Alternatively, deeper jewel tones are fab for creating a bit of drama – just ensure to add good lighting and a large mirror to reflect light around the room if you’re opting for dark colours in a small space.

What’s your favourite thing about reclaimed wood?