The Southern Cottage: From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Florida Keys

by Susan Sully

The romantic elements that define the traditional southern cottage-a picturesque picket fence, a breezy sleeping porch, and well-worn heirloom furnishings-have made these small homes perennially stylish. The Southern Cottage showcases the best cozy dwellings in popular seasonal destinations-from the mountains in Virginia and North Carolina to Florida's Panhandle shores and the coast and islands of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Louisiana. A pristine Victorian lake house and a rustic mountaintop retreat express two moods of escape in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Summer beachside cottages include a colorful Key West home and a century-old family Florida retreat that captures informal old-fashioned spirit. Examples of 19th- and early 20th-century cottages reveal ways in which these diminutive houses satisfy the need for privacy as well as communal living. With tantalizing photographs of shaded porches, stone paths lined with flowers, and wicker-filled rooms, this is an inspiration for those who want their getaway home to evoke the timeless charm of southern living.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 10, 2007

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels dated now, but I was impressed with the restraint and rustic-ness of some of these little cabins and cottages, considering that the owners in this book all seem to be rich whites from Charleston who have three or four homes (with names like Osborne and Buffy, semiretired lawyers with English brides, collecting folk art because of its whimsy, going out on the john boat and look at the sunset before gin and tonics). You know the type.