Nikki, I'm sure you'll get a ton of responses.

All that frilly chintz is considered cottage.

Maybe you are like me and keep crossing the line in different directions when trying to go with a particular style. I love the laid back feel of country, but I'm not crazy about some of the colors that are suppose to be country. I have a tendency to lean toward Victorian sometime and have to catch myself. My cottage goes to the extreme!!

I know, I was absolutely no help. Just wanted to let you know there are others out here were are also "struggling" with a design plan.

http://interiordec.about.com/od/cottagestyle/a/a_shabchicstyle_p.htm
Decorating for a Shabby Chic® Look
From Coral Nafie,Your Guide to Interior Decorating.

Scour Flea Markets, Garage Sales, and Your Attic
Shabby Chic® is a comfortable, casual look using vintage accessories, pastels, and comfortable furniture. While people have been living with old lace tablecloths, dreamy soft floral fabrics, light painted furniture furniture, wrought iron curtain rods with filmy sheer curtains, and colorful fresh flowers for a long time, Rachel Ashwell identified this style of decorating and named it Shabby Chic®.
Think of visiting with your grandmother, snuggled in comfortable soft furniture. Fresh flowers look beautiful and the soft scent of candles fills the room. A home decorated in the Shabby Chic® style can provide the same sensation for your own home.

Shabby Chic® is no particular style, but rather balances elegant things with old and worn, shiny silver accessories with painted wooden tables, soft throw rugs with rough old lace.

To read how the founder of Shabby Chic® describes this unique style, you migh read our interview with Rachel Ashwell. Then visit the About's links on Cottage style. Visit a store near you that carries Shabby Chic® branded furniture, fabrics, and home accessories.

Read about some of the ways you can use a Shabby Chic® decorating style in your home:

Soft Delicate Colors

If you love bold primary colors, Shabby Chic® is not for you. Soft white, muted grey, pale pink, and faded green all have a place in a Shabby Chic® interior.

Tea Stained Fabrics

Collect fabrics from around the house or buy vintage-looking fabrics even if they're new. To give the illusion of age, fabric can be made to look old, worn, faded, and soft by staining them with a brew of tea. Be sure to test a piece of fabric first to get just the right shade. You can change something that's stark white to a soft creamy white-- just right for the look.

Combine Patterns and Colors

Combine stripes, checks, and floral fabrics to achieve a warm and inviting look. Gather yardage or fabrics from yard sales and flea markets. You don't have to follow traditional rules of combining prints, but for easiest mixing keep the background color the same (white or ivory, etc.). Then choose one color to repeat in almost every fabric, such as a soft green or pale pink.

White painted furniture

Almost any piece of wooden furniture will fit into a Shabby Chic® interior if it's painted white. Collect pieces from flea markets, garage sales, and the attic. Spray with white paint, sand off the corners and rough it up a little, and voila!-- you have Shabby Chic® furniture. You'd be surprised how a coat of paint transforms a dark dingy chair or table.

Think Outside the Box

Not every chair has to be sat on. How about using a sturdy, painted straight chair as a table at the side of a bed or sofa or in a corner to hold a vase of flowers? An old picnic bench or trunk can serve as a coffee table. Stack wooden boxes at the side of a chair for books and flowers. Be creative and use what you have.

More About Shabby Chic® and Cottage Style

Back to All Style Guides

Decor FAQs : What to do First: What Do You Want to Do?

~ Coral Nafie

Soft, Inviting, Comfortable
Bring the wonderful, warm look of Shabby Chic® into your home.
Slipcovers

You can camouflage old, drab furniture and cover up mismatched pieces with soft slipcovers. Whether you have a slipcover custom made, make your own, or buy a throw at a store, you can get just the look you want without investing in a new piece of furniture. Most pieces are covered in white, but soft faded prints will work too. Since you'll probably want to wash the slipcovers occasionally, be sure the fabric is easy care! How about a cool white look for summer and a warm stripe or floral for cooler seasons?

