by Amber Shannon

Created on: November 09, 2009

The word is out, cottage style is in. From floral drapes to hand-me-down furnishings and hard wood floors. Antique, aged, extraordinary. What ever the case may be it's all about pulling the world of old and new together to create a one of a kind masterpiece called your home. Throw your shoes on the floor, grab a few pillows and cozy up on a plush couch with your family and a couple of dogs. Home is where you feel that you can live, and cottage style lends itself to that very purpose. With an array of furniture and belongings that are well loved and well worn, there is nothing more to do then simply live.

Re-purposed and rejuvenated are baby steps in decorating your home in cottage style design. Yard sales, flea markets and antique stores are great places to find old furniture to breath new life into. Take a turn-of-the-century mantel and give it a new life. Paint the astonishing find whi te, many layers of white in fact. Sand each layer of paint with sandpaper after the paint has dried to bring out the wood color underneath. By sanding each layer you will give the illusion of peeling paint. Another fine trick for this technique is to use melted wax. Paraffin wax used for canning works well. Melt the wax and then drip it onto the mantel, paint over the wax and then remove the wax. Your mantel will look as though the years of love have worn the paint and the hands of time have chipped it away.

Even without a fireplace this mantel can still warm your space. It's charm rejuvenated with love will cozy up any room. Secure the mantel to the wall then add candles to its opening. The candles will bring a new intimate meaning to cozying up by the fire.

Almost anything and everything will work with cottage style. Don't worry about being matchy with your decor, the more mis-matched, the better. You want your home to say comfort. Any piece of furniture found at a yard sale, flea market or curb side can be repainted or draped with a new fabric to match your color scheme.

Complete with the signs of wear, anything can be given a new function. Use your imagination. Use a door propped in the corner with shelves added to it for storage. A barn door can be a headboard or turned into an island in the kitchen, bird houses can become storage for mail, an old window frame can be turned into a picture frame, old newel posts can become candle holders. Steamer trunks can become coffee tables and cream cans can house umbrellas.

Wood floors are primitive of cottage style. Painted hard

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>