You may be wondering “why country?” There are so many design styles out there, and yes I do love a very many of them. But for me country is who I am and what I grew up with. It’s home.

I grew up in a small suburb in Staffordshire, U.K.  Our home wasn’t particularly country in its styling or by any means an idyllic country cottage. But we lived nearby to a lot of beautiful countryside and spent most of our time there walking our dogs, riding horses and bikes and generally enjoying the outdoors.

We spent many hours eating delicious home cooked food in British country pubs. Warming our hands by the open fires in winter, chatting with locals and watching the sun go down behind the trees in the country gardens on a warm summer’s evening.

Country style for me is warm, friendly, relaxed and welcoming. From its warm colors, natural materials and fabrics, to its unpretentious, unstructured and worn in furniture. Each element combining to envelope you in a caring, friendly hug and make you feel like you belong.

Never being one to do things like the rest of the flock, I like to inject a little bit of glamour to my designs. Hence why my blog is called ‘rustic country CHIC’ there’s a whole lot of rustic and country, but to balance it out and give it that little something extra, you’ll find things like chrome and modern elements juxtaposed against natural wood and stone. Just like this gorgeous kitchen by Tom Howley Kitchens, where they’ve used chrome handles and light fixtures to add a bit of extra sparkle to this country style kitchen. Just beautiful.

I’ll show you how to combine these elements and how you can start to think about these things when you come to design your spaces.