Overstuffed Upholstery

For a welcoming and inviting look, upholstered furniture in a Shabby Chic® interior is comfortable, oversized, wrinkled, with a slipcover. Sofas are long and chairs are almost big enough to seat two. Delicate prints cover soft throw pillows.

No Iron Needed

A rumpled, wrinkled, but neat look is perfect for the Shabby Chic® style. Upholstered or slipcovered furniture should look well-used and very loved!

Architectural Details

Anything old and beautiful will have a place in this style of decorating. Glass door knobs, pillars, an old mantle, and rusted old iron shelf brackets or hooks can add texture to any room.

The More Rust, the Better

Decorative accessories and wrought iron furniture are perfect compliments to a Shabby Chic® interior. If the rust is peeling or flaking off, sand it lightly and seal with two coats of a flat, clear spray varnish.

Delight All the Senses With Flowers and Candles

Add a wonderful glow and delicious fragrance with scented candles. Be sure to have bunches of fresh flowers scattered around, whether in a glass jar or beautiful painted vase. Include pretty books on flowers to add color. Floral prints look comfortable and add texture on soft throw pillows.

Everything Old is New Again

Even the most broken-down or dingy of elegant formal furniture pieces can be adapted to a Shabby Chic® decor. If it's broken, fix it, clean it up, and paint it white. If it's rusted, clean it up (but only a little) and find it a new home. If the paint is chipped, you're lucky. If it's broken, find a new use for it. If the mirror is scratched, scratch it some more.

Because Shabby Chic® style is so adaptable, it's a perfect way to decorate a guest room or family room. With the focus on warmth and comfort, everyone will be comfortable. Have fun putting together your Shabby Chic® room.

More About Shabby Chic® and Cottage Style

Find Books About Shabby Chic®

Back to All Style Guides

Decor FAQs : What to do First: What Do You Want to Do?

~ Coral Nafie

Cottage Style Decorating
From Coral Nafie,
Your Guide to Interior Decorating.

Technically speaking, Cottage Style isnt really a style. After all, a cottage is meant to be lived in, to be enjoyed, and is usually the recipient of all the cast-offs from the real home. But Cottage furnishings and accessorites have grown in popularity in recent years. In Cottage Style anything (and everything) goes.
Furniture
The furniture in a Cottage Style home is often recycled, purchased from a flea market, or collected from family rejects. Nothing really needs to match -- and it shouldnt -- yet the overall effect is charming and comfortable. Anything found can be painted or recovered to help it fit into your scheme.

Reuse Vintage Items
In Cottage decor, pieces are often adapted from one use to another. For example, a bench might serve as a coffee table, an old kitchen cupboard can hide towels in a bathroom, or a kitchen table might become a desk. You might also reuse a section of old wooden or iron fence to serve as a headboard. To fit into the scheme the piece just needs to look old and loved with signs of wear-and-tear.

Flooring
Floors in Cottage Style homes are often informal and even imperfect. Bare wood floors are a good option. New wood can be made to look old and painted floors can have patterns stenciled on, either to add interest or define areas. Raw planks can be covered with vintage braided throw rugs. Wall-to-wall carpet can be too perfect for this style yet tile is okay. Covering any type of flooring with vintage area rugs is another way to get the cottage look.

Window Treatments
Since Cottage Style homes are informal, windows should look light and airy. Consider lace instead of heavy drapes or sheers instead of opaque panels. For privacy, if you need it, pick simple shades that can hide away during the day. When privacy is not an issue the windows can be left bare. Valances can be sewn in fabric or made of grapevines. Swags of lace help add a softer look.

Go on to page 2

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More About Cottage Style Decorating
From Coral Nafie,
Your Guide to Interior Decorating.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
(Continued from Page 1)
Part 2: Fabric, Color, Pattern, Lighting
Fabrics
Cottage decor usually calls for a mix of fabrics used for slipcovers, upholstery, curtains, draperies, table skirts, pillows and more. Coordinate a variety of prints like florals, stripes, checks, and plaids for a collected look. Slipcovered furniture is also very popular in a cottage look, offering relaxed and easily updated furnishings. Throws for snuggling under can be tossed anywhere.

