Blue and white seems to be a classic color combination associated with the month of January – a serene and clean looking contrast to the busy “extra clutter” and bold reds and green colors of Christmas decorating. I love playing with thrifted elements to create blue and white vignettes, but one of my favorite pieces of “blue and white” is actually this:
Seriously, Victoria Magazine is so beautiful that each issue is its own decorating accessory! And no, they’re not paying me to say that – I have just found over the years that I can barely bring myself to discard back issues because of the beautiful covers and lavishly photographed articles.
I have a large collection of back issues, and I always like to bring out any for January that use blue and white.
Also in this vignette, I found a sweet little bread plate in one of my stacks that I think dates from the mid-1800’s! This piece is the “Allegheny” pattern by the English maker Thomas Goodfellow, whose facility manufactured ironstone ware in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England from 1828-1854. It is a display-only piece due to several chips and heavy crazing, but the fact that it has survived since the early Victorian era (or possibly even slightly before) is just amazing to me!
I’ve set it here with a lovely ornate fork from my vintage Oneida “Chandelier” set, and a pretty cloth napkin in shades of blue. The Oneida was handed down from my grandmother (it belonged to her sister, my Great-Aunt Hazel), and the napkin was on clearance from Pier 1 several years ago.
I recently attempted to down-size my Victoria collection, and I did set aside a small stack to be donated to my local library – but I still kept most of the collection, including this issue which is a favorite. It’s from 2010 – proof that lovely decor never goes out of style!
There aren’t many things I like about Winter, but one is flannel sheets. I have to admit, I am always a bit sad when it’s time to replace them on the bed with percale for summer. (I daresay I am also a bit sad, each and every day, to have to leave my cozy flannel-sheeted bed!) But I don’t just use them on the bed – I have a long-standing habit of also using flat sheets as tablecloths, so when I found a lovely red and white flannel set in a thrift store in a size that was too small for my bed, I bought it anyway. I will be making a throw blanket out of the set soon, but I’ll be honest: my first thought was to immediately use the flat sheet as a tablecloth for a cozy Winter tablescape.
As with all of my tables, most of the items used in this one – not just the flannel sheet – came from thrift stores and other secondhand venues. It’s honestly the only way I can have such a large stash of tablescaping “stuff,” but also, I love the thrill of finding something new whether for a tablescape or for elsewhere in my home. Here’s a tour around this cozy Winter table!
Our plate stack includes a set of four pretty dinner plates by Homer Laughlin – they are heavy ironstone, and may be restaurantware. The salad plate is vintage Anchor Hocking Ruby Red.
Don’t you love the little tin house napkin rings? They help carry out the “cozy-at-home” vibe, I think. The plaid napkins work for me because they echo the red and white color scheme without being another “tiny all-over pattern.”
Glassware is my favorite footed tumbler – these are either Fostoria or Indiana Glass, I’m never sure which because both companies made a very similar line of drinkware and I have a hard time telling them apart.
Another homespun touch on this cozy winter tablescape is the use of these individual butter pots that are made of old-fashioned crockery.
And flatware is stainless “Napoleon Bee” by Wallace – the only thing not thrifted on the table! I bought four place settings a couple of years ago on Amazon. (Affiliate link – if you purchase from my link you pay nothing extra but I earn a small commission to help defray blog hosting costs.Thank you!)
The centerpiece is very simple on this one – a lovely spray of silk flowers, flanked at either end with pretty tapers in gold-toned pinecone holders.
Here are a couple more views around the table:
Our birds-eye view, otherwise known as The Picture We Take While Trying Not to Fall Off the Step-Ladder:
And a couple candlelight shots just for eye candy!
I’m sharing my cozy Winter tablescape over at Susan’s lovely blog, Between Naps on the Porch, where she is quickly closing in on the 800th week (yes – nearly 800 weeks!) of Tablescape Thursday! Be sure to click through for much more tablescape inspiration!
And finally here’s an image to pin in case you’d like to return to this post for ideas later on.
Rooted in rural life and shaped by generations of practical beauty, cottage style celebrates comfortable, livable chaos amidst collected, well-loved furnishings and timeworn objects that tell a story. It invites us, by virtue of its very roots, to slow down and transform the “everyday” of our modern life into a less hurried, more purposeful approach to living.
What is cottage style?
But what is a cottage? And what makes something “cottage style?” For me personally, it simply means cultivating a home furnished in pieces that are solid but previously loved – my favorites being handed down through my own family. But to understand and better appreciate the style, it has helped me to dig a little deeper into the origin of the word itself, and what it represented when it first came into broad, Middle English use.
