Learn how to create an english cottage style home in this post!
There are countless styles to use as inspiration when decorating a home. Many styles happen to be named after the areas that they originate from. Examples of this are Mediterranean, Spanish, French Country, and last, English Cottage, the subject of today’s focus! Other popular styles are traditional, mid-century modern, coastal, shabby chic, along with countless others.
When thinking about what style you’d like to decorate your home, it’s usually not too challenging to figure out what you do and don’t like. However, there are just so many styles to choose from that it can be overwhelming to put together a design. The good news is that you certainly don’t have to choose one distinct style. It’s very possible to effectively combine multiple styles to create a design specific to your taste and lifestyle. It often looks even better when you mix elements of different styles in a single design, such as mixing modern pieces with antiques. Just choose which pieces you like from different styles and put them together!
Regardless of what mixing and matching you’re going to do with styles, today we’re talking english cottage!
What is the english cottage style you ask? Great question!
The english cottage style describes quaint homes that have a fairytale-like appearance and a cozy, rustic, cheerful, and lived-in feel. A similar style to this that takes the fairytale aspect to another level is the storybook style. This style is whimsical with medieval features such as thatched, steep roofs and turrets.
If you’re looking to create the english cottage style in your home, try the following elements. Keep reading for more details on these!
- Toile
- Overgrown gardens
- Delicate floral prints
- Faux flowers
- Rustic finishes
- Sofa slipcovers
- Wooden beams
- Wainscoting & beadboard
- Old books
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Toile
A great element of the english cottage style is toile. Toile actually has french origins, but has a natural fit in any type of cottage. It’s a type of pattern that is found on different fabrics, such as pillows, bedding, and curtains. Toile is typically printed on off-white fabrics and shows complex scenes that are repeated throughout the fabric with muted colors of blues, reds, and more.
In creating your english cottage, try adding subtle touches of toile here and there. Some great ways to use it are as shower curtains, couch pillows, kitchen towels, or bed sheets. If you’re really into the print, try some toile wallpaper in a room!
Here are some great toile options for your english cottage:
- Wayfair: A toile shower curtain option. This comes in blue, red, and black!
- Wayfair: These are gorgeous, yet subtle bed sheets. These come in 5 different colors: grey, light blue, mauve, navy, and red.
- Home Depot: A cute wallpaper option.
Overgrown Gardens
If you look at the outside of a typical english cottage, you’ll often see flowers galore, almost to the point of looking messy, but usually just beautiful! Unlike the very well manicured gardens often seen in France, cottage gardens are informal and have a mix of colors.
While you don’t have to have an actual overgrown garden, make sure to have plenty of flowers! Any type of flowers will do, but some great flowers often seen at english cottages are lavender, peonies, geraniums, and roses. For added charm, add some window flower boxes!
Delicate Floral Prints
From flowers in gardens, to flowers inside! Try some delicate floral prints on fabrics throughout your home. Stay away from anything in too bold of prints or colors. Some great options for floral prints are on pillows, bedding, curtains, or towels. Here are a few options!
- Wayfair: This beautiful comforter will provide the perfect cottage feel in your room!
- Wayfair: Another great comforter option, but with a bit more muted colors.
- Wayfair: Put some floral prints on your walls with this gorgeous wallpaper. This would look great in a bathroom or another small room like a mudroom.
- Wayfair: Another great wallpaper option, but with a more antique feel.
Faux Flowers
Because we knew you couldn’t get enough flowers: add faux flowers to your home for some perfect english cottage charm. You are of course welcome (and encouraged) to bring real flowers into your home, but if that’s not manageable or affordable for you, some good artificial ones add the same color and softness to a room. Try these ones to start.
- Amazon: These are lovely artificial baby’s breath pieces at a great price.
- Amazon: Another low-priced option, but this one is a whole bouquet of gorgeous pinks and greens.
- Pottery Barn: This faux potted lavender gives a rustic vibe in its terra cotta pot.
Rustic Finishes
One of the truest elements of an english cottage is the slightly rustic feel seen throughout. To add rustic finishes to your home, try using some wooden tables and furniture like these ones.
- World Market: This gorgeous wooden dining table will definitely add a rustic feel to your space.
- At Home: Another great dining table option and at an amazing price!
- Wayfair: Try this pedestal end table in your living room.
- World Market: If a round dining table is a better fit for your space, this is a beautiful, affordable option!
Sofa Slipcovers
Another fantastic and easy way to add english cottage charm is to simply add a slipcover to your sofa. Try to stick with muted colors for this style. Here are a few great slipcovers to try out! Just make sure that the one you choose fits your sofa.
Wood Beams
Something that english cottages often have are gorgeous wood beams. They can be dark wood, light wood, or painted wood and still fit great into the english cottage design.
While you may be thinking, my house doesn’t have wood beams, so I can’t have any, we have great news – you can add them! Not only is adding them not too difficult, it’s also not very expensive! You can find DIY projects on Pinterest and home improvement stores even have faux wood beams that look close to the real thing! Here is one example:
- Home Depot: This has a beautiful rustic feel.
Wainscoting & Beadboard
Wainscoting and beadboard is another very easy way to add some wonderful character to a home. Similar to adding wood beams, this is a feature that is very easy to do yourself and will go a long way design-wise.
Old Books
Last on our list of ways to add english cottage charm to your home is the easy and low cost addition of old books. Traditional cottages are often filled with beautiful old-looking books that really add some sophistication to a space.
To add this to your home, you can either raid a thrift store (often for a very good price) or just buy some old books and/or fake old-looking ones online. Here is a great option:
- Wayfair: While not the lowest-cost option, this provides actual old books that were published between 1890 and 1939 and comes with 10-12 books.
That wraps up this list of items to include in an english cottage home! Which items will you be adding to your home? Leave a comment below!
Want to see some other styles? Check out these posts to discover more styles that you can use in your home!
