Making the Old New Again with Cottage Decor

The cottage decorating style is old-fashioned. It's vintage. It's Old World and old school. It's that treasured heirloom from your great-grandmother. If you like to go to thrift stores thumbing through every single rack to find that one article of clothing that fits and doesn't look like wallpaper, if you like to spend entire days at flea markets on epic journeys for those two items that will fit into your home, and then still haggle on the price, chances are you're well on your way to incorporating cottage style decorating already. More than just an obsession with counterculture and things past, there are a couple other guidelines to follow to make your home a treasure of this unique decorating style.

Color in Cottage Style Decorating
While cottage décor is about furniture and decorative items that have a distinct and nostalgic flavor, it's about creating an open feeling of space. This, naturally, means light colors, ideally white or cream. If you don't like the idea of white walls, use a lighter color and white or light-colored furniture. Upholstered furniture with a white background pattern can be just the ticket.

Remove Clutter, Find Storage
More than just keeping things tidy, don't display many accessories or everyday items. The cottage decorating style is a typical more-is-less situation. If you can make the storage itself blend in or disappear, that's even better. Instead of using cabinets or shelving, throw things in your suitcases or other empty containers.

Emphasize the Old
One of the reasons to create space and remove clutter is to be to highlight the vintage items you do find in your flea market odysseys. If your cottage décor gets too busy or cluttered, those antique items simply look dated, like they've been gathering dust for a hundred years. In a clean, spacious room, they look deliberately crafted, giving the room a distinctive, almost eccentric, ambiance.

Cottage Means Casual
While you're antique items may seem eccentric, the overall atmosphere you create should be casual. The antiques shouldn't be priceless, as though a billionaire flew halfway around the world to purchase the 13th century, hand-crafted, gold chamber pot of the emperor. The items you choose to fill your cottage décor should have more intrinsic meaning than anything. Imperfections can be signals to your guests that they don't need to feel in anyway nervous or uptight.

Cottage Doesn't Mean Country
Cottage can be synonymous for the decorating style, but cottage style decorating doesn't have to occur in country homes. Many people who choose to go with cottage décor, in fact, live in or near the city. The atmosphere created by the cottage style decorating is a practical way of reclaiming a little bit of the country for the urban lifestyle. In fact, with little space and smaller property lots, it can be one of the only ways.