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Vintage Cottages
Vintage Cottages features unique and personalized decor focused on second homes and retreats with a vintage cottage theme. These places are filled with art, books, color, scents, textures and memories that link to life's experiences, relationships and hopes. Vintage Cottages shows how to "come home" to a serene retreat that's unlike anything else. Includes chapters on homes by the sea, mountain retreats, vintage gardens, vintage decor and collections, plus comprehensive resources.
- GenresNonfictionArt
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2007
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19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2014
2.5 stars
a brief, insubstantial glimpse at perhaps fifteen west coast cottages. the book had a weird obsession with the owners' dogs -- more copy than i would have expected was spent on describing them, and many pictures out of the few allocated to each house showed the pups and not the houses themselves -- which in and of itself needn't be anything but awesome except for that this book never advertises itself -- in its title, its writeup, its intro copy -- as having anything to do with pets. so, that was weird. not as advertised.
what photographs weren't spent in loving tribute to the pups were often of tiny niches or small, designed Moments on tabletops or bookshelves, which, in the end, meant that i didn't have a good feel for many of the houses at all by the time we'd moved on to the next chapter.
hence, this book is a harmless but uninspired coffee table book -- appealing to few, offensive to none.
a brief, insubstantial glimpse at perhaps fifteen west coast cottages. the book had a weird obsession with the owners' dogs -- more copy than i would have expected was spent on describing them, and many pictures out of the few allocated to each house showed the pups and not the houses themselves -- which in and of itself needn't be anything but awesome except for that this book never advertises itself -- in its title, its writeup, its intro copy -- as having anything to do with pets. so, that was weird. not as advertised.
what photographs weren't spent in loving tribute to the pups were often of tiny niches or small, designed Moments on tabletops or bookshelves, which, in the end, meant that i didn't have a good feel for many of the houses at all by the time we'd moved on to the next chapter.
hence, this book is a harmless but uninspired coffee table book -- appealing to few, offensive to none.
November 9, 2019
This is the second Molly Hyde English I’ve read and once cracking it open, I remembered that I should just enjoy the photos and skip the copious text. It made for a quick “read” but it was much more enjoyable than the previous book of hers that I read, Contemporary Cottages. The cottage look is not my style and these interiors are way too stuffed for my comfort but the few gardens that are shown are beautiful and lush.
June 5, 2017
There are some neat cottages in this book.
June 24, 2024
Ohhh, I'd love to own a vintage cottage especially near water!!!
September 26, 2012
Actually, the book itself was pretty good; but what I learned is that I do not like "distressed" anything. In addition, the idea of "shabby chic" is rediculous. Instead of looking vintage or old, to me, it looks as though it was uncared for or mistreated. So, while the book did have it's good points, the entire book is about the distressed look; therefore I only gave it a 3 star rating.
This book looks at about 15 cottages. Each is decorated quite differently from among the others. Some are decorated around a central theme such as the "Keystone" cottage. This cottage is loosely decorated around a sea or water theme. Many of the bric-a-brac are made of shells or driftwood, and the headboard in the master bedroom appears to be three repurposed window shutters. Again, I liked the concept, but either one of the shutters is bent, or they are not attached to one another. They are left needing a layer of paint to add beauty to the headboard.
Each of the cottages held things that I found myself loving. A couple have clawfoot tubs in several of the cottages, a multistoried birdhouse at Land's End, and the massive brick and stone fireplaces are intriguing and beautiful. But each had things that I did not like.
It was an interesting look into how some cottages have been decorated and gives good ideas for decorating your own...or ideas to avoid, as well.
This book looks at about 15 cottages. Each is decorated quite differently from among the others. Some are decorated around a central theme such as the "Keystone" cottage. This cottage is loosely decorated around a sea or water theme. Many of the bric-a-brac are made of shells or driftwood, and the headboard in the master bedroom appears to be three repurposed window shutters. Again, I liked the concept, but either one of the shutters is bent, or they are not attached to one another. They are left needing a layer of paint to add beauty to the headboard.
Each of the cottages held things that I found myself loving. A couple have clawfoot tubs in several of the cottages, a multistoried birdhouse at Land's End, and the massive brick and stone fireplaces are intriguing and beautiful. But each had things that I did not like.
It was an interesting look into how some cottages have been decorated and gives good ideas for decorating your own...or ideas to avoid, as well.
February 2, 2012
This book, which I was very excited about, turned out to be a little disappointing. I think there were too many close-up photos of singular elements to really get a sense of the design in each cottage... or what makes that cottage special. It's a book you don't need to linger over... much like most magazines you get an overall sense of what is going on and move on. I really tried to look at the elements but very little stuck with me or inspired me. I even read every page looking for clues in the genre of cottage design. Yes, the writing was as insipid as most design books. Maybe they just assumed I know more than I do? I'm not sure!
Skip this one unless you just want to take a gander at the library!
Skip this one unless you just want to take a gander at the library!
March 13, 2014
I loved Peter's Gate cottage! Some of this was my style, some not so much.
July 1, 2014
When I got this book I was hoping to find out if this book was more for design. I really loved the pictures in the book. Still a good book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews