Cottage style decorating is an extremely broad category. It gives you a great deal of freedom when selecting the colors, textures, furnishings, and fittings.
In fact, it’s hard to define the style. Most people’s cottage style is what they end up with after they’ve used all the hand-me-downs and family heirlooms.
This doesn’t mean the end result is a mess – far from it! The main requirement is that you have the correct property, or if not the property, then the right-sized room.
Cottages by definition are small places; it wouldn’t be sensible to try for cottage style decorating in a ballroom.
Your Cottage Color Scheme
No matter how many bits and pieces you include in your cottage style decorating, you’ll need to have some sort of unifying color scheme.
Recognized styles
There’s a great deal of freedom here. If you like a particular style such as English cottage, then you’ll be drawn to the soft colors of roses – reds, pinks, and greens. A Rustic style would suggest browns, golds, and rusts.
Your Own Style
If you don’t have a particular style in mind, your situation might suggest colors to use. You may have a garden where certain colors predominate, so those could be your inspiration.
Or simply select your colors from a palette of your liking, but make sure they have that slightly old fashioned look. You could also use a particular item, such as an old painted dresser or a rug, for inspiration.
The garden of a cottage of this type is often the inspiration for the decoration inside.
Roses of all shades are commonly used, and readily suggest the accent color for interior schemes.
Have You Thought About These Features?
Window Treatments
Here the key is to keep window treatments soft and light. Don’t use heavy interlined curtains, but try to achieve a softer and more delicate effect. You can use frills and valances, and these can actually create a dreamy look.
If your windows are very small, think about using voiles or lace. Although lace can be quite expensive, you’ll only need a small amount.
Furniture and Lighting
You can use almost any sort of furniture for your cottage interior as long as it’s not too big and imposing. If the color of a piece doesn’t match your scheme, then paint or stain it. If that’s not possible, and it’s a table or chair, then cover it with fabric.
Cottage decorating style looks best when there are lots of lamps around. Ceilings in cottages are often low, and overhead lighting might not be practical. Use fabric shades on table lamps, and you’ll get a warm and cozy feel to your room. Or get a floor-standing uplighter lamp that gives adjustable background lighting.
Fabrics, Wall Coverings, and Floorings
Cottage style decorating is informal, so fabric patterns should reflect this. Small prints of flowers and plants, stripes, or checks, all of these working together will help in giving the look you want.
Walls can be painted in colors to tone with fabrics or paper in a sympathetic pattern. Small cottage style decorating can be more ‘busy’ than other decorating styles, as long as there’s a continuity of effect.
Cottage style decorating is suitable for various floors, whether painted or stained floors, bare floorboards, and even tiles. However, you shouldn’t use wall-to-wall carpets in a cottage. But I’ve often used them when designing schemes for clients because they give a warm and intimate feel to a room.
Accessories
You can use old family items, or buy accessories from antique shops and flea markets. When you’re on vacation you often see things you’d like, and with a bit of thought, you can use them as part of your decor.
Also, try and make use of old bits and pieces you have tucked away. A small table you hid in the garage when cleaned up could look great in a corner of the room. Or make a cloth to cover it, and place a lamp on it.
Old wood towel rails will give character to your bathroom instead of the usual chrome, and the same can be done with wood shelves instead of glass ones.
There’s nothing to stop you from adapting a cottage to suit your taste.
This is a genuine old cottage which has been renovated. The original beams (hundreds of years old) can still be seen. A new floor replastered walls, and ensuite bathroom allows a modern lifestyle within an old property.
Few walls in a cottage are straight. If you’re decorating the original walls, be prepared for all sorts of undulations.
Sometimes you’ll need to replaster the walls if they are in bad shape.
Windows are often difficult to deal with, as they rarely follow the contours of the walls. A bit of invention is necessary, and compromise is a key factor with cottage decorating.
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