Specifically, by researching the way land was once divvied up in England and Great Britain, where the term came into common use, I’ve come to appreciate that this style isn’t just about timeworn furniture – it’s about a make-do, re-use mindset.
A few hundred years ago, outside the larger cities and in the rural areas and countryside of that region, a titled member of the aristocracy owned and held thousands of acres of land, and represented the King or Queen in their geographic region. They served in Parliament, held political authority, managed economic factors such as rent, markets, and employment, maintained law and order, patronized the creative arts and artists, and set standards for fashion, etiquette, and taste – among other roles. They had their own fine home built on the land (the country house or manor), which was often the area’s largest employer.
They also had tenant farmers who worked their land on individual farms. These tenants built their lives and raised their generations with what they farmed and grew, and also paid the land owner for their tenancy in the currencies of produce, livestock, rent, and taxes1.
The tenants – from feudal times called cotters – lived in much humbler homes which came to be called cottages. These homes were small, simple, and rustic, and made of readily available materials such as locally sourced wood and stone. A typical cottage would have an open room with a fireplace/hearth and gathering area, plus one or more bedrooms often on a second half-storey.
Over time, and with evolution away from this specific form of land ownership, governance, and tenancy, a cottage has come to mean any small house in general2.
Given that cottage dwellers were hard-working and self-sufficient people, their homes were far humbler than the manor houses. It is this simple style of living that continues to draw people to what we think of as cottage style.
We are privileged in a modern, instantly-accessible world that is full of electricity, indoor plumbing, technology, and other amenities – but that doesn’t mean we don’t yearn for a slower, simpler way of life.
And we aren’t unique in this yearning. Even the (arguably) most famous aristocrat in history – Marie Antoinette, Queen of France from 1774-1792 – built herself not only a little she-shed called Petit Trianon but also an entire escapist farm village called Hameau de la Reine (The Queen’s Hamlet) where she could get away from the pressures of palace life and pretend to be a simple villager. (That this bit of cultural appropriation angered some of the actual “simple villagers” is a research rabbit-hole well worth reading about, but I won’t digress here.)
So given the description of cottages as small, humble, and rustic, what does that mean for defining cottage style today? What is the essence of cottage style? What makes a home – a cottage?
I tend to divide the elements of cottage style into categories such as exterior features, interior architectural elements, furniture, household wares, decoration/decor, and gardens.
For this article we are looking specifically for visual guidance on creating cottage style. So, here is my round-up of 50 individual elements of the style. Your home doesn’t have to have every one of these elements (or even the majority of them) to qualify as a cottage. In fact, I daresay the only thing your home really needs is a cozy, time-worn vibe that comes from surrounding yourself with your favorite things and a warm and loving atmosphere for family, self, and guests. Still, you might find (like I have found) a list to be helpful to get you started. You can of course pick and choose from the list as you please!
Exterior architectural features 1 or 1-1/2 storey dwelling Picket fence Stone wall Gardens Arbor/trellis Brick or stone exterior Wooden or wood-look shutters Simple entrance/welcoming doorway with small overhang Painted Door Bonus points for a thatched roof!
Interior architectural elements Exposed wooden beams Low ceilings Plaster wall finish Terracotta tile, brick, or wooden plank floors Stone fireplace/hearth Wooden plank-style interior doors with cast-iron hinges and latches Painted walls Wallpaper Wainscoting Chair rail with wooden pegs for hanging things Painted window frames and other trim
Furniture Overstuffed sofa Overstuffed chair with footstool or ottoman Painted wood chairs and tables, with or without “distressed” finish Harvest-style dining table and wooden chairs Iron bed “Chunky” pieces Simple, utilitarian styling (not a lot of ornamentation) Timeworn finishes Handed down/secondhand pieces
Household wares Copper pots and kettles Pottery Crockery Pewter Wood Handcrafted decoration such as tole-painting
Decoration/decor Portraits Baskets Hand-crafted needlework in pillows, samplers, and linens Fresh (or realistic silk) flowers in containers Floral motifs Candles, oil lamps, small lamps with warm-toned lighting Vintage table linens Hand-crafted quilts and throws Rag rugs Wool hooked rugs Kitchen sink skirt
Gardens Front flower garden with informal, rather chaotic plant arrangement Back “potage” garden easily accessed from the kitchen for growing herbs and vegetables Climbing roses Wisteria “Old fashioned” flowers such as roses, bachelor buttons, cosmos, daisies, foxglove, delphinium, and zinnias. Potted herbs on kitchen window sills Dried flowers and herbs hanging upside down for drying
Bonus category: Pets and Livestock While not everyone can have chickens and goats, nearly everyone can have a cottage cat, dog, crow, or squirrel. A pet (or frequent friendly visitor) brings love and warmth to any home!
