5 Ways To Create Summer Cottage Style with Krista from The Happy Housie {guest post}

Hello readers of twelveOeight! I am so excited to be back again today contributing to this wonderful blog… and can’t wait to talk about one of my favourite things: summer!!

I love the summer! And I love the feeling of living in a fresh, bright summer cottage during the long hot days summer. Today I want to share with you some easy ways to inject a little summer cottage style into your home and still have plenty of time left to enjoy the season.

Bring in Fresh Flowers Adding fresh flowers to your home is an instant way to add a bright cottage-y feel to your space. Easy, relaxed types of flowers like daisies, sweet peas, hydrangea, and lavender are some of my favourites and I love it best when they come straight from the garden. Don’t break out your best crystal vase… instead use simple containers like vintage milk jugs or mason jars to display your fresh garden bounty.

Incorporate Natural Elements Using natural materials like wicker, sisal, burlap, and driftwood add a wonderful summery feel to your décor. You can wrap sisal or burlap around jars, vases, lamps, tables… really anything that strikes your fancy! You can also use driftwood in baskets, display it on surfaces, or even attach it to frames or canvases to inject some natural warmth and create a cottage-y feel.

Painted furniture A key element of cottage style is that things look like they have been collected and gathered over time. Old furniture has often been refreshed with a few coats of paint either in bright white or a fresh colour. Try using chalk paint to make distressing that much easier.

Layer and Mix Patterns and Colours While summer cottage style might mean all white to some people, I love a cottage look with lots of pattern and colour balanced out with lots of white and neutral tones. If your walls and furnishings are fairly neutral it is easy to add some summer cottage style with the addition of pillows, throws, rugs, or by changing out your bedding for something more summery feeling. Although I never follow hard and fast rules for mixing patterns, I tend to use a smaller print, some geometric, and tie it all together with a beautiful floral or ikat.

Relax! And enjoy your space… Summer cottages are supposed to be places of relaxation and rest; friends, family, and fun… they are not galleries or museums. Throw some flowers in a glass jar, give an old table a quick coat of chalk paint, throw some new summery cushions on the sofa… and enjoy it all. Don’t take decorating too seriously and create a space that feels comfortable, personal, and full of life. After all, that is what summer at the cottage is all about. For more details on some of these projects, come by and
see…