Aesthetics Exploration: Rustic

The aesthetic that I chose to dive deeper into was the rustic aesthetic. This aesthetic takes inspiration from 17th and 18th century rural architecture, and focuses heavily on natural woods and stones. Rustic architecture was popularized in the United States during the mid 1800’s my landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing.

There are many components that can fall under the umbrella of rustic, however one of the most prominent is the use of logs and unfinished wood.

Rustic houses will often have wood displayed on walls or on tables that looks very weathered and natural, often times including this like nail holes as seen above. These characteristics give it a older feel, and often involve using repurposed wood to emphasize the aged look. The rustic aesthetic is meant to feel comforting by being raw and unchanged, allowing the imperfections of a piece to be part of its appeal.

The image above uses full trees as beams, and rough cuts of logs on the stairs on the wall, which gives the space an incredibly natural feel, and leaves lots of room for creative expression since there is little need to worry about things like perfect symmetry or right angles. One thing I love about the rustic aesthetic is that it can be incorporated into very high end and fancy designs as well as basic and simple ones.

Old simples homes and cabins often encapsulate the rustic aesthetic since their design is the inspiration for the aesthetic. The goal of many modern rustic art pieces is to emulate the styles that hunters and trappers would have used hundreds of years ago, which sometimes involves updating those old cabins as seen above.

Another common component of rustic styles are rough exposed stone. This is often represented in homes in ornate fireplaces that appear handmade, and welcoming. The grays, blacks, and browns of the stone often contrast very nicely with the lighter shades of wood, making them mesh well together in the same environment.

While I have largely focused on the full designs of rooms or homes, the rustic aesthetic can also be applied on much smaller scales. Things such as tables and chairs, benches, and general décor can all fit into the rustic aesthetic. These types of things will often incorporate the same rough woods and stone with other animal related things such as hides, antlers, and leather. These all contribute to making the piece feel older, handcrafted and more relatable.

The above image combines the wood stone and animal aspects, while also including another common part of the rustic aesthetic in imperfect metal. The common theme seen in all of these images however, is embracing the beauty that is found in the imperfections of nature, and trying to recreate that beauty in ways that are functional for the modern world, while also invoking feelings of living in the past.

Sources:

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Rustic

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-rustic-design-4771798#:~:text=Rustic%20interior%20design%20is%20characterized,handcrafted%20raw%20and%20natural%20materials.

Images in order of appearance: 

https://img.pikbest.com/wp/202344/rustic-vintage-woodgrain-embracing-the-aesthetic_9906590.jpg!w700wp

https://i0.wp.com/nationalland.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/doublestairs.jpg?fit=2000%2C1028&ssl=1

https://blog.bairdbrothers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/A-modern-log-cabin-living-room-with-a-stone-fireplace-and-wooden-mantel.-2.jpg

https://www.fredricksonmasonry.com/post/cozy-stone-fireplace-designs-for-your-prior-lake-home

https://logfurnitureplace.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1044726d93dd0fc5b52ac7ed430bb624/0/1/01-chair_16947.jpg

https://paseoroad.com/cdn/shop/collections/03191dc0c735c44f597060caacac8a3b_1200x803.jpg?v=1704472623