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This post tells you everything you need to know about creating the perfect modern farmhouse living room with 18 ideas that can accommodate all budgets.
Farmhouse interior design has become extremely popular in the past few years and a quick search online will yield thousands of results. However, it can feel quite challenging to take those beautiful inspirational photos and transform them into practical ideas to integrate into your living room, especially given how strictly this style is usually applied in interior decoration.
In reality, modern farmhouse is a style that can be truly customized to your space and taste. No need to have a huge living room and custom-built sliding barn doors to achieve a modern farmhouse interior – all you need is some creativity and the 18 ideas that I have collected for you!
Modern Farmhouse: Understanding The Basics
If you are trying to design a modern farmhouse living room, you must understand the core elements of design behind this style. Having clarity on the key components will allow you to tweak the rules to better accommodate your needs and the size of your living room.
- Natural Colours & Materials: most people believe that farmhouse design only consists of endless shades of beige. While beige is a popular choice for many people, the farmhouse style embraces all natural colors in their beautiful shades: think of dark wood, and plush green from plants, copper, and bronze metals. Stay true to the materials’ origin and craftsmanship and you can expand your palette without worrying too much.
- Comfortable Furniture: perhaps one of the best features of farmhouse design is the inherent warmth and comfort that comes with this style. When designing your own modern farmhouse living room, make sure to choose couches, chairs, pillows, and rugs that appear welcoming and cozy. A modern farmhouse living room should make you and your guests feel embraced the moment you step into it.
- Clean lines: The key difference between traditional and modern farmhouse design is the clean lines and less intricate finishes of the modern take. While you can incorporate more “country” elements into your modern farmhouse living room, always try to design under the principle that understated simplicity is the overarching goal.
Let’s now have a look at 18 ideas to help you design the perfect modern farmhouse living room – these tips will apply to all budgets.
18 Ideas To Help You Design The Perfect Modern Farmhouse Living Room
1. A Rustic Rug
Recreate this room:
One of the cornerstones of farmhouse decor is natural materials. Nothing will add texture and character to your living room like a tasteful rug of a natural material.
This is why a jute rug is the perfect candidate to take your farmhouse living room decor to the next level.
You want to be mindful of your flooring, if the jute looks too tone-on-tone, opt for a rug with a border or a colored pattern. Make sure to choose a design with clean lines and stay away from complex designs to keep the feel of the room modern and sophisticated.
2. Leather Trunk
Continuing on the topic of natural materials, let me introduce you to a statement piece that will transform your living room: a leather trunk.
A perfect fit for the warmth and understated elegance of farmhouse decor, a leather trunk can be used as a coffee table, becoming the center piece of your room.
Bonus tip: scour your local vintage market to score an authentic piece at an affordable price. Leather trunks are like wine: they get better as they age!
3. Gold Decor to Contrast the Natural Materials
Recreate this room:
Gold decor is often associated with modern, glam interior design – however, a few well-placed gold accessories can work wonders for your modern farmhouse living room.
A gold chandelier or a vintage golden frame can help introduce some variety to your selection of materials and add a beautiful, subtle shine to your room by reflecting natural light.
My advice: only choose 2 to 3 items for gold decor to avoid overpowering the rest of your palette and ensure a cohesive look. You may also want to consider other metal pieces of furniture you are planning on purchasing: farmhouse staples like a black metal chandelier, steel table legs, and black light fixtures could create too much of a contrast with gold elements.
4. A Wooden Rustic Console
Especially useful if your entrance door opens directly onto your living room, console tables are a perfect way to utilize an empty wall and display some of your favorite decor items.
A slim wooden console like the one pictured above can help provide additional storage and give the illusion of a deeper room by creating a contrast with the wall (bonus tip for my fellow small apartment girlies).
Make sure to select a solid, simple design by choosing a wooden console. If you are trying to move from modern to more traditional farmhouse style, you can opt for a distressed, vintage-painted wood – it will be sure to add great personality to your living room!
5. Charming Reading Chair
Modern farmhouse interior design combines the two fundamental ingredients of a good reading session: a cozy, welcoming environment and clean, understated lines to avoid all distractions.
