Design Inspiration: Country Club Style

Equal parts sophis­ti­cat­ed and invit­ing, the coun­try club aes­thet­ic offers a lux­u­ri­ous retreat from the every­day, blend­ing the rich her­itage of clas­sic decor with a hint of con­tem­po­rary flair. This design style is all about cre­at­ing spaces that feel exclu­sive and wel­com­ing, merg­ing the com­fort of tra­di­tion with the fresh­ness of mod­ern design sen­si­bil­i­ties.

Join us as we explore the nuanced ele­gance and time­less appeal of coun­try club design, show­cas­ing exam­ples from our port­fo­lio that per­fect­ly encap­su­late this lux­u­ri­ous yet approach­able aes­thet­ic.

What is Country Club Style?

The coun­try club design aes­thet­ic is a refined blend of tra­di­tion and sophis­ti­ca­tion, draw­ing heav­i­ly on clas­sic British ele­ments and the time­less allure of coun­try club atmos­pheres. It’s a style that evokes the prep­py ele­gance of fash­ion icons like Ralph Lau­ren, seam­less­ly inte­grat­ing tra­di­tion­al motifs with mod­ern updates for a look that’s both dis­tin­guished and approach­able.

At the heart of the coun­try club design style is a desire for a space that feels both estab­lished and laid back, exud­ing an air of old-school charm while remain­ing func­tion­al and wel­com­ing. This aes­thet­ic cham­pi­ons the time­less over the trendy, with a focus on cre­at­ing inte­ri­ors that are as invit­ing as they are ele­gant. The foun­da­tion of this design ethos is built on warm paint hues, rich dark tones, and the lux­u­ri­ous depth of dark wood floors, set­ting the stage for high-end com­fort.

Over­sized stripes and plaid pat­terns are often a hall­mark of this aes­thet­ic, rang­ing from clas­sic black and white to crisp white and blue com­bi­na­tions. These often bold pat­terns might be com­ple­ment­ed by the sub­tle­ty of pin­stripes, woven into the fab­ric of the space to add tex­ture and depth.

Leather fur­ni­ture, espe­cial­ly pieces that show­case authen­tic, well-worn tex­tures, anchor the space with a sense of his­to­ry and grav­i­tas. These pieces often fea­ture nail­head trim or oth­er forms of uphol­stery detail­ing, adding a touch of crafts­man­ship and visu­al inter­est.

Mold­ing plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in ele­vat­ing the aes­thet­ic, with tra­di­tion­al wood mold­ing on ceil­ings and walls intro­duc­ing an upscale, archi­tec­tur­al dimen­sion. Clas­sic sil­hou­ettes in furniture—from sub­stan­tial wood­en tables to round­ed back chairs infuse these spaces with a sense of state­li­ness.

Vin­tage art­work, black and white pho­tog­ra­phy, pat­terned wall­pa­per, or gold-framed mir­rors are anoth­er com­mon­ly-used ele­ment in this aes­thet­ic, Wall art often fea­tures images of hors­es, out­door scenes, and nau­ti­cal set­tings adding lay­ers of nar­ra­tive and nos­tal­gia.

At an essen­tial lev­el, coun­try club style is about bal­anc­ing form and func­tion, cre­at­ing spaces that are mul­ti-func­tion­al yet always invit­ing, char­ac­ter­ized by a rich palette, tex­tur­al diver­si­ty, and an ambiance that’s both lux­u­ri­ous and com­fort­ably famil­iar.

Country Club Design Inspiration

Like any great design aes­thet­ic, the coun­try club style can be tai­lored to suit a wide range of spaces and cre­ative visions. Design­ers seek­ing inspi­ra­tion from restau­rants with coun­try club style inte­ri­ors are like­ly to find an impres­sive vari­ety of exam­ples, includ­ing plen­ty of din­ing spaces exist­ing with­in well-respect­ed mem­bers’ clubs across the coun­try.

Each of our fea­tured spaces below illus­trate how the care­ful bal­ance of clas­sic ele­ments and mod­ern touch­es can cre­ate an ambiance that is both grand and inti­mate­ly famil­iar — while still exist­ing as some­thing com­plete­ly unique.

Boonsboro Country Club

The Boons­boro Coun­try Club is nes­tled in the lush rolling hills of cen­tral Vir­ginia, and recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed its 100th anniver­sary as one of the region’s most beloved land­marks. Sit­u­at­ed in a manor house that was con­struct­ed in the late 18th cen­tu­ry, the club has a sto­ry that can be traced over cen­turies — so it was only right that its inte­ri­ors embody the same sense of his­to­ry. 

