Chic Equestrian Style in Home Decor

It was a recent post by High-Heeled Foot in the Door regarding her love for elephants and a missed opportunity at a lamp that made me think about what I love to collect and display. My mother and grandmother's love for all things equestrian got me first hooked on horses. You may recall from this post, that a gorgeous Imperial horse oil painting by my grandmother hangs in my home. I have several other smaller horse figures and items, but have naturally been eyeing this reproduction ceramic Tang Dynasty horse at Gump's for some time.

Although around for hundreds of years, it was Ralph Lauren who mainstreamed the equestrian style in our homes. With its origins from the English countryside, leather upholstery with nailhead and substantial dark-wood furnishings come to mind. However, today's designers are incorporating the love of horses more subtly and in a variety of design styles.

Designer William Hodgins installed dark wood paneling in his Virginia home's family room {via House Beautiful}. A large equestrian painting pulls our attention. It is mixed with a Niermann Weeks game table and a sofa covered in soft blue Edelman leather and an antique French mantel.

In this Malibu, California home by architect Steven Giannetti and designer Madeline Stuart, the homeowners also communicate their love for horses in original artwork in this elegant living room.

Style at Home editor Erin McLaughlin has also incorporated her love for horses in her home's interior design. The dreamy portraits of her Oldenburg-cross gelding by artist friend Jenn Pratt are hung in her simple, but elegant entry.

This beautiful living room via Desire to Inspire has a chic, modern equestrian feel with antlers on the coffee table and a stunning horse painting. Photograph by Moris Moreno.

Boston's Christine Lane Interiors captures a contemporary equestrian feel in this bedroom by including a large black & white photograph of a family of horses.

New York-based designer Amanda Nisbet stacks colorful jockey and horse racing posters beside the desk in this bedroom.

Designer Scott Sanders incorporated horse prints and drawings in the salon-style arrangement on the stairway wall in this new house in the heart of New Jersey's horse country. {photo via House Beautiful}

In the Kentucky getaway {hallway above} of New York fashion designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka, the decor is kept simple with mostly bare floors and no window treatments. Most of the home is painted in Sherwin-Williams’s Modern Gray. The cool color is balanced with the various warm wood tones throughout the space. As Mischka states in Elle Decor, “We’ve never really been comfortable with color in our homes,” he says. “We work with it so much in our business that we like a clean palette where we live.”

The Badgley Mischka home is beautifully done in the equestrian style without going overboard. Here in the guest bedroom the furnishings are, not surprisingly, vintage Ralph Lauren.

Do you love a particular animal enough to incorporate it in your interior design?

*images courtesy of Style at Home, House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Amanda Nisbet Design, Christine Lane Interiors