Are you planning on a vacation in New England this summer? Do you love the cozy sea-swept look of a New England cottage? Do you love the ocean and want to bring a bit of it home with you? The relaxing, peaceful feeling you get from walking on the beach early in the morning, wouldn’t you love to keep that with you at home?
When you think of cottage style, what comes to mind? Here is a definition from HGTV.com: “Cottage style has a colorful, comfortable look characterized by painted or decorated furniture with graceful lines, weathered finishes, textural elements such as baskets, bead board walls and natural-fiber rugs, and colors taken straight from a lush flower garden.” Here are a few ideas that you can incorporate into your home to add a cottage-style touch:
- Embrace Natural Elements such as weathered or repurposed wood items. Cottage-style likes to pair opposites such as a polished piece with a rough-hewn piece or an item made of tin.
- One of the key looks to cottage-style decor is distressed and weathered furnishings. You can easily transform an existing piece of furniture with new paint color and use a sanding block to rough up the edges to add character and style.
- In a traditional cottage-style home, there would be a neutral color palette using shades of white. Because of the many choices in white paint colors, picking the right one may not be as easy as thought. Here is an article found on Houzz that offers some help in choosing a white based on what you are looking for in a room, click here to read.
- Add a soft neutral colored throw with pillows to a chair, settee, or sofa to add comfort incorporating natural materials such as linen, burlap and wool.
- Add fresh flowers from the garden. Incorporate the tall Queen Anne’s Lace, thistle and Goldenrod that you see on your walks.
- Integrate beach elements from your vacation such as found seashells and starfish. They will offer you great memories of your trip and add a bit of peace to your space. I love this idea from Martha Stewart where she uses an over sized shell to create a flower arrangement, click here to view the steps.
- Add a candle centerpiece to a coffee or dining table using a favorite glass hurricane, candles and sand.
Enjoy your summer and have fun incorporating the things that you love into your living space to help you hang onto that lovely feeling of summer year round!
If you need help trying to arrange or choose a paint color to achieve a cottage-style look, contact Debbie@RedesignRight.com for your interior decorating and redesign needs!
By Debbie Correale, founder and owner of Redesign Right, LLC, West Chester, PA. You can learn more about her at www.RedesignRight.com. Find her on Facebook.com/RedesignRight, Twitter @RedesignRight, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Houzz and Google+.