Neu­tral tones anchor the din­ing room, with nat­ur­al wood and cream-col­ored walls boast­ing clas­sic mold­ings. The cus­tom half-cir­cle booths are uphol­stered in a light taupe, with under­stat­ed nail­head trim and ver­ti­cal chan­nel detail­ing that echoes the clean lines through­out the entire space. Accent chairs have a nat­ur­al wood frame and blue vel­vet uphol­stery, with a coor­di­nat­ing pat­terned fab­ric added to the seat back for a spe­cial touch. The col­or com­bi­na­tions of the care­ful­ly select­ed seat­ing options exude ele­gance, with­out feel­ing over­ly stuffy.

Wall-mount­ed sconce light­ing pro­vides extra illu­mi­na­tion, a com­bi­na­tion of warm gold tones with clas­sic white shades. The table tops are a medi­um wood tone, which com­bine with a stream­lined base for a func­tion­al piece that doesn’t steal atten­tion away from the pri­ma­ry design high­lights. In place of tra­di­tion­al art­work, over­sized pan­els of wall­pa­per are mount­ed on the upper half of the main walls, ele­vat­ing the art of pat­tern mix­ing that is often seen in coun­try club design.

Norfolk Yacht & Country Club

Orig­i­nal­ly found­ed in the late 1890s, the  Nor­folk Yacht & Coun­try Club spent the next cen­tu­ry or so relo­cat­ing and evolv­ing along­side its neigh­bor­ing city. Its water­front loca­tion made it a favorite venue for sailors and yachts­men dur­ing the mid-1900s, a sta­tus it still proud­ly enjoys today. Here, the clas­sic coun­try club design look received a decid­ed­ly mod­ern inter­pre­ta­tion, com­bin­ing basic tenets of the aes­thet­ic with a clean, con­tem­po­rary feel.

Extend­ed bar-height bench seat­ing is one of the main fea­tures of the din­ing room, stretch­ing across mul­ti­ple tables and uphol­stered in a warm camel brown. A sim­ple but styl­ish line of float­ing but­tons beau­ti­ful­ly bal­ances the hor­i­zon­tal lines of the plush bench seat, lines that can also be seen in the lac­quered brass foot rail. Mid-toned wood tables are paired with dark wood bar stools uphol­stered with cream-col­ored fab­ric and nail­head trim, two more con­nect­ing points to tra­di­tion­al coun­try club design.

Aside from the bold blue pat­terns of the car­pet­ing, the space is rel­a­tive­ly sub­tle: fresh white walls have lit­tle to no hang­ing decor, white sub­way tiling serves as a restrained accent, and the fur­ni­ture pieces are all made up of sim­i­lar­ly clean, straight lines. These con­tem­po­rary, almost min­i­mal­ist ele­ments are an inter­est­ing con­trast to the com­po­nents we rec­og­nize from the clas­sic coun­try club style — which cre­ates a won­der­ful bal­ance.

Charles River Country Club

The Charles Riv­er Coun­try Club dates back to the ear­ly 1920s, and its cen­tu­ry-long lega­cy includes many of the greats of the golf­ing world. Though its claim to fame is its Don­ald Ross-designed golf course, the club inte­ri­or has earned notable atten­tion from design experts and enthu­si­asts alike. 

A mas­ter­class in effec­tive pat­tern mix­ing, the din­ing room is car­pet­ed in an eye-catch­ing, deep navy geo­met­ric pat­tern accent­ed by a light tan shade that is car­ried through oth­er ele­ments of the space. The round­ed-top din­ing chairs have a large plaid pat­tern on their backs, which ele­vates the sol­id coor­di­nat­ing taupe fab­ric on the oth­er side. Over­sized bench seat­ing com­bines leather with fab­ric for a play on tex­tures, while nail­head trim and float­ing but­tons only enhance the effect. The dark wood tones of the tables speak to the same shades in the chair and booth legs, while the tra­di­tion­al­ly-shaped bases add a lux­u­ri­ous feel to the room.

Sil­ver-framed pho­tographs harken back to the many moments in golf his­to­ry that have tak­en place at the Charles Riv­er Coun­try Club, hang­ing on a warm, gold-toned wall­pa­per above chunky chair rail mold­ing. An expan­sive built-in shows off the club’s col­lec­tion of fine wines, bal­anc­ing the heav­ier inte­ri­or ele­ments with the light, open feel cre­at­ed by the glass pan­el­ing.