Imagine stepping into a home that not only reflects your personal style but also seamlessly blends with the natural beauty of its surroundings. Whether it’s a coastal retreat, a countryside manor, or an urban haven, the trend of harmonising home decor with the environment has taken the design world by storm.
The buzzword favoured in many a property discussion might include the words ‘location, location, location’, but how can your personal loves, holiday memories and the natural surroundings of your home blend and influence both its internal or external style. From opulent stately homes set in breathtaking landscapes to eco-friendly designs thoughtfully tailored to rural settings, this article will illustrate how you and your home’s surroundings can inspire, influence and shape its design and decor.
Inspiring interiors from natural settings
If you’re planning a themed decor, rejuvenating interiors or furnishing a new-build, the natural setting of a home can have a significant influence on the interior design style and overall aesthetic. If you are settled in a home with lakeside views or restyling an interior and live near a forest, you might already be under the spell of your property’s natural setting. Being close to nature is well known for being beneficial to mental health and wellbeing, so bringing nature into your home can lift your mood and reduce stress. Therefore, it makes sense to grow and blend into your surroundings and welcome in the colours, greenery and any special natural features close by.
Connecting a home’s design to its natural landscape will also help to create cohesion and character and works for functional and practical reasons too. A garage or outbuilding can become a bright art studio with a retractable glass roof to draw in natural light. In a baby’s nursery, a geometric mountain range can transform a room into an earthy cocoon, while painting balloons or clouds on walls can create a soothing and fun space.
Relaxing seaside vibe for coastal retreats
Beachfront properties often embrace their seaside settings with lots of natural textures and colours. If you picture a chalet bungalow, it might seem straightforward to add your own design touch with white-washed walls, weathered wood finishes and neutral tones to fit its seaside location. Other suitable elements include beachscape paintings in living rooms as well as wall hanging displays of everything sea related, from fishing nets to wooden seagulls.
In bathrooms, you might want to add simple accessories like large shells, retro beach signage or create shelving units from driftwood. Nautical accents like ropes, shells, anchors and driftwood will easily merge interiors to your coastal location. A garden can be reimagined as a beach with a sandpit or hammock slung strategically in a corner.
Flourishes of seaside styles can be seen in many properties along the coast at home and abroad, and there’s nothing to stop you adding a touch of holiday memories and faraway shores to your theme. If you like to travel or own a holiday home, you might have been inspired to replicate the interior of a Spanish villa following a memorable visit.
Recreating dream holidays at home
Homeowners often return from a favourite holiday destination inspired to impart some of that style into their own homes. From cottages to countryside manors, you can stylise your home inside and out by abstracting architectural features and decor. Transforming personal spaces with small designer flourishes to reflect you and your cherished travel memories can inject further wow factor into everyday rooms. Consider some of the following ideas to add such inspiration to your own home:
Mediterranean magic
For those enamoured by trips to Spain, Greece or Italy, perhaps a hotel, villa or historic building had architectural features or stylish decor that you are keen to channel in your own home. Popular Mediterranean designs and home decor might include painted ceramic tiles, large murals in rich tones and colours or patterns for stylish drama. Wrought iron furnishings, carved wood, exposed stone walls and weathered beams all depict the charm of traditional homes. A selection of plants, flowers and citrus trees indoors or out will also enhance this look. Outdoor areas such as courtyards will benefit from stone fire pits or a brick pizza oven are perfect for entertaining with a touch of holiday fun.
Alpine warmth
If your aim is to recreate the style that captures the snow capped mountain living with cosy decor for a harmonious blend of rusticity, elegance, look for designs that bring warmth indoors with an authentic style championed by chalets in mountainous locations. Wood, stone and fireplace surrounds will help to carve out that cosy and inviting atmosphere, while floors and furniture in these consistent materials will all add to the home’s sense of rustic charm.
Countryside aesthetics
For rural countryside homes, your outside surroundings might be the driving force behind everything from the size of your windows (to maximise those views) to the organic textures of your carpets and curtains. If you own a converted barn or farm building, your property is probably halfway there when it comes to oozing rustic character or farmyard features.
You might want to research extra tips on undertaking historic renovations or general tips on converting traditional farm buildings yourself. However, stone and brick are common building materials that connect the home to the natural landscape. Inside, wide-plank wood floors, exposed beams and natural fibre rugs work well. Decor tends to include more traditional styles like antique furnishings, floral prints and carved wood will enhance the classic country aesthetic.
Respecting neighbours in urban settings
Allowing the natural environment to influence a home’s design has many advantages beyond aesthetics. It creates a unique kerb appeal as the home blends with the landscape rather than clashes with it.
Similarly, if you need planning permission to extend a home or make major changes to its exterior, designs in keeping with the neighbourhood are far easier to be approved. This is important if you have an urban home. Although you might want to retain your privacy, you’ll need to respect the overall ‘look’ of the immediate area as well as your neighbour’s gardens, access routes and their own right to privacy. Likewise, if you have a period home in a charming historic street, you might be unpopular if you take modernising a step too far!
Promoting sustainability for a valuable eco-property
In the same vein, buildings that promote sustainability and have been designed or renovated with greater eco-conscious efforts will be commended by local councils, neighbours and future buyers. In fact, respecting your home’s surroundings in addition to making it more sustainable can add value to a home and may help to sell a property faster when you choose to sell.
To create a more sustainable home, opt for renewable building materials like bamboo and reclaimed wood alongside natural aesthetics. Solar panels, green roofs and rainwater collection systems reduce your home’s environmental impact while smarter tech can heat your home more efficiently.
Eco-friendly decor and design features that look at if they naturally co-exist with their surroundings can be found in rural properties across the UK. They might generally be enveloped by forest, woods and rolling hills with lush gardens, plants and flowers or bedding planters to home-grow herbs and vegetables.
Crafting your unique home
The relationship between a home and its environment extends beyond aesthetics. It can enhance well-being, promote sustainability, and even streamline the approval process for renovations. So, when creating a living space that mirrors your desires and memories, remember that the world outside your windows can be a further guiding force in shaping your unique style. Let your home become a canvas for your passions, within its own important setting.
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