Living in an apartment on the nth floor you miss the ‘earth’, that sounded a lot like an astronaut’s 165th day in the space (I would kill for that view or that job btw). As a non apartment inhabiting person missing his backyard garden, my visiting grandfather seldom often puts his similar feelings in these words “Not living on the ground and not living in the sky, you are stuck somewhere in between”. I won’t argue with that, but I do believe that irrespective of your double digit storey height, you can always imbue a space with your personality, preferences and aesthetic sense and if it is an earthy, outdoorsy look you envision, you can create that at the 16th floor or the 94th floor (got a li’l carried away there….).

I love living in an apartment and I love the outdoors. I assure you, my fellow apartment lover (I mean a person who loves apartment living and not someone…..never-mind), you can FAKE the OUTDOORS. Employ these decor ideas and make your living room feel organic, natural and earthy (without a garden).

P.S. These tips are also great for people who share my grandfather’s feelings and have their feet and houses firmly on the ground.

1.Natural Finishes

In earthy decor it is crucial to stay true to original finishes. Lacquers, stains and varnishes would be like applying glitter to a subdued matte look (excuse the makeup analogy). Just keep it natural, let the gorgeous grain of the wood be visible or use materials that are beautiful without finishing, like rattan or wicker.

2.  Handmade Accessories

Every handmade item is unintentionally unique. Definitely, use a lot of wicker and cane baskets, wood boxes or trays, linen or jute fabric organizers, earthen pots, rock-cut or carved figurines as your accessories and you will be surprised to see how in-sync they are with the earthen color and material palette.

3. Wood Tones

You also have to pick carefully the wooden furniture you are using in an earthen decor scheme, a good rule of thumb would be to see how closely the unfinished wooden undertone resembles the shades of earth (not like black soil or red soil, but the general sienna, brown raw to burnt shade).

 Do not go overboard with either too red toned wood or dark walnut toned wood, instead use them as accents. Check if the the wooden furniture finish compliments other materials like jute, rattan and wicker.

4. Plants

Plants liven it up as they bring a whimsical organic touch to your space with color, texture and sculptural value. Too much or too little, is entirely your call.

I loved this living room which uses clean-cut branches and displays them in large vases to liven up the decor.

5. Embrace Wicker, Jute and Sisal

I can not stress this enough (and I have already) these textures work beautifully together. I specially love leather furniture over sisal rugs…..Pure Rustic Heaven.

6.Pattern through Texture

If you are not a pattern-pro and find the earthy color palette limiting, just mix up textures like shag rugs, macrame wall hanging, crotchet cushion cover to sneak in the pattern.

In the above living room the rustic wooden couch with an engraved pattern echoes the coffee table carvings, a woven macrame wall hanging complements a crotchet throw in the basket in the right corner, the area rug as well as a woven white cushion cover. All the accessories are never leaving the color palette but adding interesting details through complimentary yet dissimilar textural repetition.

7. Work in Earthern shades of Ochre, Rust, Umber and Sienna

Build up your color vocabulary a bit and include these four staple colors of an earthen living room design to make finding complementing fabrics, curtains, rugs, throws etc. a little easier. It would be more specific if you Search “Ochre Rug” than “Light Orange Rug” or “Earthen Rug” in Google when looking for accessories. Rammed earth constructions display these colors well, as they are ultimately earth pigments.

8. Flea market finds and Antiques

Rustic antiques and worn down flea market finds work wonderfully in an earthern color palette. Patinas and tarnishes on metal, stone and leather are heart-stopping good with earthen decor.

9. Organic Forms

Organic sculptural forms that you can sneak in through plants, branch shaped light fixtures, live edge tables are great for adding visual interest, or go all out and create your own cave in the urban jungle (above).

It would be pretty weird to create all this build up with tips and inspiration and not give you some of my finds. So, I created a mood board for you to have a little bit of an idea of the process from inspiration to mood board to product list.

And here are the sources if you find these articles (or this article) interesting.

1.Macrame Wall Hanging | 2. Earth Rope Ganesha Statue | 3. Decor Delight Square Wood Carved Wall Art | 4. Earth Stripe Cushion Cover | 5. Wood Chevron Mirror | 6. Soleil Pendant Lamp | 7.Afydecor Tan & White Leatherette Sofa  | 8. Beige Flower Bed Cushion Cover | 9. Zen Zig Zag Bookcase | 10. Table Top Succulent | 11. Mango Wood Oslo Coffee Table | 12. Ivory Hand Knitted Cushion Cover | 13. Ceramic Car Model | 14. Fisker Floor Lamp | 15. Tan Picnic Basket | 16. Milk Glass Lantern | 17. Indecrafts Handmade Box Brown | 18. Ovoid Coffee Table Set | 19. Bark Coasters | 20. Harvest Brown Cushion Cover | 21. Imperial Knots handwoven Jute Rug | 22. Keaton Lounge Chair | 23. Inline Bench Brown

Here are some more accessories that I loved but did not make the cut (as I devoted all the space to cushion covers), check them out too.

1.Pillar Style Candle Holder | 2. Peacock Life Wooden Hanging Light | 3. Ujjala Jute Lamp | 4.Recycled Photo Frame | 5. Wooden Bracket | 6. Leather Candle Holder | 7. My Gift Booth Jut Bag Set | 8. Wooden Type Stand

Inspiration sources 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11

HEY! DO YOU PINTEREST?