Breaks one of the hottest categories of decorating into doable increments with chapters on furnishings, fabrics, floor coverings, window treatments, and choosing and arranging accessories. Ideas include whole-room schemes, as well as dozens of small ideas readers can adapt to warm—and charm—their homes. Covers the range of styles from rustic to refined. Helps readers find ideas and adapt them to create the cottage-style of their dreams, no matter where they live. "Finding Your Style" tip boxes throughout the book move readers from inspiration to action.
Lovely to look at. This kind of stuff gets me up and moving, sorting through clutter, walking through the house looking for pieces I can use in some new and interesting way, and it stimulates my creative side with physical and concrete ways of engaging whatever artist resides within me.
I should have loved this. Especially as we just (finally) bought our first house and I can finally do (cheap!) things to make it more ours & less generic. Mostly, though, the images showed too much clutter and busyness.
I am charmed by one spread though, as it shows green walls in a dining area. Sounds terrible, I know. But it's a sort of a dusty celadon, or a dark sage? I don't know; I have to get to a hardware store and look at chips. Paired with white cabinetry and wicker or wooden chairs with some cheery but not gaudy prints (painting, cushions, curtains, tablecloth, and/or shallow display shelving) the room is warm, quiet, inviting, but also uplifting.
Well, not bad for a Little Free Library find. September 2024
This is a decent beginner book for anyone looking to mimic the country style. I found myself getting bored, however, and started skimming before I reached the end. I prefer seeing actual homes, with REAL collections and artwork, and not just rooms assembled as examples of a particular style.
While the pictures are now outdated, the decorating advice offered is still sound and easy to follow. I appreciated how this book offers several different varieties of "cottage style" - from beach house to English garden (and plenty more in between).