home sectionhome section
Redesigning a bathroom involves many choices, from the tub and shower to the fixtures, flooring and walls. When you think about wall decor, you need to decide between slapping a coat of paint on the walls, pasting wallpaper or perhaps putting paneling in the bathroom. Wall paneling suited to bathroom walls comes in various styles and materials that can withstand the high moisture content in bathrooms.
A cottage can be any size; the name designation does not necessarily connote any one size, even though that has not always been the case. The term was originally used in reference to the small home of a cotter, a peasant who worked and lived on a feudal lord's land in medieval Britain. In the early 21st century, however, a cottage can be a a small, cozy house or a large summer house.
When anyone mentions Louisiana, usually the first thing that comes to mind is New Orleans and Mardi Gras. People also associate it mostly with French architecture and cuisine. What makes Louisiana so fascinating is its history and the cultural influences that color its architecture, cuisine, language and home decor. With its mix of Spanish, French, African and Caribbean ancestries, Louisians's home decor is a captivating cocktail.
Cottages evoke a sense of cozy comfort and charm. Created from natural vegetable and mineral pigments, traditional cottage colors were often gray toned. These old, tired grays have been replaced in the modern cottage with more vivid gray tones. Brighter, cheerier colors in sunny yellows, lime greens, fresh oranges and sky blues have been added to the modern cottage color palette. Crisp fresh white has been a favorite in traditional and modern cottages. Personal preference will determine the best modern cottage color for you.
Cottage gardens are full of whimsy and wonders. The flowers crowd paths and bloom continuously all season. The nectar attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Sunny corners produce colorful vegetables. And a water feature completes the perfect backyard retreat. A small cottage doesn't need Niagara Falls or the Great Lakes in the garden. Choose a simple design that suits your available time for maintenance and matches the character of the landscaping. Teacups and boulders are equally good conduits for water features in a cottage garden.
The cottage style of decor is calming and casual in feel. Use pastel colors and fill the space with treasures from flea markets and garage sales. Choose two or three pale colors as accent colors with a base color of white to create a cottage feel. Keep it uncluttered and welcoming and you'll turn that trailer into a homey cottage you love.
If you are looking for a charming design theme for your home, look no further than cottage style. This cozy decorating motif takes nods from traditional style, while still looking fresh and airy in a contemporary home. Cottage style decorating has managed to persist for over a hundred years, largely because it is easily customizable for any environment or budget. Keep some design elements in mind to achieve the inviting yet elegant look of a cottage-style home.
Bathrooms that have been decorated in country cottage style should reflect the casual feeling this style embodies. The rooms feel inviting, utilize old and new items and encourage people to relax. A number of different country styles exist, and in the country cottage style bathroom, it's perfectly acceptable to blend the best elements of all of these styles together.
Decorating the space above a window can be a spatial challenge, but adding decor to this area helps create a focal point that is useful if you have an attractive view outside the window or want to enhance the decor nearby. A few decorating tricks help give the space color and texture, and is useful in coordinating it with the rest of the room.
If you're looking to give your home a cozy look, the cottage style might be the right way to go. Cottage-style homes follow no hard and fast decorating rules; they are always welcoming and warm. The cottage style ranges from small, country bungalows to larger, seaside homes. The best look for your home is the one you like the most. The good news is you can pull ideas from many designs and create your own cottage-style home in no time.
You can pick the decorating style of your home based on its architecture, its current design elements or the furnishings and accessories you already own, but one of the refreshing things about style is that it is flexible. Just because you live in a Victorian home, doesn't mean you have to decorate in florals and dark colors -- you are free to do what you like and pleases you. However, sometimes knowing what style you are drawn to is the challenge.
If you like the look and feel of clean lines and bold colors throughout your home, you might consider decorating with a modern flair. The modern decor is a pleasing combination of casual and elegant living that revolves around a simplistic style. The modern look is interesting because it includes unusual angles and patterns. You can re-create entire living spaces with this fresh, contemporary look.
Although no exact guidelines exist, most Americans consider themselves a part of the middle class. Though there are both low and high ends of the middle class, many of this social class will struggle with managing finances to come up with a little extra money to use on leisure items and home decorating. Since money is not always readily available after paying bills, loans, mortgages, and saving for retirement and college funds, many middle-class Americans must learn to decorate on a budget to create beautiful homes without going further into debt.
