How to Give Your Home a Tuscan Style Makeover
Every time you step into your house, you want it to feel like your dream home. That perfect image you’ve created in your mind of the perfect house where everything just works and looks beautiful.
Your home is, in some way, an echo of who you are. With the perfectly chosen interior, whether it is the floorboards or curving archways, your house can become the home you’ve always envisioned.
But, first things first, you have to choose a style. And what is better than the classic Tuscan Style that has been around for centuries?
Overview of the Tuscan Style
Tuscan homes have been around for hundreds of years. The style originated in the 1600s in Italy and slowly made its way around the world.
A large part of Tuscan home design is rooted in elegant simplicity. These classic homes seem to capture the rustic comfort of a farmhouse and translate it into the elegance of modern city life.
The original design of these homes come from the earth soaked, rolling hills of Italy. This means that Tuscan architectural choices are often inspired by nature with rounded curves and natural accents while being paired with elegance and sophistication.
Photo Source: Wikipedia
Tuscan homes usually make use of sturdy wooden beams and beautiful stone-washed walls. Moreover, these rustic items are paired with more elegant aspects such as marble flooring and rich tapestries. This combination of elements echoes a sense of comfort yet class to every guest who enters through your front door.
7 Tips for Transforming your Home into a Tuscan-Style Space
So now you know where your Tuscan home makeover idea comes from and how you want your home to look, but what are the steps in between? How do you emulate that rich Tuscan style in your existing space?
When redecorating your home in the Tuscan style, everything matters! From the choice of stones to the color palette and windows, you need to make sure that you pick things that complement each other while reinforcing that Tuscan ambiance. Here are some tips to help you do this:
Select the right paint colors
Tuscan home color palettes are strongly influenced by the Italian countryside. The strong earthy tones are reminiscent of the beaches, farmlands, vineyards, and cuisine of Tuscany. It may also be inspired by landscape painters, who, in turn, were inspired by the Tuscan landscape.
So when deciding on your color palette, maintain the same rule as thumb as the painters. Use no more than five colors and opt for warmer colors.
Although cool colors aren’t uncommon in the Tuscan home, they should rather be used as an accent. Moreover, to maintain an authentic Tuscan style throughout your home stick to more rustic and muted colors.
It often helps to find an ‘inspiration’ piece and build the color palette for your home around it. This may be a fun and interactive exercise for the entire family. Whether the point of inspiration is a piece of art or furniture, it does not matter.
The fun of a Tuscan styled home is that with the right paint combination, you can paint anything from the walls to the ceilings. However, just make sure your paint combination is not too bright.
If you are stuck on the right color combination, we strongly suggest using a color palette generator, like Coolors , to help guide you in the right direction.
Warm colors are typical in a Tuscan-inspired palette
Install a Tuscan range hood in the kitchen
The centerpiece of any Tuscan home is the kitchen and the living room. An open-planned kitchen creates a comforting and warm appeal. This is because it is usually quite similar to a farmhouse kitchen, with large wooden tables.
However, even within your kitchen, you require a centerpiece. This could be a fun element to play with, especially if the centerpiece of your kitchen is the stove and oven. Most Tuscan kitchen designs include quite large stoves that are accompanied by Tuscan range hoods .
Not only does this create an elegant rounding off of your kitchen but it is also quite practical. Your Tuscan designed kitchen is able to accommodate as many guests as your heart desires. Moreover, with the right Tuscan range hood, you are able to pair kitchen cabinets and tables to create an overall unified look throughout your kitchen.
Tuscan Range Hood from Archways & Ceilings
Arches for the windows and entryways
Is a Tuscan home really a Tuscan home without arches?
A staple of tuscan/spanish architecture are specifically half-circle arches , elliptical arches , and dual radius arches .
The use of arches in Tuscan architecture is a measure of its timeless beauty. This traditional architectural trope is what gives Tuscan homes the balance between simplicity and drama. However, just like any aspect of styling, there are several different arches to choose from.
Finding the right combination of Tuscan styled arches for your house is quite similar to finding the right color palette. Don’t feel trapped into just deciding on one type of archway. But also, be aware that only certain groups of archways work together.
With any Tuscan inspired home, arches are never in short supply. However, the most common areas to make use of arches are the windows and the entryways. These may fit any variation of half-circle arch style or elliptical arch style.
The right combination of archways brings a sense of elegance and class to your Tuscan style home. You can create statement points with elliptical arches for large entryways and elegant curved windows with half-circle arches. This will truly bring the Tuscan style into your home.
Kitchen archways from Archways & Ceilings
Vaulted ceilings
Much like arches, vaulted ceilings are well known within the Tuscan-designed home. To this day, you cannot walk through Italy without seeing most temples and homes with vaulted ceilings - especially groin vault ceilings .
Moreover, you are able to dress these ceilings up quite nicely with wooden beams that may add to your rustic color palette.
When deciding on the structure and flow of your vaulted ceiling, it may be a good idea to know which archway you plan to use. The reason for this is because a vaulted ceiling is an extension of an archway into a roof.
To create a nice unified stylistic expression of your home, it would be ideal to have your archways follow the same style as your vaulted ceiling .
Groin vaulted ceilings in the foyer by Archways & Ceilings
Terracotta vs travertine flooring
Terracotta tiles are the most traditional method of flooring when it comes to any Tuscan home. These tiles are reddish-brown clay tiles but the hues can vary. While natural-looking and very indicative of the Tuscan style, you may find that the color scheme of these tiles clashes with your chosen color palette.
If this is the case, a very popular alternative is travertine flooring. These tiles are a natural-stone look alike. They produce a more subtle beige look compared to the distinct color of terracotta.
So, when deciding on the flooring for your Tuscan design, either terracotta or travertine can work quite well. It all really depends on whether it matches the style of the rest of your house.
Moreover, both tiles provide the uneven and textured surface that is popular within Tuscan architecture. This allows them to add to the rustic charm of the house.
Wooden cabinets are a must
Part of the Tuscan design charm is the combination of wood and iron that is used throughout the home. Tuscan architecture tries to stay as true to its natural roots as possible. This is why wood is a popular component in-home designs. It carries across the rich, earthy tones of Tuscany.
This can be captured so well by making use of wooden cabinets, especially in your kitchen.
Wooden cabinets add an interesting element to your home. They manage to find the balance between elegance and comfort, tying your home together. However, this doesn’t mean you can put in just any wooden cabinets.
When deciding on the right cabinets, make sure the color and texture are in line with the rest of your house’s design.
Balcony rims or mezzanines
When deciding on your mezzanines or balcony rim , it's important to know exactly which cut you are going for.
Home mezzanines add a little bit of an elegant flair to your Tuscan home with large staircases leading up to them. Tuscan homes swing between simple and dramatic design to present a truly authentic style. From the arches to the mezzanines, the structure of the house has to flow together.
So, when choosing the balcony rim style for your home, make sure that it goes well with the style of the arches. You do not want your home to look overdramatic or too rustic, but rather find the balance in between.
Custom Balcony Rim from Archways & Ceilings
In a Nutshell
When remodeling your home in the Tuscan style, there is a lot of room to be creative. Every single aspect of your home design is important, from the color palette all the way to the flooring and cabinets.
A Tuscan-styled home is a reminder of the sun-kissed hills of Tuscany as it finds a balance somewhere between elegance, drama, and rustic simplicity. So when designing your home, remember the artistry that goes into it, as well as the connection to nature.
Whether you're going for a Tuscan style home or something else completely, it’s important to get a professional’s advice. Talk to a pro at Archways & Ceilings for advice on how to make your design dreams a reality.