Color and Pattern
While there can be many colors and patterns in a cottage style setting, its good to have a unifying theme. English Cottage suggests pinks and greens in floral prints. Rustic style, with twig or rough-hewn wood furniture, works well with forest colorsgreens, rust, and golden tones. For a Cottage Style home near the shore, try beachy colors of soft blues and sandy beiges with lots of white. Patriotic or faded color schemes also fit well in these casual homes.

Accessories
Any odd thing can serve as an accessory in a Cottage Style home, so be on the lookout wherever you go. Charming plates, old hats, musical instruments, interesting frames and heirloom samplers become the center of attention in a comfortable cottage room. Antique shops, tag sales, grandmas attic, and flea markets all reveal a treasure trove of items both useful and decorative.

Lighting
Collectibles can easily be adapted into lighting fixtures by installing inexpensive lamp parts. Turn an old jug, vase, or tin into a one-of-a-kind lamp. Not sure you want to tackle wiring a lamp? Take a vintage find to a lamp store where you have it adapted to your need for minimal expense. The more unusual your item, the more fun youll have looking at it when its electrified with a cute shade.

Begin collecting your favorite style of hand-me-downs and treasures to create a unique version of cottage for your own home!

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©2007 About.com, Inc., a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

lynn, that's wonderful information. I know I'll benefit/learn from it.

Brutuses, I am glad my research will be beneficial to you. I know I learned from it and I hope this helps bbcjohn out also and others. Maybe others will post with even more information.

Happy New Year.

Just on the question of frilly chintz -- chintz, and floral prints generally, are where cottage style intersects with English country. (Think of a "cottage" as a very small house in the English countryside.) Similar print fabrics could be part of an American country design, too, but typical American country includes gingham checks and simple plaids.

In terms of cottage style, which comes first to my mind is small overall prints, possibly several different ones in the same room, chosen to harmonize but not stand out.

I am so confused and worrying that my idea of cottage doesn't exist

If the idea exists in your mind, it is real - decorate according to your mental image of the room, not according to a specific model. Choosing a known style may be helpful because it suggests elements that you could use to achieve the look that you want, but if what you have in mind is not exactly like any established style, select the elements that seem right to you.

I've had the same problem and have found my inspiration in decorating magazines from the UK.

Ideal Home and Country Homes are two of my faves. You can find them in specialty book stores.

The site below has loads of great pictures from homes in the UK.

Hi Bbcjohn.

Ok, you got a ton of information there, most of which I didn't even look at for two main reasons. These days, thanks mostly to TV decorator shows, once-meaningful decorative terms get batted around like tennis balls by attractive young people who haven't a clue what they're talking about, losing a little bit of their meaning with every hit. How else to explain a word like "Tuscan"'s being so stretched out of shape that it's come to be applied to every artificially beat-up, dirty-looking cheap wood accessory made in China & sold in a catalog? And what's the bit with all those roosters? Like there are no roosters anywhere else but Tuscany? And don't get me strted on those rusty iron doodads. Anyway, mass-market stylistic terms don't mean much. Tuscany--the region, not the fake style--has been drawing people to it for centuries, but in a few years all those allegedly "Tuscan" accessories are going to be in the same boat as country geese wearing blue calico bows. Let the buyer beware. Anyway, so that's one thing: the uselessness of most currently popular labels.

The other thing is summed up perfectly in OKMoreh's post: "If the idea exists in your mind, it is real." So don't worry about finding said look in a book or a magazine article or on a TV show. If you didn't truly already know in your mind what it is you want, you wouldn't be able to recognize it when you see it anyway (regardless of what label's attached to it) so why not just skip that step and create a room from the inside out--from your heart--rather than just trying to work backwords from a label to a look?

