Rustic is just a nice word for country

When Shauna was over the other night, we were talking about decorating.  She's good at that kind of thing...I am not.  She observed that my house was very neutral... & she's exactly right.  I mean, beige goes with everything, hello?   (I've told ya'll my decorations are a hodge podge of crap I like all thrown together in a blender, whirled around & plopped in my house.) I could tell she wanted to say my taste was more 'country' but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.  And I didn't wanna hear that word 'country'.  It's like an insult to say your taste is country... blah.

Then she told me that you can take a quiz online to figure out what your design style is.  God.Bless.The.Internet.

So I took this quiz.  And guess what my design style is?  Rustic.  

Which is really a fancy pants word for country.  Sigh....

I've been doing research on rustic decorating ideas.  I like what I see until I see buzz words like, "Western" & "Cowboy".  Ugh, that's too much.  There are also nice words like "Mediterranean" & "Color".  I'm scared of color.  Every wall in our house is white...except my new purple office.  And I love that room... 

How pretty is this red?

This is a contemporary rustic kitchen.  I love the walls, but there's no way I could do that in my house.  I also love how bright & cheery it looks!  

I love, love, love this kitchen.  My cabinets are a light oak color with BRIGHT GOLD pulls.  Yuck.  I told B-rad last night that I will probably start by changing the pulls to a darker, brushed metal look.  

B-rad & I have talked about re-doing our bathroom since the day we moved in.  It has a huge whirlpool tub that we never use (unless collecting my shedding hair flying around the room counts?).  The shower is separate & it's super tiny.   It also has only 1 sink, which is fine until B-rad & I are getting ready at the same time.  Then it's trouble...

I really like these counter tops here.  Mine are a neutral, plain beige.  Shocker...

But THIS...THIS is my favorite!  I love the iron around the mirrors.  I LOVE the baskets under the sink.  I LOVE the gray.  I don't like the towels down around my feet though...

I want to make small changes to see how it goes in the kitchen first.  I get too overwhelmed when I try to pick out a bunch of stuff at once.  I need to go shopping for JUST cabinet pulls first.  I think that will make a huge difference.  I also plan to take down the sunflower garlands that line the tops of the cabinets.  (Yea, I'm not country at ALL...).  When I told B-rad he said, "Holy crap - those have been there since we moved in in 1999."  He's right....that's 12 freaking years.  It's time for a change.  The next trip, I can decide on what kind of decorations to put on top of the cabinets.  (Right now I have ceramic containers...with sunflowers on them... Pitiful...)  If any of ya'll are rustic country gals, let me know...you can come help me shop... & keep me sane...