Therefore, it seems only fair to take full advantage of this set-up by adding a reading corner to your living room. A light, colored chaise lounge or deep armchair, perhaps in a beautiful fabric such as linen, will make you want to curl up under a blanket, grab your favorite book, and never leave.
If you are working with limited real estate, make sure to look into convertible ottomans – here at The Chic Quota we love multipurpose pieces.
6. All-white Look
If you’re familiar with this blog, you won’t be surprised to read (again) that I am always a bit skeptical of an all-white interior. I think monochrome decor can often land a bit boring on the eye and make it difficult for you to step out of the pallet if you wish to do so in the future.
However, a modern farmhouse living room is the perfect candidate for a total white design as it can bring unparalleled levels of chic to the understated, simple, and elegant lines of this style.
My advice would be to select white and off-white large pieces of furniture and then play around with farmhouse staple materials like steel and wood for smaller items like a coffee table, a vase, or a light fixture.
7. Classic Upholstered Puffs
A nod to traditional farmhouse design, a couple of modern, upholstered checkered poufs could be the perfect addition to your living room.
Go for a modern look with minimalistic, squared poufs and combine them with a classic fabric to create an interesting piece that can introduce some visual variety to your living room without straying away from the core principle of modern farmhouse: understated rustic elegance.
8. Wooden Bookcase
There are few things as charming as a solid wood bookcase – an investment piece that can add a touch of classic elegance to your modern farmhouse living room.
Bookcases offer a great piece to be creative with your styling – think personal items, your favorite books, and interesting decor finds you have accumulated over the years. For an elegant look, you can choose a bookcase with glass doors – especially great if you hate dusting your bookcase every week (no judgment here).
To fit within your farmhouse decor, make sure to choose a bookcase in a natural shade of wood, even better if it’s antiqued or vintage – it will add the perfect touch of rustic to complement the rest of the decor.
9. Console Behind the Couch
I have always found it challenging to style open areas combining living room, kitchen, and dining room. Especially with a style like modern farmhouse, where colors tend to be more homogenous, it can be tricky to create visual separation between the different environments.
That’s when a perfectly placed console behind your couch can become a powerful decor tool. Especially when choosing a solid wood piece like the one in the picture above, you are guaranteed to create a visual border for your living room area, making it easier to style and organize each section differently.
On top of that, a console table can be a great place to store items such as throw blankets when they are not being used.
10. Wall Sconces
Recreate this room:
Lighting is to interior design what salt is to cooking: it’s the simple ingredients that can make or break your results and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a space that won’t benefit from it.
A great way to play with lighting and create different focal points in your room is through wall-mounted light fixtures. Sconces allow for more flexibility than a single, centre-of-the-room chandelier.
I love the idea of mounting fixtures right above your window – you’ll be able to recreate the same flow as natural light even in the evening. Play around with different light colors to make sure you pick a tone that enhances the natural materials of your modern farmhouse furniture. You’ll often find warm hues to be very complementary to the materials and colors of this style.
11. Colorful Vintage Persian Rug
Confession time: I have had a love affair with Persian rugs since I can remember. In fact, one of my earliest memories is playing with dolls on top of my grandma’s Persian rug in her wonderful living room (What can I say…even tiny me recognized the winning combo of Barbie and interior design).
Colorful Persian rugs, despite common beliefs, are a great addition to a modern farmhouse living room. Their natural material and sophisticated craftsmanship marry perfectly with the clean and muted colors of linen couches, wooden coffee tables, and beige armchairs.
If you are worried about the upkeep, no need to invest in the real thing. Search online for machine-washable rugs replicating Persian design – you will be able to combine convenience and style in a budget-friendly way. My advice: if you have a chance, try to feel first-hand what synthetic fabrics feel and look like – you still want to go for an authentic look!
12. Accent Chair in a Different Style
This idea is for those who are not afraid of stepping outside their comfort zone when it comes to adapting modern farmhouse design to their unique taste.
