A modern living interior for a country style home

A blend of unique colour combinations, home decorative accessories and open-plan living spaces provided a country family with a modern theme for the living interior design of their country style home.

Real estate agent Darrin has seen his fair share of houses, but none prepared him for what designer Susanne Majlath, of InsideOutside Design, came up with for his own new contemporary country style home.

Conceived by an architect and decorated, coloured and styled by Susanne, the country style home is modern yet timeless. Although Darrin and his wife had strong ideas about the 'feel' they were after, Darrin learned a lot about his own taste through Susanne's recommendations.

Personal challenges with a unique interior design

One of the biggest challenges for Darrin was to come to terms with Susanne's more unorthodox colour suggestions, especially for the exterior of this country style home. To get his head around these, Darin took the initiative of exploring higher-end properties to see what the colour trends were in that market.

"I looked at different websites, picked the most expensive area and did virtual tours of homes in the $1 million to $3 million price bracket," he explains. "What happened was that I started to see colour schemes that were similar to what Susanne had suggested, so my perception of what things should look like changed."

Interior space the family can enjoy

Inside, the layout of this contemporary country style home includes plenty of living space in which members of the young family can enjoy their activities without encroaching on each other. With an open area that incorporates living and dining rooms in front of the kitchen, adults are still able to supervise the young boys as they tear around the house and out to the adjoining patio area.

Breathing room for adults

Through partition walls that act as a hallway is the formal lounge room. The bright white room, with accompanying white couches, is more of an adult space.

"The kids only venture in there if the fire's on," says Darrin. "The boys like to poke sticks in there and try and set the place on fire!"

Indeed, the fireplace kicks out enough heat to warm up this and several other rooms, but its most amazing feature is what fuels it. Susanne designed a vertical hollow in the wall where uniformly cut logs of wood are stacked up, creating a stunning feature to rival any of the artworks on the wall.

Darrin adds fresh-cut logs to the top of the pile and usually uses them up over the course of an evening. But the logs at the bottom are purely for decorative purposes.  

Contact an interior designer in your area to discuss your living interior design options: