Rustic Fireplaces: Designs, Tips, and Ideas

The majority of rustic stone fireplace designs that exist nowadays were inspired by the vivid architectural style of the Adirondack Mountain region in New York originated between 1870-1930.

The Adirondack Style, logically named after the mountain, used rustic hand-hewn logs and branches of trees, usually in their natural state.

Image source: LKID

Tips for Choosing the Right Rustic Furniture for Your Home

Basically, it’s all about sophistications and beauty with rustic interior designs. There are a plethora of materials used for creating rustic furniture pieces and decorative elements.

Fireplace ideas can help your home look beautiful inside, and make your family and friends feel welcome in your home, with also some touches of warmth and coziness. Here are a few helpful tips for you:

• Wooden pieces are usually the key in the whole design of rustic furniture. When it comes to rustic themes, it is not rare to have bare wood elements or even just reclaimed wood pieces in a home.
• Pieces of rustic furniture can be natural, stained, or painted. The best option for you would be to opt for warmer and richer colors and shades, and more organic ones also, so you could achieve a more relaxing ambiance.
• Of course, the furniture you opt for that applies to your design should have an emphasis on the natural grains and knots of the used wood. Every curve should be visible, not only to compliment the craftsmanship, but also the beauty of the natural world.
• There are plenty of items or elements in every rustic home design that appear as if they belonged in a forest cottage or a log cabin. Often they are very big. Seating may be created from halved logs, whereas upholstered pieces are more earthly like, although they also have a great deal of visual weight.

Image source: The Refined Group

How to Attain a Rustic Interior Design

If you want to achieve a sincerely rustic image in your living space, here are a couple of tips you need, and also some suggestions, like what you should do, and what you should not do:

• The greater part of the elements used for decoration should look as if they were worn or order. Especially is one of the elements is new, give it some artificial wear to make it look older. For instance, an appliance of crackle paint to a new wood element should do it for you.
• There is usually no place for painting in rustic designs, especially if you involved stone work or beams on your home’s walls. Have in mind that rustic home décor mostly depends on the simple and pure beauty of the outside. Therefore, you’d better go with the natural attributes you can utilize than painting everything in different rich colors.
• All elements included in your design should look raw, rugged and rough. Rugs and carpets could be braided, and you could toss pillows with bold patterns on the couch, all of that would attribute your rustic interior design.

Image source: Neumann Lewis Buchanan Architects

• Simplicity and elegance can be aroused with rustic decor.
  There is no need for any chic draperies or fabrics, as a space with integrated rustic design won’t be in a need of fake fabrics or metal embellishments.
• Cotton or linen should be your first choice materials, as you should always choose natural fibers. Get away from all heavy materials, and keep in mind that rustic décor is in sync with a refined and plain approach.
• When colors are in question, what you need to know is that they don’t fit very well with your rustic décor. Rich colors don’t fit at all, but some bright shades can fit in perfectly. However, in those cases, stick to only one color.
• More often than not, rustic homes are airy, meaning there is airflow between the rooms. That way, there is a better connection within the house itself, as one room may blend into another, which will only bring you feeling of coziness.

Image source: Murphy & Co. Design

Useful Tips for Decoration of Rustic Home

Here are few tips you may find useful when realizing your ideas about your rustic design for your home:

• Introduce outside elements into your home. Find some stones or twigs, and place them somewhere that they can emphasize their purpose.
• Even though is highly recommended not to paint what it seems to be natural brick work in your home, you can comfortably paint over the work that looks less natural in your rustic design.
• Should you have an element in your home that is not perfectly compatible with the rest of your design, you can always cover that up by planting some natural items around it. For instance, stones, twigs, or even a braided blanket around it will do the trick for you.

Image source: VAg Inc. Architects and Planners

• Go for wood that looks vintage and worn, but actually is reclaimed. You can find that wood easily, and you can buy dining tables, doors, even headboards that are made from reclaimed wood. Not only could you compliment your rustic design, but also it is very good for the environment.
• If you happen to have a fireplace, you can transform it into a rustic element by mixing it up with some stonework, or even you could make a mantel from textured wood. It often is a centerpiece in rustic home designs.
• Authentic chandeliers and brass lamps are all you need for lighting elements. Naturally, you can consider some vintage elements, as they would fit perfectly with the rest of your rustic designs. That kind of light in your home is the best, as it sets a warm and welcoming mood.

Image source: Foxtail Residences

• There is a possibility of placing candles all around your home. It is inexpensive, and you would definitely attribute to the rustic design of yours.
• One of the most important elements of rustic ambiance is fire. Therefore, try to introduce elements of flame to your rustic layout. Hearth of your home may as well be the centerpiece of it, where you would be located around the most.
• Should you happen to have a wooden floor, covered with some carpets or tiles, try to expose the floor somehow. And if it is not in good condition, refinish them if they need to be, and don’t paint them. Emphasize their natural state, it will attribute your rustic décor.

Image source: Roy Campana Photography

• Regarding choices of linens, try to go for stripes or plaids that resemble patterns that were actual in the old west. And when choosing rugs for sleeping spaces, go always for natural textiles.
• When it comes to the perfect kitchen elements, you can always go with baskets full of pine cones. Place them somewhere visible and it should do the trick. Also, change your cupboard handles for ones that look more naturally inspired.
• For your bathroom, always opt for brass fixtures and any natural accent. Twigs placed in a vase, or even stones around the frame of your mirror. In addition, regarding bath linens, go for colors that resemble the earth, shades of brown or blue.
• If you don’t care about darker or richer color shades, you can attain perfect rustic home design just by using light oaks and white paint on your walls. However, bear in mind that you should still use natural materials if you are to give the place organic and subdued feel.