Wall-to-wall bookcases are an elegant and efficient way to store all manner of items from books to baubles and to create displays of treasured photos, fresh flowers or collectibles. Extended to the ceiling, they make good use of vertical space that might otherwise not be utilized. For this project, assume that the ceiling height is 96 inches and the span of the bookcase is 120 inches. A bookcase shelf should not be more than 30 inches long, so for this project, your would make four cases, each 30 inches wide and 94 inches tall. Of course, you will need to…
The English cottage style brings to mind cozy winter evenings by the fire and hearty family gatherings. The décor is all about warmth and practicality. Antique furniture passed on from relatives long gone is matched together with Persian rugs and large, comfortable sofas. Most importantly, be sure to pick a floor style that fits with your lifestyle.
The shore cottage style of interior decor takes its cues, not only from the sights and sounds of the sea, but also from the colors found along its edges. From the vast array of shoreland motifs that includes lighthouses, seagulls, and seaglass to the restful colors of the sand, the waves and the wood that drifts up from their depths, decorating a room in shore cottage style using nautically-inspired materials and accent pieces brings the sea home in a colorful and restful way, just like a walk on the beach.
Your home is your sanctuary. It's the place where you relax and escape the stresses of day-to-day life in the outside world. To make your home even more relaxing, decorate it with a style decor that is comfortable and invites you to unwind. Cottage style decor is warm and welcoming. It's far from pretentious, and in fact, is rather casual. Think antique store finds, muted colors and comfortable furniture.
Decorating in English cottage style while on a budget can be done. However, as you begin, think of it as a work in progress. You will want to find just the perfect items. You can follow steps in creating this style in your home, but if you start out looking for larger items and find a small accessory, it's a good idea to be flexible and purchase the itemeven if you aren't sure exactly how you will use it. English cottage style includes overstuffed furniture, wing-back chairs, English teapots and one-of-a-kind items. The general feel is antique and mismatched items,…
Cottage decorating is all about mixing and matching patterns and furniture styles. Floral designs, especially those featuring roses, are a staple of cottage decor and are especially at home in a true cottage. Feel free to mix rose patterns in fabrics, wall coverings, art and window treatments or let one or two rose accents pop against a neutral color scheme. Whatever your design taste, roses will always be in fashion in a cottage bedroom retreat.
Modern, or contemporary, decorating is associated with clean, sleek lines. Many furnishings and accessories are geometric and interesting. Modern style is utilitarian but also light -- combining glass, chrome and wood for a polished look. The modern look is minimalist compared to other styles; it leans toward having less, and it uses open space as a decorative element. Knowing what to look for and what colors to use will help you decorate your home with confidence.
Cottage-style decorating has one consistent design fundamental -- to create a casual and informal home environment. That design fundamental also applies in decorating a cottage in a modern style. What distinguishes a "modern" cottage is how you converge and adapt traditional cottage styles with what's new and "modern." You can still select French, Tuscan, Swedish, rustic, shabby chic, rustic or retro as your design aesthetic and unifying theme, then give it a twist by incorporating modern selections in terms of furnishings, paint colors, artwork, lighting and accent pieces.
A cottage home calls for cottage-style decorating to create a warm, comfortable and welcoming environment. This style is marked by the use of soft colors and well-worn pieces reflecting the personality and history of the inhabitant. In most cases, a cottage style can be achieved without spending a lot of money by altering pieces you already have and scouring antique, vintage and used goods stores for inexpensive accessories and finishing touches to bring the look together.
Country cottage design is warm and romantic. Create a country cottage home design using inviting items such as family heirlooms and antiques. Use your imagination to make your own country cottage designs for your home that your friends will envy. A quick trip to your local craft store or a flea market is all you will need to get started on your cottage creations.
Recreate lazy childhood days of summer at a lake when you decorate your lake cottage on a budget. Use a light, minimalist touch to evoke a breezy feeling. The artful use of found items such as shells, driftwood and beach pebbles is one way to give your home a casual beach theme while keeping your expenses to a minimum and a few days spent shopping at garage sales and flea markets should yield a good collection of beach-themed items that you can mix and match to create a cohesive decorating scheme.
