Cottage style: Putting it all together
You don't need to own a thatch-roofed home in the English countryside or vast collections of vintage furnishings to decorate your home like a cottage. What you do need is a passion for the past and a knack for creative recycling.
"Cottage style" means a mix of simple furnishings and accessories that are a little (or a lot) worn. Unlike true antiques, which must be at least 100 years old and have a verifiable pedigree, cottage-style pieces are humble in nature and can be almost anything, including old farmhouse tables and chairs, Depression-era glassware and ceramics, enamelware, and artisan finds from country fairs and flea markets.
There's often a garden tie-in, expressed in fabric and china patterns, painted furniture, and an exuberant use of color and flowers.
The goal is cozy informality rather than sterile perfection. Cottage-style furniture often has a distressed look. Peeling paint with exposed undercoats is appreciated – the mark of years of cherished use – rather than a turn-off. A chipped Wedgwood plate takes on a new role propped on a mantel.
"In this form of decorating," says Pamela Fritz, owner of furniture and accessory gallery Interieur Perdu, "most things are not used as they were intended."
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