If you are feeling brave, you can add an accent chair to your living room in a style that is completely separate from farmhouse decor. This touch will add an eclectic element to your space and create an interesting visual contrast while still providing the overarching look of modern farmhouse.
Unless you have a well-trained eye for combinations of vastly different items, you can make your life easier by following a simple rule: make sure that the accent chair shares at least one common item with modern farmhouse to guarantee a cohesive look (think of material, color, simple lines, etc.)
13. Couch Side Table
All my fellow readers will be able to relate to the horrible inconvenience of having to put down your book to safely place your cup of tea on your coffee table in the middle of a good reading session (first-world problem but a serious one at that).
You’ll find that the perfect solution to this issue is a couch side table – perfect for you to reach while comfortably laying on your couch, book still open in your other hand.
A small side table in distressed, aged wood will be the perfect finishing touch to your farmhouse living room. Go for carved wood for a more traditional look or choose minimalistic lines for a more modern approach.
14. Statement Coffee Table
Coffee tables are wonderful, under-appreciated items of furniture. They are perhaps one of the easiest items to style and provide the perfect platform for you to show your taste in decor right at the center of your space where all your guests can see it.
When designing a modern farmhouse living room, you’ll want to choose a simple coffee table with wood and heavy-duty metal legs. The clean lines and contrast between the two natural materials are sure to be a perfect combination.
If you have the space, go crazy and choose an oversized coffee table – large, imposing but warm-toned furniture is one of the most popular ways to achieve the farmhouse look. However, do not despair if you have a smaller space; simply make sure to choose a piece that has an empty core to allow more light to pass through and give the visual illusion of a larger environment.
15. Different Pillow Pattern Layering
If you are someone who doesn’t love to mix and match colors, your next best bet at creating layers and variety in your modern farmhouse living room is understated patterns.
Patterns do not need to be a crazy, in-your-face explosion of eclectic maximalism – in reality, they can serve as a subtle way to create visually engaging but not overwhelming spaces.
Especially when working within the modern farmhouse framework, you can remain within your natural color and material palette but switch things up by layering on-tone patterned pillows onto your couch. Try to choose colors at the tails of your palette to make sure there is enough contrast for them to add visual depth to your couch.
16. Black Metal Chandelier
If you had to choose one decor piece to identify modern farmhouse, it would have to be black heavy-duty metal chandeliers – the iconic poster child of this style.
This piece is so popular for good reasons: beautiful sleek lines, solid, sturdy material, and a touch of color in an often-monotone palette. It’s hard to find inspirational pictures for farmhouse decor that do not include this beauty.
Be mindful of the length of the chandeliers you find online – you’ll see that they are often intended for high ceilings due to farmhouse being extremely popular for large, imposing rooms. A great alternative to the long-arms chandeliers can be the round wagon wheel version of them; you’ll find it quite fitting for smaller spaces and shorter ceilings too.
17. Knitted Throw Blanket
No farmhouse living room would be complete without a knitted blanket nicely folded on a couch or armchair.
A beautiful throw blanket will add that touch of warmth needed to make your living room feel extra cozy and inviting, two of the main elements farmhouse decor achieves so tastefully.
Make sure to select a blanket in natural materials or with a simple design – you want to avoid fuzzy throw blankets if you’re trying to achieve a modern, sophisticated look.
18. Antique Mirror
Mirrors are not always a piece that farmhouse decor places a huge emphasis on. However, I find them to be an essential finishing touch to a farmhouse living room, especially if you are working with a smaller space.
A vintage or antiqued mirror will help reflect natural light, making your living room look more spacious. At the same time, it will add a rustic, authentic touch to your decor – something you can never have enough of when working with the farmhouse style.
How to Achieve the Perfect Modern Farmhouse Living Room
This post showed you 18 ideas on how to design the perfect modern farmhouse living room and how to adapt them to any budget.
When choosing this decor style, always make sure to approach it creatively – it’s easy to fall into the trap of adhering to it too strictly and ending up with a house that looks more like a staged farmhouse set than a space that speaks of you.
Combine natural materials, clean lines, and carefully placed pops of color within a neutral palette to achieve a welcoming, cozy living room that will make you want to never leave your home!
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