For period-style homes and modern homes alike, the farmhouse kitchen offers a certain charm and invitation for casual gatherings. From Bob Vila to Joanna Gaines, this is one design trend that seems to never go out of style.
But how can you achieve that bucolic beauty and vintage vibe in your own home? Twenty & Oak offers this guide to create a farmhouse kitchen design, starting from the ground up. Since flooring is the foundation of any space and an important purchase that establishes the overall look and style of your home, we will first dive into farmhouse kitchen flooring ideas that you can build around. Plus, we’ll offer some flooring suggestions to help you find the most durable and rustic-looking flooring options to establish farmhouse style.
Farmhouse Kitchen Design Flooring Ideas
There are many features of flooring that can play a role in your rustic style kitchen, while still offering modern conveniences like durability and a water-resistant surface that’s easy to clean. Here are a few features to keep in mind when it comes to selecting a flooring style for your farmhouse kitchen design.
Wide Plank Boards
Wider than the average plank, choose hardwoods with at least a 7-inch width. You can also find planks that reach eight inches, too.
Stained Wood Flooring
One of the easiest ways to achieve an authentic farmhouse design is through stained and prefinished hardwood visuals that resemble reclaimed wood. Many of our hardwood flooring options are finished with unique staining techniques for layered color that results in a quality, authentic look. For instance, there is reactive staining through fuming or smoking veneers to achieve a patina and more contrasting color shifts, which ultimately give a more time-worn appearance. Another process called dual staining can deepen the finish to any desired tone.
Distressed Markings
Distressed markings, such as saw marks and wire-brushed surfaces, offer that rustic repurposed charm. Many modern flooring styles from Twenty & Oak offer the same charming resemblance without compromising quality.
Strong Color Variations
Another flooring feature that lends a rustic vibe are planks that have a strong color variation. This variation can be wood knots and grain striations, or even the entire plank stack itself.
Stone-like Materials
Not all country farmhouses have wood floors. Seek a flooring that resembles a stone for a more cottage-like feel. Many vinyl planks and tiles and laminates offer a strikingly similar look that’s more affordable and practical than real stone.
The Best Farmhouse Kitchen Flooring Options
The best type of flooring for your kitchen is vinyl, laminate and solid hardwoods. Let’s take a look at a few of Twenty & Oak’s flooring options to lay a base foundation that pulls together your farmhouse kitchen design.
Palmetto Road Riviera Collection
Consider the Palmetto Road Riviera collection for a more rustic farmhouse vibe. The Riviera collection offers a true timeworn look with multiple saw marks to give it a distressed look and a mesmerizing color variation that runs through a natural French oak and hickory wood grain. In fact, Riviera’s hardwood color variation is so high that these bold boards can range from a subtle light wash to almost black.
To add to the distressed appearance, wood artisans use four distinctive circular and straight saw mark techniques to give the surface more character and charm. Last but not least, Riviera also offers a unique reclaimed wood look with custom-cut planks in three random widths–something you don’t see often! Overall, these modern hardwood floors offer a heritage look and a vintage farmhouse aesthetic, while still being durable enough for a high-traffic kitchen.
Browse Palmetto Road’s Riviera Collection
Veranda Charleston Collection
The Veranda Charleston Collection offers many similar treatments and features as Palmetto Road’s Riviera, but with a few distinct differences that give it an overall cleaner look. The Charleston collection offers several distressing techniques, such as hand-carved planks and a light wire-brushing. Craftsmen also use an unprecedented fuming technique that ages the natural oak grain and locks in its signature colors. More impressively, each French oak plank of the Charleston collection is sourced from the France and Belgium region and meticulously hand-selected by artisans.
Discover Veranda’s Charleston Collection
For a more subtle color variation, take a look at the color Sweetgrass in the Charleston collection. Sweetgrass offers natural oak grain planks in a light-colored hue that lends a modern sophistication.
Veranda Charleston collection, Sweetgrass
Beauflor’s Water-Resistant Hydrana Laminate
If you love the high-end look without the high-end price, laminate and vinyl flooring are your two next best flooring options for a farmhouse style kitchen. Laminate flooring can resemble beautiful hardwood floors, yet at a fraction of the cost. Compared to hardwoods, laminate flooring also requires much less maintenance. However, since you are designing a kitchen, make sure to choose a water-resistant laminate at the very least. One excellent option is Beauflor’s Hydrana Water-Resistant Laminate, which gives a realistic wood texture and design. Accompanied by an attached pad, Hydrana also offers sound-absorbing qualities and comfort for home chefs who stand all day cooking.
The Hydrana flooring collection offers many features that would work perfectly in a farmhouse kitchen design, too! With a nearly 7-1/2-inch width, this laminate lends a rustic wide plank board look. Plus, there are a few colors that can give a provincial or country feel.
Browse Beauflor’s Hydrana Water-Resistant Laminate
Beauflor Hydrana, Gyant Natural
Metroflor’s Deja New Collection
Like laminate, vinyl flooring is a more affordable flooring option that can convey the farmhouse design you want. Vinyl flooring also comes in both vinyl plank and tile as well as vinyl sheet, and each offers various styles and colors to give you that rustic aesthetic. For kitchens, however, we recommend sticking with a luxury vinyl plank or tile that is more durable, moisture-resistant and easy to maintain.
One excellent vinyl for just that is Metroflor’s Deja New flooring collection. The Deja New collection offers luxury vinyl planks and tiles in everything from wood to linen weaves to industrial-style concretes. Even better, with this collection, you can easily mix and match stone and wood to create an interesting flooring pattern. This means you can give your farmhouse kitchen a stone-like floor for a more cottagey vibe!
