The farmhouse style of the interior has always been unique. It's held a soft place in many people’s hearts because it's classy, humble and very imaginative. As the name of the style suggests, it's background is based on homes that farmers have historically built and lived in on their private land. It incorporates the surroundings, such as trees, bushes, plants, flowers, seeds and brings the seasons indoors. This is why it's seen as one of the more popular styles for those that want to have a customized home. It doesn’t cost a lot to be creative and the rewards you get for implementing pieces and items of your own taste, are instantly gratifying. The only potential downside is the maintenance that’s involved in this style because it uses so many natural materials. But here’s how to easily do the up-keep needed to live easily with it.
Caring for exposed wood
The farmhouse style shouldn’t be confused with the traditional or classic, which also uses a lot of bare wood. Those styles both incorporate heavy varnishes that darken and protect the wood. For the farmhouse style, wood is left bare and almost untreated. It's smoothed so you don’t get any splinters but on the whole, it's left untreated with regards to varnish or paint. To maintain your lighter, more natural wood around the home, you will need to do a few things.
The key to giving your wood the protection it needs without darkening the wood or making it look ‘styled’ is to coat it with polyurethane. This protects the wood from water and moisture. It creates a thin but tough coating that doesn’t reflect light as strongly as lacquer or varnish.
Whenever you find new cuts, grazers or holes in your wood, you need to act quickly to smoothen the area. As your home is heated it will make the exposed wood expand. Thus, you need to essentially, plug the gaps by using sandpaper to smooth the area and stopping any further damage to the cut or hole.
The farmhouse style advocates for strong neutrals, mainly ghost white. Painting your wood is a great way to prevent damage to its surface while also adding to the ambiance of your rooms.
The most welcoming item
In many styles, there is one item that symbolizes what it's about. For the Victorian interior style, it's the mahogany burgundy-brown large office or study desk. For the eclectic style, it's the soft fabric chair in a funky 70s groove color. For the industrial style, the copper or brass ceiling lights are the hallmark. For the farmhouse style, it's the shaggy area rug. It's incredibly homely, soft, welcoming and does all it can to mop up as much heat in the house as it can. It's the kind of item that makes you want to take your shoes off and feel it's texture underneath your feet. However, the best farmhouse area rugs are made from high-quality wool. Maintaining this kind of rug is difficult because it's very absorbent and has many fine layers of strands.
However, using a specialist rug cleaning service like Chem-Dry makes it all worthwhile. They can remove up to 98% of common household allergens which get stuck, deep in the rug. When this occurs, it increases the chances of your family and pets getting sick. They also remove up to 89% of airborne bacteria which also gets trapped in woolen area rugs. Their added sanitizer uses a natural and green-certified cleaner. The best part is, your rug won’t suffer in terms of color disfiguring and or textures becoming harder.
Your firewood pile
You cannot say your home has a farmhouse style if you don’t have a fireplace. It's kind of like an unwritten, yet very serious rule. Farmhouses have notoriously been self-sufficient, as you would expect farmers who live off the land to be. Therefore, having a place to keep all your firewood is very important. But how on earth do you maintain your firewood so it's always ready to burn? You also need to maintain the area where you store firewood so it doesn’t create a mess in your home.
A firewood shack is the best solution as it protects the wood from rain and wind. It's also something that you can build on your own without any professional help. Some people choose to leave it bare if their firewood pile is indoors. Keeping the firewood on an old bedsheet is highly recommended so any chippings or bits of natural growth on the bark can fall down without being scattered across the room or floor. Using the foliage of a willow tree, you can protect your firewood from the rain. It's naturally a protective layer which will also prevent any bugs or critters like termites from finding your wood.
A lightweight material
Wicker is a material which all true farmhouses make great uses of. It's a very lightweight yet tough material, which can be used for coffee tables, Ottomans, patio furniture and fruit bowls to name a few. However, when you have one strand that is poking out, it can lead to a rapid decline in the strength and structure of the item.
Learn how to repair wicker items by using gloves, warm water, and wood glue. Resin is also something which you can use to fill wicker which has been flattened. Wicker tubes are often used to make lightweight items such as small bowls for keys. Filling the strands with resin and letting them dry will plump up the wicker and give it back its shape. You can fix wicker chairs by tucking the strands back into their original position and using wood glue to bind them in their place. Remove any broken pieces that are destroying the shape of the chair and inject new reeds if you can by gluing them to the originals.
The farmhouse style has gone through a lot of changes that have brought into the modern-day. It's becoming easier to maintain this style, using natural materials all around the house without too much bother.
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