Cottage-style decor is aimed at bringing the outdoors in and providing a comfortable space that feels homey and inviting. The worn, faded and rustic aesthetic of country cottage-style decor is reproducible by high-priced designers and bare-budget shoppers alike. Incorporate your individual likes and dislikes with the tenants in the style to design just one room -- or a whole home -- that you love. Let your inner child out to play by giving yourself permission to color outside the lines and mix and match, leaving you with a decor you adore.
With distressed furniture, a coat of pastel paint and different fabrics, you can give your home a cozy, cottage-style feel. This is a casual decor that calls for big, comfortable furniture, a combination of patterns and colors, and informal window treatments. Use old drapes to accessorize and consider making your own simple curtains from a table cloth. Reusing old fabrics is economical and serves as a familiar backdrop for a few antiques and handmade craft items.
Shore-cottage style decorating combines informal design elements with nature-inspired accents for a decor that is stylish and functional as well. This particular decorating scheme is often a favorite with many homeowners who prefer a more casual and relaxed feeling in the rooms of their homes. By combining a cool color palette, white and pine furnishings, wood floors in warm tones, light and airy window treatments, natural-fiber area rugs, cottage-style fabrics and rustic sea-themed accessories, a shore-cottage style home is fairly easy to create, and the result is a house that feels like a vacation home all year long.
With the growing popularity of outdoor rooms, more people are paying attention to their patios. You can convert your patio to an enclosed outdoor room or leave it open. Either way, your options for decorating this great outdoor space in a cottage style are many. The openness of a patio makes it ideal for cottage-style decorating, because the style itself favors a space filled with open windows and doors that let the outside in.
When decorating a bathroom in a cottage-style, most standard home-store vanities look sleek and out of place. To carry your decorating over into the fixtures of the room, build a cottage-style vanity using a flea-market dresser or a family hand-me-down. The basin is built into the dresser and will have a wonderfully shabby chic look.
Cottage decor focuses on relaxed and warm aspects of the home using color to help bring about various moods. When selecting colors for cottage themes, stick with colors that will work with the rest of the colors in your decor. Warm colors on walls enhance any mood and decor, leaving other color options for smaller pieces of furniture and accessories.
There are many different decorating styles to choose from for the different rooms in your home. The style you choose will largely depend on your personal preferences and taste and the overall look and feel of your home's décor. For rooms with cottage style windows, the best treatments usually include delicate fabrics that bring a lighter tone to the room. By not trying to do too much with the windows, you can maintain the breezy ambiance that cottage-style windows inherently have.
Cottage decor is not tied together by a specific type of furniture, color or fabric. Rather, what makes the perfect cottage style is the coziness, warmth and simple but comfortable charm that the room exudes. Anyone can have their own cottage home, whether living at a balmy beach, a nook in the woods or the heart of a major city. To achieve that cottage style, it's not about what you specifically choose, but how you put it together.
The point of going to the cottage is to get away from it all. Create a cottage bathroom to make it the most relaxing room in your home, whether you own a cottage or not. Look for rustic items at flea markets or ask friends; add some nature and calming colors. Soon you will be taking a nice bath in your cast iron tub.
Cottage style decorating provides a casual, cozy and comfortable feel. It blends the old with the new and takes inspiration from the outdoors for a natural, easy living ambiance. There are different types of cottage styles. Beach cottages often use shades of blue from the sea and sky, beach-themed art and sea shell accents, while garden cottages may use shades of green with floral accents.
The cottage style of decorating is often characterized as soft, rustic and well-suited for informal and casual lifestyles. Colors are soft but bright and the look is weathered. This type of decor works well with the goal of simplicity and comfort.
The cottage look evokes a cozy, inviting charm in any room. While you may not think of your bathroom as a room you can decorate it to the same extent as you decorate the other rooms in your home; it is not as difficult as it sounds. By using a few vintage pieces that work with your color scheme, you can capture a cottage look that is all your own.
Regardless of where you live, you can enjoy cottage-style rooms. Cottage-style decorating allows you to incorporate new with old, and elegant pieces with rustic ones. You can create a formal yet relaxing atmosphere. People are often surprised to learn that there are numerous cottage decorating styles, such as country cottage, French country, English cottage, beach cottage, and romantic cottage. Nonetheless, most cottage styles have common elements you can incorporate regardless of which style you prefer.