Deja New also offers vinyl that resembles rustic hardwoods with distressed markings like saw cut embossing, seven-inch-wide planks and hues like Coastal Oak Oxidized and Coastal Oak Greyed.
Shop Metroflor’s Deja New Collection
Kitchen Farmhouse Design Ideas
Now that you have chosen the perfect rustic-looking floors throughout your farmhouse kitchen, you want to add the finishing touches. Here are some farmhouse kitchen design ideas to complete the look.
Use Repurposed and Reclaimed Objects
One of the most genuine ways to create a farmhouse kitchen is to borrow, repurpose and reuse items from farms and factories and other related industry buildings. These reclaimed objects are a nice way to recycle something that might otherwise be disregarded, giving them a second life. As the saying goes, what’s one person’s junk is another’s treasure. If you love to go picking through old barns and homes in rural areas, this is up your alley!
Love a good project? Create DIY light fixtures from farming funnels and steel oversized factory style pendants. Another design idea for a farmhouse style kitchen is to incorporate repurposed signs and crates with stamped branding, adding a graphic element. Give some visuals to the ceiling and add some visual length with reclaimed beams, adding hooks to hang woven baskets and kitchen tools.
Showcase Cookware with Open Shelving
Replace closed cabinetry with open shelves for a more spacious, open and airy look to your farmhouse kitchen. If you have a window between two open shelves, it allows for more natural lighting instead of blocking it. Open shelves are also quite convenient, offering a utilitarian design that allows you to easily and quickly put dishware neatly away while still proudly showcasing it to everyone who visits. If your taste leans more toward an industrial farmhouse look, use open shelving supported by a pipe frame. And extra points if you can add a rod and library ladder to reach those higher shelves!
If you’re not too keen on dusting all those open shelves, you can use glass-front cabinets instead. Glass-front cabinets grant you the same open feel and still allow you to showcase fine china, crockware and all of Grandma’s passed-down dishware and pie pans. The sides may block sunlight from nearby windows, so plan accordingly.
Add a Subway Tile Backsplash
Behind open shelving, install a counter-to-ceiling backsplash of porcelain subway tiles. Subway tiles are a timeless addition to any kitchen, but create an especially charming look for farmhouse kitchens. Install kitchen tile with a dark grout to make it stand out and offer dimension.
Incorporate Shiplap and Beadboard
If white subway tiles are not quite your taste, at least stick to a bright white color with neutral shiplap or beadboard paneled walls. Much like subway tiles, shiplap and beadboard offer a country vibe–only it calls to mind sitting on the front porch, instead of waiting for the train. Shiplap and beadboard also offer some texture and dimensionality, too.
Remember that these panels are not just for walls! They are so light they can also be used to cover an outdated ceiling (looking at you, popcorn!). Add a striking contrast with dark bronze or black finishes through lighting, faucets and fixtures.
Use Bright Colors
Since many farmhouse kitchen designs call for bright white subway tile, shiplap or other lighter neutral color tones, consider adding a bright pop of a jewel-toned color throughout the space. For instance, you could install a stove with a bright-colored finish. Another example is to repurpose a butcher block and paint the base, using it as an island for extra counter space.
On the contrary, instead of using a bright color as an accent, allow it to take center stage. Allow rich royal blue, cherry red or deep jade cabinetry to envelope the space and turn it into an inviting, playful place for others to gather around.
If you don’t want to commit to painting cabinets or walls, add bright colors with accessories. Consider adding a collection of mint-colored Depression milk glasses behind glass-front cabinets or cook with your favorite Le Creuset cookware shade.
Drop-In a Farmhouse Sink
You simply can’t have a farmhouse kitchen without the quintessential farmhouse sink. Replace your existing sink and drop-in a farmhouse-style sink. Take it even further and select an apron-front farmhouse sink made of fireclay, porcelain-coated cast iron or a granite composite for modern durability and a vintage vibe.
Bring in Copper or Brass Finishes
Copper and brass are timeless rustic finishes. Add a touch of copper, whether it’s copper pendants over the island, a copper finish faucet or even a display of copper pots and pans on the open shelving or glass-front cabinetry. Authentic copper also ages beautifully, giving it a lovely greenish-blue patina.
If you want a more yellow finish, brass is a top-contender for farmhouse kitchens, too. Adorn your cabinetry with shiny brass knobs and drawer pulls. Or add brass faucets to your drop-in farmhouse sink.
Incorporate Cast Iron
Of course, nothing says country cooking like cast iron! Consider a full cast iron range or think smaller with cast iron hardware and hooks to drape drying dish towels. At the very least, keep out a cast iron pan. It’s practically a good luck charm for home chefs!
Invite Friends and Family to Gather
The kitchen is the heart of the home. And for farmhouse kitchens, this rings even truer. To make the kitchen a gathering place for family and friends, you want to open up the space and offer communal seating that is inviting. For instance, you could add a large freestanding farmhouse table or butcher block, topped with a Carrara marble that doubles as a prep station, allowing folks to gather and chat as you prepare a home-cooked meal. Another idea is to create a center island with an extended countertop with a few metal barstools nestled beneath. It’s perfect for a casual chat or quick meal.
Design Your Perfect Farmhouse Kitchen
Find your perfect floor for your farmhouse kitchen. Take some time to peruse our virtual flooring showroom and if you find something you like, you can order free samples to see if your selections match your rustic vision.
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