Sophisticated Decorating With a Country Western Flair

Leather and animal skins add sophistication to your country style home.

Decorating with a country-western flair does not have to mean that your house looks ready for a country hoedown at any moment. You can use country-western decor and still have a sophisticated and elegant ambiance in the home. Rich, warm colors that reflect the colors of nature, dark leather furnishings, sophisticated lighting, shiny floors and soft furs help to enhance a cozy, yet understated elegance in your home.

Instructions

1. Purchase leather furniture with carved legs and feet that utilize nail heads, tassels, and saddle seats to enhance your living room area. For a more casual den, you can use log, twig and branch furniture to create a cozy atmosphere.

2. Use rich, earth-tone accent colors throughout your home, such as terra cotta, brick red, navy, or forest green. These colors work well along with a neutral-colored background of gray, cream or tan. Strive to use colors that make you think of a desert sunset or the prairies and hills found in the Old West.

3. Decorate the walls in your home with animal fur or cowhide rugs or wall hangings. Hang vintage tin sign replicas and western-inspired prints on your walls as well.

4. Set candles around your home to add a sophisticated elegance and sparkle. Be creative when choosing the candle holders. Those encased with barbed wire, copper plating or wrought iron work well in a country-western ambiance.

5. Display useful gadgets along the walls of your kitchen, such as a cast-iron bottle opener or a western-inspired tile trivet.

6. Use copper-colored dinnerware, etched glassware with western designs, pewter mugs and glasses for your dining room table and china cabinet. Set out leather place mats, polished wood serving bowls and trays on your dining room table. Find an unusual wine rack, such as those shaped like a cowboy or a horse, out of wrought iron.

7. Display a collection of Indian arrowheads or buffalo coins in shadow boxes in your living room and den areas.

8. Add to the sophisticated ambiance by using Old West flags or a map encased in a glass shadow box or picture frame, a coffee table book with pictures of the Old West, and framed vintage western-looking postcards. You can also display western sculptures or carvings out of stone on your coffee or end tables or bookshelves.

9. Use lighting that reflects the country-western look and adds sophistication, such as antler chandeliers, pub lamps, rustic-looking wall sconces or vintage oil lanterns.

10. Install flooring, such as earth-tone ceramic tiles, shiny hardwood floors or dark-toned linoleum. Add animal skin rugs to soften the look.

11. Purchase knickknacks and artwork that depict lakes, fishing, oak trees, riding, hunting, horses, moose, elk, pine cones and wildflowers.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid cluttering the rooms or making them look too busy. This detracts from the sophisticated look and the beauty of the decor.

References

• Rental Decorating Digest: Southwestern Style Characteristics