Cottage Bliss--What Makes A House A Cottage

13 years ago

Folks, I rushed to share this before I even had my coffee.

In HOUZZ this morning is the blog subject as shown above, and it is illustrated with SEVENTEEN LOVELY COTTAGE HOMES that could well belong to several of YOU. Yeah, they had a very familiar look to them.

So do not hesitate to go visit and then imagine your place with a fresh eye. The blogger has cottage style down to a T, and I love it.

Maybe you can share some of the photos of YOUR home with her, and become part of her inspiration file. So many of you are inspirations to others on this forum, so share the wealth.

Here is a link that might be useful: HOUZZ blog--Cottage Bliss

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Comments (14)

User
13 years ago
Those are great ML. There is one there I especially like.
FlowerLady6
13 years ago
There are some really nice cottages there. Great link.

FlowerLady
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Last week we had wonderful weather - 70's during the day 60 and even 50's at night. Beautiful. One more day of 90 degree temps the weatherman said and then we too are expecting some rain and returning to fall-like weather. Yesterday it was hot but I decided to prune the branches of the mulberry tree in the orchard. They naturally want to arch and these particular ones were nearly to the ground already, felt like driving through curtains when I was mowing. All this growth this year by the way. It was a volunteer and grew to be a tall tree and should have been cut down but I kept letting it go. Birds love the berries! I used my electric pruning pole saw that can reach 10', I thought my shoulders and neck were going to kill me today but I feel good. Too hot to haul the debris to the brush pile tho. I got ripe tomatoes just not a boatload like usual. I'm cooking and freezing them whenever I get a dozen or so.
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FlowerLady here, and a bit freaked as several have said I would know what to do here. YIKES! I've been gardening on a shoe string for years. I grow natives, shrubs, annuals,perennials, roses, herbs. I live in the s.e. part of the state though. I have not been able to grow lavender here, except as an annual. It does not like the humidity. I love my roses, jasmine, cat's whiskers, moses in the bullrushes, basket plants, snake plants, ferns, plumeria, bougainvillea, crotons,plumbago, hibiscus, palms, succulents, Mexican heather, Mexican bush sage, Mexican petunias, chicory, elephant ears, aloe, flame vines, other flowering vines, orchids and many others. I grow from seeds and cuttings. I just mingle everything together for my own kind of tropical cottage garden. Visit the Florida Gardening forum here at GW. I'll leave a link at the bottom and you will get lots of great ideas for your part of the state. Check out what people are growing in your area also and look in garden centers. I love your house and think you will have lovely gardens once you are moved in and playing in the dirt. What are the little shrubs in your circular garden surrounding the palm tree? Whatever you do, don't stress, just have fun as your garden comes together. It's an ongoing process, something to enjoy every day. FlowerLady Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Gardening
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I am a fifth generation South California girl. Part of my family was originally from New England and New York before going "west" in 1859. I have pioneer roots and ties to some early Spanish families and grew up loving the Spanish culture and heritage of South Cal. I say, leave the palm. Add a fountain out front and play up the Spanish. You can still plant Cottage flowers, like a beautiful climbing rose up over your front door. (how about a climbing Don Juan - Ole!). I lived in an old Spanish house with a recessed front "patio" and alcove to one side, but there were white Lady Banks roses growing on the arbor across the east end and they sprawled up onto the roof. There was an old Date Palm near the "Secret Garden" on the east side of the house towards the back that was so lovely and fruit trees nearby. There were small "reflecting pools" that dotted the gardens here and there that my aunt had constructed back in the 1920s. Two Acacia trees were planted in the island of our front circle drive that bloomed every spring with fuzzy yellow flowers that reminded me of baby chicks or ducks. I loved the cool, smooth bark of the trunks of those trees and the blue-green colour of their leaves. There were all kinds of cacti and succulents, including agaves, ornamental grasses big rocks and the like in the beds on either side of the front walk, and tall Red Hot Pokers that I still love and grow in my gardens here in Oklahoma. There were waves upon waves of flowers of every kind all around the house. No grass was grown except under my mother's clothes line :), and over on the west side at the base of the mountain where a clump of Prickly Pear Cactus grew that towered at about ten or more feet. All the paths were just narrow little dirt trails really. On that side there were lemon trees, Pomegranates, flowering ornamental trees and shrubs. Native Live Oaks grew all through the canyon around the house, but there was a stand of pines on the north side. Beautiful white Callas grew and bloomed under the front windows in bricked-in beds built on top of the bricked patio - ferns too. I liked too the green moss or algae that grew on the damp bricks that gave it character. I remember Nasturtiums everywhere and lots of sweet, sweet smelling white Sweet Alyssum that crept out into the dirt paths. Golden California poppies and my favorite everlasting flower, Statice with its papery blooms of purple, pink, yellow and white that grew everywhere too. Mother never replanted it. It all came back year after year. There were irises of every colour, lilies, poppies, daisies, ivy, creeping myrtle, lots of Geraniums - just every kind of plant you would find in any cottage garden and then some. I remember Heliotrope (...oh...the fragrance). There was some kind of tiny leafed bamboo by one of the little pools. As a child I found it an intriguing place sit and play pretend games. The original part of the house was built back in the early 1880s and my grand aunt added on to it and turned it into a fabulous Spanish ranch house in the early 1900s. There were stables down below the house and two little cabins where the ranch hands used to "bunk". She had a working horse ranch there in the canyon, so it wasn't a modern idea of how to cottage garden in a Spanish-style home, but a garden built back in the day when that was the way one gardened! People drove out to our home to see it in the Spring and the ladies auxiliaries often came calling to buy flowers from my mother for their meetings and etc. It is now on the "historical homes" tour there in my home town. It was my favorite place to live and still is! I am not saying that you can or should grow all the things we had on our place, but to illustrate to you that you can grow cottage flowers and plants or anything you wish and still embrace the Spanish design of your beautiful home. Sorry to have rambled on. (my bad) ~ Annie
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First, my usual disclaimer -- I'm not a designer, just a not-all-that-fussy-about-looks homeowner. You're not going to make this into a cottage, nor do I think you can make it cute. Its basic style just doesn't fall into either category. I'm not a fan of a dark roof for practical reasons -- it increases heat load in the summer (raising your air conditioning costs and/or indoor temperatures), and the roof level heat shortens the life of the roof. In this case, however, it makes the house look MUCH better. So in your place, I'd break my own rule. I think that the problem with the dormers is that they aren't dormers, they're just windows. That's what you get with mansard. I don't see any way to change it either. . The garage is hideous. It looks tacked on, and might well be. It wrecks the line of the house. Ideally you'd somehow move it into the back yard (move or demo and rebuild). You could also extend the mansard roof over the existing garage. But any way you go with it, it's going to be expensive, and you won't get the cost back when you sell. I think if I were in your place, I'd pass on this one.
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enigmaquandry
13 years ago
I lOVE the first one, oooooooooooh the stunningness...
traceee
13 years ago
Those were beautiful - most of them older homes. I was glad to see the smaller ones towards the middle and end. Seems that location sorta defines cottage - as in near beach, or water - what do you think?
leafy02
13 years ago
Those are lovely, and make me sad that my current home is so un-cottagey in appearance (though I think we qualify, size-wise).