Caveats of today’s cottage style This article is intended as a round-up of how to visually represent cottage style. It’s a listing of the materials, forms, and manners in which functional and decorative household features and items can be visually interpreted to evoke the feel of a cottage. Hopefully it helps you create a cozy and inviting atmosphere in a small space that is filled with simple, time-worn furniture and decor.
I freely admit that I am mostly a visual cottage-dweller: through careful, patient curating, I’ve managed to create a very comfortable and time-worn feel to my home. This translates – for me, at least – into a calming and relaxing atmosphere, and therefore, serenity and happiness in my surroundings. But make no mistake: there are amenities galore just under the surface, from electricity to the internet to the artificial intelligence of Alexa and the same-day delivery that is Amazon Prime3.
Most importantly, remember that there is also a romanticized notion about the atmosphere of cottage homes – they are wistfully sought because they are believed to be warm, loving, and hospitable, despite the relative hardships of a hard-working, rustic life. This sense of love and familial bond doesn’t come from architecture, furniture, or home decor (as Marie Antoinette and others before and since have learned) – it comes from your manner of living and who you are on the inside.
This is why I think most any house can be a cottage home, be it a thatched-roof stone house in the Cotswolds of England or a single-wide mobile home in central Iowa, USA.
Notes
1 Of course, there was active life in the villages as well, where a middle class of shop-keepers also flourished. 2 Notable exceptions are the Gilded Age mansions that were built as summer homes in Newport, Rhode Island for the New York wealthy and rather ironically referred to as “cottages.” These were anything but humble dwellings. 3 All that said, it bears mentioning that while it’s one thing to visually represent cottage style… it’s quite another to actually live a simpler, humbler, and more rustic life. In fact, there are many people who are taking “cottage style” one step further and are actually returning to a more self-sufficient lifestyle through homesteading. While I am not one of those people, I certainly do admire (from afar) their chickens and goats and raised-bed crops.
Soooo… maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but when I first became inspired by beautiful table settings and longed to try my hand at creating them, the one thing holding me back wasn’t a lack of ideas or even a lack of dinnerware to play around with. Nope – I had plenty of those things. What was holding me back?
It was our cluttered table. Which was, quite frankly, almost always a mess – an embarrassment – and had been for a long time.
When my daughter was little we ate at home more often, but as she got older and as my husband’s home-based business grew and overtook more of our living space, we ate dinner out more and more. The table became a dumping ground for nearly every object brought into the house, whether it was mail, a new electronic device, paperwork for the business… or just anything.
In short, that dining table was so stacked and cluttered with other stuff that there was no room to enjoy a sit-down family dinner even if we took time to do so! And a cluttered table – one that needs reclaiming – doesn’t just happen to families. It can happen to any of us for a variety of reasons:
We let our mail accumulate We use our table as an office, crafting area, or general “catch-all” for items coming into the home. We don’t take recently-used dishes to the kitchen. We don’t immediately throw away trash.
These issues can certainly be compounded when multiple people live together, but a cluttered table can become an unmanageable space even for an individual who lives alone.
When we did eat at home we would do a basic sweep to de-clutter enough to make room for our plates and drinkware. Only rarely did we completely clean off the table and fully set it.
But there were times over the years – phases – when we actually did try to do better. And in those moments, the solution was just so incredibly simple that I couldn’t believe we weren’t better at implementing it:
Don’t let stuff accumulate.
Easier said than done, of course, but it can be done! I’m no expert in home organization and have never claimed to be one. But here are the steps that worked for us – and yes, it was an ongoing battle.
De-Clutter, then Maintain
The first task is to deal with any clutter that’s already accumulated. The second task is to maintain!
De-clutter To declutter, break the project down into small chunks. Reward yourself as you complete each step! (Did I ever let the table accumulate junk so I could reward myself with chocolate upon completing each decluttering step? I’m not saying…)
Tip: get a few boxes or bins to be used for temporarily stashing items that need to be sorted. Remember, sorting comes later! This step is just to get the items off the table. I always seemed to need three of these temporary bins – one for mail, one for school and business papers, and one for small objects like electronics, prescription bottles, etc.
Amazingly, clearing the table never really took that long – probably around 20 minutes if I was determined and focused. To clear the table, I would make multiple passes around it, clearing one category at a time.