10 Useful Tips for Attaining the Perfect Fireplace

Having a rustic stone fireplace can have many advantages. Besides all upsides, it can save you plenty of money on costs and other things you must have for sources of heat.

Image source: Peace Design

Rustic fireplace designs are easy to implement in your home, and that’s why you can make a perfect one very easily.

Safety Is Important

Wood burning fireplaces may be the sources of house fires, if they are installed badly, or operated the wrong way. Also, embers flying all around from your fireplace or chimney are some of the biggest threats there are.

However, with proper use, all of that can be prevented. Also, wood burning fireplaces have a negative impact on indoor air quality.

So, it may not be a bad idea to have someone explain you thoroughly how to use a wood burning fireplace.
Even though the smell of smoke may be attractive, have in mind it’s not good for your health.

Image source: Scott Gilbride/Architect Inc.

If you have fire smoke escaping to the room where you spend time, it means your fireplace is not working properly. Additionally, it may consume the air, so that way it can create negative pressure in your home.

If so, if that consumed air finds its way back as some gas or flue, you can easily have gases like carbon monoxide in your home, and that is not a good thing. The phenomenon is called ‘’backdrafting’’ and is one of the main reasons why you should have smoke alarms.

Never underestimate the importance of having your amazing fireplace checked by a professional from time to time. Even though you can check that yourself, and clean your wood fireplace as well, it’s better if you have that done by a professional, as there is a chance you won’t know something they will, and they can tell you a thing or two about fireplace maintenance, or to simply explain to you how to use a fireplace.

Image source: Crisp Architects

Fireplace Fixtures and Chimneys

The majority of rustic fireplaces that are wood-burning are built of heavy masonry materials on solid foundations. There is some factory built that have stainless steel chimneys and special triple-walls.

There is one frequent masonry type that goes by the name of a ‘’Rumford’’. That fireplace got its name after Count Rumford who developed its design. They were much better at getting rid of fireplace smoke than any other cabin fireplaces.

And it is the same nowadays, Rumford-inspired fireplaces are still one of the better ones.
The firebox of a masonry fireplace is built with heat-resistant firebrick, and the interior of chimneys is lined with so-called tiles, that are heat-resistant square clay tubes.

Image source: Warmington & North

Then, the visible parts of the chimney, its hearth and fireplace are usually made of materials that cannot combust, such as brick, stone or tile. Sometimes, the chimney is capped with a stone or a metal slab, in order to keep rain and snow out and to keep birds and other animals out of the chimney as well.

There is a damper then, a small, cast-iron door that is located over the fire that can be operated by with a help of a handle that’s attached. While the fireplace is not in use it is closed, and it’s opened when it is in use. You can also use it to control the air flow, in order to regulate the fire.

Fireplaces usually have a mesh or screen guard that prevents embers from flying everywhere while you have a fire that’s burning. There are also glass doors that should be open while a fire is burning, and which you can close in order to reduce embers. But it should be closed if there is no fire burning.

Image source: Holmes Hole Builders LLC

Commonly, the majority of fireplaces will have a fire grate, raised one, used for elevating the fire in order to establish better airflow and combustion. Also, they will have ash-dump doors on the floor of the firebox.

They will, however, serve you with the purpose of dumping the cold ash into a chamber beneath the firebox. The ash will be met with another door, tight-fitting metal door, where you could remove it without compromising your living area.

Process Explanation

Firstly, before lighting a fire, the damper must be opened in order for smoke and combustion gases to flee. When the fire is started, the combustion gases are rising up the chimney, and at the same time, the fire you started is taking air from your living area for combustion.

Image source: Whitten Architects

While the flame maintains its stability, deadly hot combustion gases are still being drawn up and out of the chimney, while getting fresh air in for combustion.
When the fire dies, and all the ashes are stone cold, the damper gets closed so no heat will leave the home. Afterwards, the firebox may be cleaned.

Plainly speaking, the fireplace that’s open won’t heat your home very efficiently, because chimney draws out of the home both conditioned air and hot combustion gases. The majority of the air is frigid, drawn from cracks and gaps in the home.

And it makes your home drafty and cold. Therefore, it may not be a bad idea to install a pipe between the fireplace and the outdoors, just to import the air directly, and to prevent all discomforting air-infiltrations through those gaps and cracks you may have in your home.

Image source: Bartelt. The Remodeling Resource

There’s a possibility to make your fireplace safer. And it’s by installing glass doors. That way, you’ll be able to control airflow more carefully, and plus you would add a protection layer. But, even if you do all that, you won’t improve its heating efficiency.

And if you choose to install an EPA approved metal fireplace that supposedly is highly efficient, it would make your fireplace to behave more like a woodstove though. If you opt for this, you would convert your fireplace to a cleaner, and to a more efficient source of heat than your traditional fireplace, which would be very handy with your heating bills.

Image source: Lake Geneva Architects

Ending thoughts on rustic fireplaces

Implementing all of these rustic fireplace décor ideas will make your home more of a natural space, that’s very welcoming and that offers a place to relax, and simply appreciate the nature.

And the best thing about it is that it may not be very expensive, just creative and witty.

If you liked this article about rustic fireplaces, you should check out these as well:

• Double Sided Fireplace Designs For Your Living Room
• Tips on getting a corner fireplace for that dream home you always wanted