10 Ways to Incorporate Italian Design into Your Home
Whether you’ve ever been to Italy or not, you don’t have to have visited the beautiful country in order to be delighted with the look of the the famous decor theme. The mixture of natural, earthy tones, ornamental details and luxurious textures are all a part of the Italian look that makes it such a popular home decor theme. Whether you prefer old world-style Italian decor, or the sleek, clean-lined minimalist modern Italian look, you can achieve either style in your home by following a few tips and ideas. For a luxurious, high quality Italian look, here are 10 ways to incorporate Italian design into your home.
1. Start with a neutral color palette
Choosing your color palette should start with a neutral base. A favorite, according to Elle Decor, is a color known as greige. The combination of a gray hue and light beige, greige, gives your walls a light, warm, and far from sterile appeal. Using a neutral base allows you to utilize many other colors as accents to add pops of colors throughout the room. Add flavorful shades of green, (pear, olive, or some emerald), rustic reds, rich, golden yellows, blue, and deep purple, to breathe Italian life into each room.
2. Add a mural or two
One of the most popular and most recognizable Italian decor ideas is having a beautiful Italian picture painted on a wall as your wall art. Murals are a gorgeous way to give a room a focal point and bring an Italian scene to life. Choose a design that showcases your style, taste, color schemes, and your idea of a perfect Italian scenery for the wall of your choosing. Maybe a stunning vineyard view would be the perfect mural painted over a dining room window, or fruits, wines, or grape vines in your kitchen. And a corner cafe mural can be a quaint idea for a dining area wall. Do you love the idea of a river scene? Add a stunning mural of Gondola ride, or a Venetian sunset in your master bedroom for a softer Italian mural theme.
3. Add elegant columns for Italian architecture
There’s nothing that says Italian more than those distinguished columns that separate rooms and entry ways for the grandest of entries. Columns and archways that lead from one room to the next are a stately and elegant look and if your home wasn’t already designed with columns, adding faux columns is one way to achieve the Italian architectural detail without having to do major construction.
4. Add ceramic tile to your kitchen and bath
Ceramic tile is always a classic Italian decor that you can’t go wrong with. Ceramic tiles for kitchen and bathroom floors, and backsplashes can help to complete the look in a room. According to Touch of Class, for modern Italian, Italian marble is a luxurious addition to your kitchen, or for the more traditional look, terracotta tiles add a nice rustic touch, while neutral toned ceramic tiles give the room a feeling of warmth and authenticity. Many people love the idea of adding decorative tiles for a backsplash, often using tiles that depict a scene or design, such as lush purple grapes, or a beautiful Tuscan theme.
5. Change out your switches and wall plates
Little details can really add charm and character to your Italian theme, like changing out your basic switch plates and wall plates to plates with more character and Italian themed. Find wall plates with delicate designs of grape vines, other fruits and vegetables, or floral patterns. Choose cheery colors to make them pop on the wall, adding small bits of Italian charm in every room.
6. Wall art
While murals can be a great way to create ea beautiful focal point in a room, you may not want to fill every room with a mural, and in that case, you’ll want pieces of wall art that ties in with your Italian theme. A beautiful, ornate hanging mirror serves multiple purposes, from it’s obvious use, to acting as a piece of art for your wall. Whether you choose a small, medium, or large mirror, make it decorative and ornate. Italian paintings are a great way to instantly bring an Italian look and feel to a room. A large painting of a beautiful Tuscan scene hanging over the sofa or fireplace is one place to start, then add other wall accents, for instance, a wall grille for texture to your wall.
7. Wine and wine racks
Italians love their wine and of course they do, some of the best wines come from Italy. To keep with the theme, be sure to make room for a beautiful wine rack display in your kitchen or dining area. A wall hanging wine rack, floor-standing rack, or counter-top display, are all ways to display your wine bottles and help tie your Italian theme together with the rest of your decor. Wall-hanging racks can be outlined with a beautiful artsy wall painting, for instance, a painting of flowing vines with luscious grapes hanging from the vines, or get creative with your ideas of Italian wall deco.
8. Add Italian art deco pieces throughout
You’ve probably seen Italian figurines and statues somewhere along the way, and setting pieces of Italian decor items around the room will add even more Italian flavor to the space. Ideas for Italian decor might include; Italian figurines, a beautiful Fidenza umbrella stand at your front door, Italian laced table runners, a painted Tuscany rooster utensil holder for your kitchen, candles and candle holders, decorative jars and Italian designed decorative boxes, just to name a few things. Look for vintage Italian decor items at vintage stores or online, and start creating your own little Italian getaway right in your own home.
9. Italian light choices
Like any decor theme, layering lighting in a room brings out the best of all areas of the space. Forms of table top lighting, paired with overhead lighting and even wall sconces, all work together. Wall sconces are a common form of lighting in Italian decor and can frame ea door way, or accent a fireplace. According to Kitchen Master, a beautiful chandelier hanging overhead can be a stunning crystal chandelier for a more traditional or modern look, or choose something a little more rustic for old world-style if that’s your theme, for instance, something in wrought iron or a distressed wood are fitting for a rustic appeal.
10. Furniture choices
More than likely, you’ve heard of Italian leather. It’s absolutely scrumptious and luxurious, and it will bring the Italian vibe into your living room. For modern Italian decor, a simple, oversized sofa in a buttery cream tone paired with furniture pieces in wood or sleek metals and accents in lighter shades, like gold or pale yellows help tie it together. Traditional Italian furniture pieces tend to take on a more rustic look with distressed surfaces, and the use of complex patterns and rustic textures are more often seen. Wood finishes most often used are dark; mocha, rich browns and burnt red tones.