1. First trip around is to gather up and throw away all obvious trash: packaging, paper napkins, etc. Tip: pay attention to what you’re doing, and be careful not to throw away important items. I once threw away my husband’s wallet, and another time our tax refund check. Oops!
2. The next trip around is to collect all dirty dishes and take them to the kitchen. You do not have to be distracted by doing the dishes yet – just set them near the sink or dishwasher and plan to deal with them later.
3. Next, gather up anything that counts as mail, whether or not it’s opened. Put the mail in a bin or box to be sorted later.
4. Gather into another bin or box any school or work papers that need to be handled.
5. Gather up small objects: phone chargers, hats, scissors, prescription bottles… put all this stuff into a separate bin to be sorted.
Once you have made enough rounds to clear each category, you should be able to see your table! Be sure to give it a good wipe-down, and stake your claim by putting down a nice runner or central placemat with a centerpiece of some kind. Something that says, “this space is now for dining.”
If anyone in your family keeps their laptop computer permanently plugged in and sitting on the table (ahem, my ex-husband), but you want to keep your table available for mealtime, you have a couple options:
Arrange the dining space so there is a piece of furniture near their seat where they can move the computer off the table before meal time.
Or –
Set up a separate desk or work station for them elsewhere.
Unless you have a dedicated formal dining room, you’re likely going to have to allow that some activities other than dining may take place at the table. The idea is to try to establish that the table’s primary purpose is for eating, and as such, should be kept available – or at least easily clearable – for this purpose.
Next up is sorting. This involves going through each temporary bin and dealing with each item in the bins. We had permanent storage boxes for completed schoolwork and paid bills, assigned shelving for daily prescriptions, etc. – and the goal of sorting is to have a place for everything and take the time to put everything in its place. This can take some time as you go through things – but remember, unless you live alone or are the only person in the home who is able to do this, it shouldn’t all fall on YOU to get it done.
All of this clearing and sorting leads us to the second step in reclaiming the table: maintaining!
To maintain:
Here are a few tips for maintaining your dedicated dining space.
1. Set aside time daily to keep the table clear. If all family members are involved in this process, clearing their own items, it should only take a few minutes.
2. Actually clear the clutter from the table – don’t just push it aside. Stack it elsewhere temporarily if you have to, but clear the table for the meal. This simple step in and of itself – if you haven’t been doing it regularly – creates visual (and therefore mental) “rest.”
3. Have an actual drop station (not the dining table) for items to be set down when you walk in the door.
4. Put things away immediately as they come into the house. (This was the hardest one for us.)
Why bother?
Why is all this important? Well, for our purposes on this blog where we encourage setting pretty tables, it’s impossible to set a nice table for the enjoyment of a meal if the table is not available. That seems fairly obvious. But apart from that, there are a few other reasons to reclaim the table.
It reduces stress. It’s mentally exhausting to look at, walk past, and worry about a table that’s filled with stuff that doesn’t belong there.
It helps establish “meal time.” We’ll talk about the importance of family meal time in a moment. But first, let’s acknowledge that meal time is important for everyone, even those of us who live alone. It affects our mood, health, and mental health when we take time to give proper attention to the food we eat and the manner in which we eat it.
And what happens when the table is not usable for its intended purpose? Well, if you’re like me, a few things can happen: 1. You eat more fast food. 2. You get stressed every time you see the mess. 3. You get a little more paralyzed, unable to take corrective action, as the clutter increases. 4. Eventually, you don’t tackle the project at all because it’s just too big. It becomes not only a source of stress, but also unpleasant as a place to eat, because you’re always eating in the midst of unwanted clutter, pushing back papers or moving aside a computer to make room for a plate and drinking glass. This takes a toll on your mental (and sometimes physical) health.
When you add in a spouse, partner, and/or children, it just means more people are probably contributing to the problem. And, family activities often cut in to meal times making it even harder to gather around the table.
The thing is, there is a lot of research out there pointing to the many benefits of families gathering for meals around the table. Regularly enjoying a meal together results in healthier, happier, and better-adjusted individuals and families. I’m certainly not alone – or even original – in thinking family mealtime deserves to make a comeback. But even for an individual living alone, creating a stress-free area in which to enjoy meals can make a difference.
I’m sure the last thing any of us needs is to make another “resolution” – we’re all quite absorbed already with vows to lose weight, get organized, improve our finances, etc. So let’s not resolve – let’s just act! Take 20 minutes to de-clutter and clear the dining table today, and claim the space for dining by setting out a centerpiece.
I’ll go first!
Here’s an image to Pin if you need to check back for fresh motivation!
