Creating Mountain Design at Home

The tranquil and picturesque backdrop of the mountains, with its jagged elements, coniferous forests, and snow covered peaks; many escape to these terrains to breathe in its calming elements and get a break from the busy city life. What if we told you this peaceful feeling from the mountains doesn’t have to end when you descend into your day to day life. With mountain themed design, you can reach the same levels of tranquility and relaxation at home wherever that may be.

Mountain is one of Ukio’s main rotating apartment themes, so you could say we know a bit about creating mountain style through home decor and interior design. Last week, we sat down with our design team to put together some tips about how to create beautiful mountain designs at home. Here’s what they had to say.

Choosing a color palette

The general color scheme of mountain design plays around with the neutrals. When creating mountain design, think of the colors you would see in the mountains, the browns of wood, the grays of rock, the whites of snow. Going off that gray, brown, tan, white, green, and other mineral tones are the best options for interior mountain design. These colors give the space both a rich and cozy feel to it. Neutral colors also give space to add pops of greens from plants and room to play around with contrasting patterns and textures.

Let nature be your inspiration

One of the main purposes of visiting the mountains is to experience nature, so your interior design should be deeply connected with the mountainous terrain; “we transmit it [nature] through "hard" or "raw" textures such as metal, concrete, cement, or dark wood”. Exposed natural elements are a must, wooden shelving, rugged walls, metallic light stands, dried coniferous tree branches, the more exposed nature elements, the better.

Traditional mountain homes are built to withstand all the seasons, so they have a certain hardiness and durability to them. The general structure and design is minimalist, and the natural elements add decoration and fill the space with a robust mountain feeling while keeping your home peaceful and quiet.

Play around with textures

The general neutral color scheme of mountain design allows for lots of different textures to help add contrast to a space. Play around with and incorporate juxtaposing materials, which goes along with our earlier point of displaying raw materials and nature elements. Many mountain homes will play around with layers of stone, wood, wool throws, forged iron, animal hides, and leather. Another idea is to add roughness or raised parts to the walls of your mountain home when painting to really highlight the jagged mountain edges that you’re trying to capture.

Incorporate rustic design elements

Rustic design and mountain design often go hand in hand, “the key in this case is to use a lot of wood”. Both design styles showcase natural elements in order to create a homey, but simple facade. A big part of mountain design is incorporating wooden furniture. Large rustic wooden dining tables, chiseled coffee tables, wooden shelves, and raw wooden furniture all help to add rustic meets mountain touches.

Adding some rustic-inspired overhead light fixtures, such as sconces and chandeliers, add the perfect golden light hues to mountain design. Another bonus is if your mountain home has a wooden or brick fireplace centerpiece in the living room, which plays into the hardiness feeling of the two design styles.

Create coziness through textiles

In every mountain home, cozy textiles are a must. Think about the traditional mountain lifestyle of snuggling up in various animal pelts and woven materials to keep warm in the winter. In modern mountain design, you most likely won’t be using real animal pelts, but you can add a plush faux fur throw or blankets that are rich in design and add pops of color to your couch or bed. Layering rugs and pillows also give the space an added warmth that lets you feel snug and secure.

Add mountain scents

No mountain home is complete without bringing the smell of fresh earthiness and pine inside. Scents go very far when creating a mountain themed environment as they can transport you to the serene peaks and invoke sober introspection that mountain design curates. Adding scents to your mountain home is fairly simple. All you have to do is add some woodsy or pine candles to your wooden shelves as decoration or put some dried coniferous leaves in a vase to be used as a centerpiece on a rustic table.

Find your next mountain-inspired Ukio home

The serene and introspective feeling of the mountains can follow you home with the use of mountain design. “Mountain inspiration consists in designing a space where you can relax, disconnect from the world and connect with nature and with yourself”. This feeling can be recreated through the use of colors, textures, natural elements, rustic touches, and scents.

At Ukio, our team of designers goes through great lengths to bring cozy mountain designs to our apartments across Europe for our guests to enjoy the nature-filled and homey vibes from the city. If you want to have a chance to live in one of our mountain themed apartments, check out our website to find your next mountain-inspired home.