The English cottage style is meant to resemble homes found in the English countryside. When designing an outdoor English cottage-style space, homeowners and designers often try to create a casual and eclectic atmosphere for family and guests. They can use rustic colors, antique furniture and unique flowerpots to complete the English cottage look.
A cottage style home is cozy and small, with an emphasis on reused vintage items and a casual atmosphere. While cottage style used to be applied only to summer homes, now it is a staple of year-round interior design. Cottage style is very adaptable, whether the home is located in an urban center or a seaside setting.
The charmingly simple feel of cottage-style decor is a fun, comfortable style for the home. This relaxing, easy-living style is achievable on any budget. The most important element is personality. There are several cottage-living styles to turn your house into a home.
Creating outdoor decorative shutters are as easy as taking window measurements and heading for the local hardware store. To create an old-world fairy-tale cottage feel, create handmade shutters from picket fencing and gingerbread molding. These instructions are for one decorative shutter; duplicate for as many shutters as needed.
There is something romantic about an English cottage style. Many people desire the thatched roof, vegetable garden, lace-strewn upholstery, pebbled path leading to the front door and neatly trimmed rose shrubs. Even if you live in an apartment, you can still indulge in the luxuries of a real English cottage. With a few innovative tips, you can align your home in the style of an English cottage.
It's not surprising to find that there's a cottage kitchen renaissance sweeping the nation. These quaintly decorated kitchens evoke feelings of warmth, coziness and simplicity, exactly what's called for in a weary world. Evoke your inner Laura Ingalls Wilder to renovate your kitchen so family and friends can take a deep breath and relax the moment they enter your family's tranquil gathering space.
A cottage style home symbolizes a casual, cozy way of life. True cottages are small with simple architecture highlighted by inviting porches and gardens. Stone chimneys hint at a warm fire. Windows often sport boxes overflowing with flowers. Weathered siding, faded to silvery gray, hint at years of exposure to sun, storms and sea. Converting a modern home's exterior to cottage style requires planning, work, and sometimes a generous budget, but it can be accomplished.
Cottage-style country furniture can run the gamut from bucolic to beach-inspired. It's typically made from simple materials and decorated in a similar matter. It can be recreated in inexpensive ways using repurposed and secondhand furniture, although stores also sell reproductions at retail prices---often new furniture that has been distressed.
Doll houses, summer cottages and beach houses generally stick to the simplicity and mood of cottage-style homes. Whether you are looking to buy a cottage-style home, or tweak your home to reflect the style, you must take into consideration the elements. From floor to ceiling, cottage style is uniquely breezy and casual.
Cottage furniture styles can transform a home of any size into a comfortable and cozy retreat. Cottage furniture projects a simplicity and lived-in feel that suits many lifestyles. The variety of cottage furniture available today makes it easy for a homeowner to find the perfect look that complements a range of design preferences. Cottage furniture appeals not only to the romantic, but to the outdoor enthusiast and the beachcomber as well.
Cottage-style decorating enjoys popularity among homeowners because of its comfortable furniture styles, bright airy atmosphere and inexpensive accents. This type of decorating allows homeowners to decorate with a mix and match attitude while allowing the inclusion of their favorite pieces. This style fits in every room of the house from a screened-in back porch to a guest bedroom.
Cottage-style decor features a feminine, casual, airy and vintage feel. One of the most budget-friendly styles of design, it is often created using items from a flea market, garage sale or thrift store and furniture is painted all white to harmonize with the eclectic items. Soft floral fabrics, slipcovers and weathered accessories are also found in most cottage-style homes. Creating this decor is very easy with a few techniques and several easy-to-find items.
Bring a cottage flair to your home whether you live in a mid-century ranch, a log home in the mountains, a center entrance colonial or an urban loft. Traditional cottage style decorating involved rooms filled to the brim with overstuffed furniture, mismatched prints, collections overflowing from cabinets and cupboards and enough flowers for a state funeral. New cottage style scales down these elements for a lighter feel that still evokes a cottage by the sea, a lakeside retreat or a bungalow in the English countryside.
Creating a haven for yourself is usually one of the goals of decorating your bedroom. It's a way of expressing yourself and creating an atmosphere that is conducive to restful sleep. One way to decorate your bedroom is in the cottage style. This is a whimsical and airy style with light colors, a touch of floral design and vintage country elements.
