Designing a Modern Rustic Bathroom
POSTED ON Friday, August 3, 2018 IN Bathroom
Bringing a rustic look and feel to your modern home
“Rustic.” You’ve no doubt heard it, but what does it mean?
In terms of design style, rustic is a look and feel most often associated with simple neutral colors, natural textures like wood and stone, and fabrics or textiles like linen, cowhide, or jute. Think wood grains and colors you would see in a barn, antiques used as decorative accessories, and preservation of original character or detail in a home. Modern rustic combines these elements with clean lines and modern silhouettes in furniture or home fixtures. The desired effect, when incorporated into your decor, is a balanced blend of rustic charm and modern touches to bring warmth into your home.
Homeowners may feel this look is difficult to achieve, but the balance lies in understanding how to combine these two styles in a way that feels natural. As the rustic style has become more popular in modern homes, the bathroom, in particular, has become a focal point where rustic meets modern.
Rustic Modern Bathroom Vanities
When looking at vanities, consider choosing a modern design and door style—and modern often means more minimal or simplistic. For example, the flat panel Interlude vanity, complemented by a slotted open shelf, contributes to a more contemporary feel.
The Riverside style vanity, with slab doors, also achieves that modern look.
Riverside style vanity in birch wood with brindle finish
Pairing a contemporary door style with a rustic wood grain
The most common types of wood for a modern rustic bathroom vanity are hickory or oak. Quarter sawn oak has been gaining traction in recent years with the rising popularity of Craftsman style. These natural wood textures both have a momentum to them—hickory with wildly varying colors and grain patterns in light or natural finishes; oak and quarter sawn oak with a distinctive but more subdued grain and color variance.
Take it a step further: The appeal of rustic woods
Bertch’s bath cabinet collection offers rustic alder in most door styles, including those typically used in a modern rustic bathroom. There’s no subtlety to this style of “rustic”—it’s the real thing.
The hallmarks of rustic woods are character marks such as large knots and wane, along with small pin knots, bird pecks, worm tracks, mineral stain, irregular figures in the grain, cracks that do not hurt the strength of the part, sap wood and cherry pitch marks. This type of wood gives a room a rich patina and visual interest.
Bertch’s full line offerings in the broader kitchen cabinet lines—which also include bath vanities—offer a variety of species in rustic wood selection. So if your heart is set on maple or cherry, even those can be used to create a truly unique rustic design.
Achieve a modern rustic look with a neutral color palette
No matter the wood selection, a key to completing the rustic aesthetic for your bathroom vanity is to pair the wood with a stain that brings that grain forward and makes it pop. When choosing a modern flat-panel door style and a grain-forward wood, you can achieve a rustic look with a neutral stain color like harvest or driftwood, which reinforces a natural feel. For more of a weathered appearance, a shale stain portrays an older look, even on a more subtle wood like birch.
Completing the rustic look with a custom finish
Cabinet glaze is another way to get an aged look. A glaze adds a second color to accentuate details and provide dimension. Glazed finishes can be applied over stained or solid color painted wood to provide a custom finish. For a rustic modern look, consider an ivory glaze.
To find the perfect combination of rustic and modern for your bathroom, visit our nearest showroom to talk to a designer and see our vanities up close and in person.
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