Regards,
Magnaverde.

BTW, all labeling issues aside, chintz is not by nature "frilly" and although a small-acale chintz in pretty pastels can be cloying when it's sugared-up with white-painted furniture, flouncy pillows, rag rugs, gingam curtains & ditsy gift-shop accessories, chintz can also be a perfectly viable choice when you're talking about a large-scale print in strong reds & deep greens that's paired with heavy mahoganny or oak furniture, polished dark wood floors, thick velvet curtains & sisal matting. I'm just sayin'.

As always, perfect, Magnaverde! As the 10 years in our current home have flown by, I can see that I have (thankfully) migrated from country to cottage, and now to "myself", meaning I just use what I love, what speaks to me.

I have found that every now and then I need to get energized and wipe from my mind the Pottery Barn style (mdf and veneers!) and the HomeGoods stuff-you-don't-need-that's-really-crap-anyway and re-enegrize myself and my style. For this I make the rounds in our local antique shop area. Usually I don't buy, but I just file it away in my mind and think about what I've seen. Yesterday I found a silver plated champagne bucket. That will become a lamp. But what captured me was an antique (or maybe vintage, can't be sure) hutch. My DR is all set (vintage mahogany set left in a house my sister bought!) but this hutch could be just what the doctor ordered!

DH is pining for a huge flat screen TV, and I just can't plop that on a stand with my vintage style. That would not be eclectic, it'd be schizophrenic. The term "cognitive dissonance" comes to mind. But I digress....

A new TV could be placed on an antique hutch. This hutch, or another like it, would be made of real wood, have a real sense of place, and would fit my sensibilities. I never would have thought of that if I hadn't had some free time to wander the shops.

So, bbcjohn, my suggestion to you is to let your style come to you. Be aware of what you love. Collect pictures of rooms you admire, and be open to items that speak to you. And before you know it, you'll have your cottage. Enjoy!

-Donna

We were inspired by English cottage, but not in the sense of frilly chintz. We've been to the UK many times and one son lived in London to get a grad degree. Therefore, we took inspiration only from what was appealing to us (heavy rolled arms, leather, tufted backs, nailhead trim, etc.) and suitable to our home and location so that it doesn't look out of place. We're not purists about anything! One of our British friends says that our kitchen looks exactly like his aunt's kitchen, only we don't have the peeling wallpaper. Okay, I'll take that as a compliment!

Being in south, we are also inspired by our roots -- the beadboard that clad all of the walls and ceilings in my grandmother's cottage, we used sparingly for our stair walls and an overmantel in the garden room. We have a number of US antiques passed down from several sides of the family that we love and use. We also have a few French and Belgian antiques that we've purchased. We also use a lot of things from our travels in our decor. "Most objects tell a story" in our home. We have a southern front porch and a screened porch on our English cottage inspired house -- to fit our environment. Again, inspired by the southern and English cottages, but not purists about either. We had to work really hard to marry the two styles together.

I am overboard on practicality and functionality. Pretty doesn't work for me unless the design is liveable. Therefore, our home layout is for passive solar energy-efficiency as well as a layout that works for us. Not a cottage layout.

Also, I pay more attention to the outside of the house than a lot of folks because I'm a gardener. We've tried very hard to create (in only 2 years so far) an English cottage inspired garden around the house which is set in an open meadow (similar to an English countryside).

So, what is cottage to me may not be cottage to someone else. I think that's what's so great about the style. We can be inspired by different elements and bring them together to define our own design.