Like shabby chic decor, romantic cottage style favors the cherished and timeworn over the shiny and mass-produced. Romantic cottage decor features smaller pieces because of the typical cottage's small floor plan, tight corners and minimal storage. Give any home a romantic cottage look with flea market furnishings and fussy accessories, or invest more time and money in a full interior makeover.
A cottage-style bookcase is not very different structurally from any other bookcase. The difference is in the details, particularly in the use of beadboard (sometimes called wainscoting) on the back of your bookcase. Beadboard looks like many individual boards placed side by side, but it is a single piece of wood. Feet are also an unusual characteristic of cottage bookcases; the main body of this case stands on four narrow feet. Make a bookcase with the proper cottage appearance without the complexity of mortise-and-tenon joints.
Decorating your apartment in cottage style décor will give it the airy, light feeling you get while staying at a vacation home on a lake or a cozy home bordered with a white picket fence. Cottage style homes are all about feeling comfortable, clean and fresh. Often they have a seaside or country theme to enhance that welcoming appeal that makes people feel right at home as soon as they walk in the door.
Cottage-style homes became popular in the 1920s and are known for their asymmetrical style, lovely detailing and gabled roofs. Cottage style is also called Carpenter Gothic Revival and is similar to Tudor Revival style.
Old-world cottage style can introduce lots of character and warmth to your home; as well as making it cozy and welcoming. Cottage style blends lots of different textures, prints and colors together; using vintage pieces amid eclectic mixes of colors and designs. The beauty of old-world cottage style is that you can use older, timeless pieces alongside modern conveniences to create your own idyllic cottage setting. Whether you are doing major remodeling or just some small renovations, the cottage style can be easy and rewarding to create.
English Cottage style houses started to gain popularity in the United States between 1890 and 1940. They are an adaptation of the Tudor Revival house style that was modeled after the rustic cottages built in England in medieval times. An English Cottage style house plan means different things to different people, but, most likely when you think of an English style house plan you think of a storybook house with sweeping lines and romantic flourishes.
Cottage decorating is inexpensive, whimsical and has a touch of home. You don't need to live in the country to appreciate cottage style. It can spruce up a condo bathroom or apartment kitchen. Cottage style combines natural elements with femininity and romance.
Cottage style decor is light, airy and cozy. Decorate your entire home in this comfortable and worn-in style or create a special room of your own using the cottage-style basics: lots of white with touches of light-colored or natural wood, and pastel colors.
Think of a beach house, with over-stuffed furniture wrapped in off-white cotton slip covers and drapes billowing into the room from the open windows. This is cottage style, and while it is suited to vacation homes, its mark has made its way into city apartments and suburban development homes. Cottage-style decor is simple, clean, light and airy. There is more clutter than in simplistic Asian-inspired or Craftsman-style interior design, but the accessories on display tell a story about the people living in the home. Cottage-style decor is like comfort food -- a warm welcome after a long day.
If you want a stress-free, informal décor for your home, go with country-cottage style. This style combines dated and modern elements, but all emphasize comfort over design. The key to creating this atmosphere in your home is keeping relaxation and tranquility in mind when making choices. When you figure out what pieces you want and how to use them, you'll have a home that fans of the country-cottage style will adore.
Cottage-style decorating evokes a feeling of cozy, lived-in furniture. Mismatched pieces of furniture that are a little rough around the edges give the feeling of history and warmth. Fabrics can be mixed and matched in florals, stripes and toiles that complement each other but don't have to match exactly.
Cottage style decor creates a cozy, welcoming and relaxed look that incorporates vintage items and can highlight the individuality of the people living in the home. You can tailor cottage style to your own preferences, make it minimal or busy, and emphasize the country, shabby or vintage elements of this versatile style.
Cottage style decorating evokes a warm, cozy feel in any home -- even if it's not technically a cottage. The style arose after the more formal Victorian period and is attractive to people who want a light, airy but welcoming space. The distinctive look is anchored by calming colors, comfortable, classic furniture and traditional patterns. It's not fussy, but comfortable, and the look can be modified to suit any home, whether it's a cozy cabin in the mountains, an oceanfront bungalow or an apartment in the city.
Cottage style is more about attitude than rigid rules. Here are some keys to this casual, eclectic look.
Cottage-style decor encourages a sense of relaxation, so it's perfect for a master bedroom. Here are some ways to get the look.