It's good inspiration for me to keep cute cottages in mind when we get to downsize further in a few years. Not that I'm in any hurry for my kids to move out...
rafor
13 years ago
When I relocated to the East Coast, I hated leaving my new little cottage behind! Someday I want to build another one just like it: all 920 sq ft of it. So easy to clean and the monthly utilities were soooo low. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath (next time I'll add a 2nd bath and a garage!) great floor plan. I think it's a Ross Chapin design according to what I found on the web. That's the house where I built my first glass house in the backyard.

Here is a link that might be useful: my cottage
User
Original Author
13 years ago
Another feature from HOUZZ is the link below. I see several ideas in the gallery they put up, of interest to those of us with smaller bathrooms.

I can see a couple of things I might use. The stool to lay my things on...already have such a stool, so no cost. The train rack for towels, could not figure where to mount it, now realize of COURSE it will fit above the toilet in DH's first floor bath up north. I also like the folding tray for toiletries, but probably will opt for the plain tall storage towers but use baskets in the shelves. To make sure that works out, I better find the baskets before building the towers, don't you think? Don't want to paint myself into a corner.

And using a vintage plate/saucer for soap or whatever, I have the perfect plate for that, as I'm sure you have too.

Hope the link works. It looks very strange. But check out the photos, they are inspiring.

Here is a link that might be useful: [Simple Bathroom Styling Tips[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/simple-bathroom-styling-tips-stsetivw-vs~95094?utm_campaign=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery2)
User
Original Author
13 years ago
Leafy, just keep thinking COTTAGE, and by doing so you will create that image of your home.

And Rafor, glad you are coming back for more here. I visited your photo album and left several comments there. You have done wonders with the house in those pictures. How sad if you had to leave such an inspirational place behind. You put so much of yourself into it. I think with our recent expansion of tub/closet bumpout, we might be closing in on 1000 square feet inside. I will have to check.
Shades_of_idaho
13 years ago
OH Rafor. Darling cottage. I will explore more later. Loving the pavers you did in your yard for walk way through the corner area. Going to take note of that.

ML need to get a move on here this morning. Can't wait to see those small baths.

Chris
young-gardener
13 years ago
What lovely homes! I had to laugh, because several times I tried to save them in my Ideabook, only to be told by Houzz that I'd already stored them. I guess you REALLY love them if you try to save them the second time around. I'm smitten with cottage number one.

Thanks for sharing!

While walking with DH last night, I started thinking about everyone here. Our town is littered with lovely little cottages, so I decided I'd make a point of taking my camera with me while walking one night. I know the SH folks will appreciate the cottages I frequent on my walks.
Shades_of_idaho
13 years ago
Rafor, I totally enjoyed visiting your cottage. I certainly think your living room kitchen dinning is considered a great room. We had an 864 SQ FT house and the living room kitchen dinning were all one room at 13 by 36. Worked perfect for us.

Chris
animalnut
13 years ago
ooohhh! such lovely cottages! Some day, some way, I will give my plain little rectangle of a house a more cottage feel.

rafor - I love those shed handles! They were originally double hooks, yes? May I ask where you got 'em?
Shades_of_idaho
13 years ago
OH and leafy we have a manufactured home. About as far from cottage as a person can get and yet I still consider it a cottage. All in my own head. LOL You can do it. Think light airy cottage and go for it.

Chris
rafor
13 years ago
animalnut: I think I got them at Joanne Fabrics a few years ago. I just hung on to them until I found the perfect use for them!! And then I had to leave them behind :(

Cottage Bliss--What Makes A House A Cottage

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Cottage Bliss--What Makes A House A Cottage

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