Cameron

Bbcjohn - What you are describing to me is Cottage. Well, I'd suggest if you like the look of XYZ photo, we'll say, but you DON'T LIKE the fabric, just change that part to the fabric you like. Not all of my cottage is flower-ey. I use a lot of plaids, gingham type small swiss dot fabrics, stripes etc. I just get these in the COLORS I like. I do throw in some flowers here and there in accessories, pillows, wall stuff, that I can change out. I use colors on the walls and white in some of the furniture mixed with wood. I have the first version of Cottage Style by BH&G and haven't seen the 2nd one (don't know which you have) but in mine it shows the various takes on cottage: Adirondack, coastal, english/garden, etc.
IMO country is mostly woods, using a totally different color palette and most importantly FEEL, more leaning towards primative in nature when it comes to colors, fabrics etc. But that is just IMO. I think any style that people use is crafted out of an idea that has reality built in.
You'll never totally copy anything (and some don't want to) because who can find that exact couch, that exact fabric etc.? Only that designer or homeowner knows what they bought and where, which may or may not be available now.
It takes time unless you have someone scouring the planet for you and endless $$$. That's a good thing. Some things I thought I wanted, evolved and changed over time and in the room with the wall placement, lighting etc.

You're on a journey we all take. You could start making a folder of ideas, photos, colors, fabrics, WHATEVER, that you like until you get the concept cemented in your brain and then you start thinking in the style. It could take a while but when you have it, you'll start seeing things and immediately know,,this will work or that won't work.

It sounds strange, but carry around a small tape measure and the dimensions of your walls/rooms in your purse (that has served me well). You could start with the furniture (beware of that, unless you can throw out or reuse what you may not like down the road) and the wall color/paint. Hit HomeGoods or your favorite haunt for accessories and frequent them.

That's all I got. Hope some part is helpful. Nicole

I stopped reading when I saw how Okmoreh replied since that is just what I was going to say. Who needs a label if YOU KNOW what you want. Just go for it Nikki. You'll not be disappointed. If you need a label than call it Nikkious Styliocious ! :P

I want to say first, that I didn't intend to insult those with the country look. I find some of it quite charming.

And Magnaverde, I do love chintz but the operative word, for which I subbed the word frilly, IS cloying. You spoke to what I don't like about country. As for Tuscan, let's not even go there.

Lynn2006, I am very grateful for your research. I can glean some good stuff from that. I am just in awe of how far you went to help me. Nice person you are!

As for those who told me to go with my vision, thanks. You have given me encouragement. I wanted to say your names but I had to edit and now I am afraid to go back and get them and then probably lose my post altogether.

I am laughing to discover that cottage is country. I never would have thought that.

I have a greyed pale blue cotton slipcovered camelback, chippendale sofa. Behind that a mahogany sofa table. Two nondescript chairs that I am covering in a pale blue and white damask cotton slipcovers.
I will have my white fireplace surround. All my lamps are modern crystal, the now ubiquitous bubble lamp and a few others. Two additonal white small wing chairs and a big black Chinese "kitchen cupboard", which look like am armoire but isn't. Great for storage though, lots of shelves.

I have a pale blue and white cotton striped rug. The walls are off white with a touch of yellow (BM Aura "Subtle"). There are two end tables, one, I think they call it espresso, with shelves filled with books, and a small mahogany round table.

That is it so far. I am pretty good at figuring out the big stuff but the accessories etc leave me wanting every time.

I really want to thank all of you for your kind responses.
Nikki

Nikki, never rush accessories, just let them develop overtime and slowly. Only buy that which you truly love and will make you smile rather than rush out and try to fill a room. This will make your room meaningful and personal. Also don't crowd things, if something is really special, let it have space. don't appologize if you have an empty corner or table - in fact negative space is as important as positive space in a room.

Sky

ohhhh GOSH all these words and no pictures??? I can't take it. LOL

Chintz: Mario Buatta.

Google Images from searcing Cottage Style Bedrooms are in the link below.

Nikki, here is a link to our Gallery which I think you will enjoy -- I put about 50 pictures in there and they range sort of all over, so there's bound to be something you like there. Perhaps you'll get inspired?

Wow, lynn and oceanna, both of these have rooms that are not my idea of country. They are fresh and colorful in amuted way and full of charm.
Thank you, thank you!
Nikki

I just got the book called Cottage Style Decorating (see link) and I found it to be inspirational. The link shows some sample pics.

We just completed building a lake cottage home in New Hampshire, and what struck me when I was scanning this thread (haven't had time to read every post, but will...)is that there are also regional differences in what people interpret as "cottage" decorating.

We recently visited my son in Santa Barbara, CA, and I am sure that a cottage there is likely to have a different look and feel in decor than one on the coast of Maine.

There are fine lines between rustic, cabin, country, cottage and bungalow and I think a lot of times people blend them.

The look I was going for in our place was fresh, relaxed, classic but informal. I didn't want anything fussy or cluttered. We have painted furniture, French doors, pumpkin pine floors, white shaker cabinets, soapstone and beadboard. Those things say "cottage" to me. But someone living in a different area may have a totally different vision.

Amck -- and, we're all waiting to see that bedroom finished with the black, white and pumpkin! :-) Where are the photos? :-)

Cameron

Here's a fav website for checking out cottage interior design -- check their other sections too. Just click on one of their projects to bring up a few more photos and images .....

amck, my feelings exactly. : )

As a long time cottage style decorating junkie, I'd have to disagree that cottage is a type of country. While they do share similar "traits" such as relaxed and informal, cottage uses color in a different, more refined way. More often than not you will see a particular color, such as white/off-white, that pulls everything together. The accessories are also much more pulled together, such as a grouping of one colored pitchers or bowls, or the same shapes of pitchers or bowls grouped together. Country was (and still is for some) much more of a mish-mash of colors and styles, shapes and sizes, in accessories and fabrics.

This isn't to say that cottage doesn't or can't include lots of color, it's just used more cohesively than is seen in most country style decorating.

disagree that cottage is a type of country. While they do share similar "traits" such as relaxed and informal, cottage uses color in a different, more refined way

I was a bit surprised to read in one of the books cited that cottage was an extension of American country - I think that suggests a definition of cottage as a made-up style that differs from historical antecedents.

I would have said that cottage style reflects town tastes and sensibility, but in a country or village setting.

I don't know about country, but I like to think of cottage as that person who always looks amazing without trying hard, yet you can't pinpoint what looks so great. That's why I think rooms with too much of a theme (like roosters everywhere) sort of fall away from my view of cottage.

The book I read suggested that cottage style is a home away from home feel-- to me, that implies money (since you have a 2nd home!), whereas country does not (primitive). I like the idea of things looking sort of thrown together (found objects someone has collected/re-purposed for their 2nd/cottage home) yet, like a cottage garden, it's done with subtle stylings that tie it all together.

Cameron & All - The pictures are coming, I promise.

We were able to get to the cottage twice over the holidays when my son was home from CA. Our whole family was there for the first time "sleeping over" on Dec. 22nd, and we awoke to a foot of new snow in the morning. Just magical!

Now that the visitors and their gear are moved out, and we have shoveled ourselves out of 2 more recent storms, I can get some pictures and give you an idea of the place. Please keep in mind that it is still a work in progress. As it is currently a 2nd home, we're still adding furnishings and final touches a bit at a time.

That MB with the black/ivory toile is charming (IMHO), and the rugs I ordered came in the week of Christmas (yeah!). We're heading up as soon as work lets out Friday. I will get pictures this weekend.

I think there is definitely a fine line between country and cottage. I also think beadboard has now crossed over and is traditional, country, cottage, vintage, etc. I guess beadboard could be considered timeless and looks good in almost any design scheme, except super modern.

When I think cottage, I see images of more pastel colors than with country. I also see more delicate flowers and painted furnishings. Now mind you, this is in my mind, it's nothing scientific. LOL

In my new house I'm seeing traditional country for living area, country with modern accents for master bed and bath, old New Orleans for guest bath, cottage for guest bedroom, traditional for kitchen, vintage/traditional for foyer and traditional for office.

In realizing my confusion for design and need to have all designs in one house, I suppose I won't be winning any design awards anytime soon. LOL In a year we can look back and see if I was able to pull all of this off in one house. HA!