Cottage is typically a small single story house with a second story snuggled underneath the roof, which imbibes rustic elements of rural life and a cozy dwelling in it. With the vexatious environment of urban building causing irritation and alienation, each one of us longs for a space where we can retire after a long tiring day.
A cottage styled house has homely warmth, if compared to the gaudiness of the more modern building. So if a cottage is what you aspire for to live in, Dr Prem Jagyasi and Team suggests few tips to make your home look like rustic dwelling:
A small house
The chief characteristic of a cottage is its compactness and neatness. Even if you have a large area on the site to build your house, make a ground plan for a small house. A house with about five to six rooms in ground floor at the most are enough, if a cottage like structure is what you wish to build.
Front door
Door is to house, what face is to body. So pay particular attention to the door. You can imbibe rustiness on the door to give it a rural look. A front door with numerous glass pans combined with antiquated door handles, locks and hinges will work wonderfully to give your house a cottage styled look.
Front porch
Front porch is an essential element of a cottage. Making one need not be an elaborate affair. All that it needs are wooden posts topped with a roof. The front porch lends a warm and welcoming look to the house. It works as an inter-phase between the inner atmosphere and the external environment. It also provides a cozy space wherein you can sit and sip you morning tea.
Grow creeping plants
Creepers working up your windows and onto the roof make interesting decoration on the exteriors of the house. Experience the sweet smell of the flowers like jasmines wafting through the air in the evening. Even if you sit inside your house with windows open, it will let in the cool summer breeze. Besides, the creepers give a rural dressing to the environment.
Interiors
If you have old furniture in your garage, now is the time to bring it out. All you need is a little repair and polishing to accommodate it at appropriate place. Prefer wooden flooring wherever possible. Make use of light and warm traditional colors on the walls. You can contrast the coloring scheme by giving strong color to some focal point in the living room like fireplace or a bookshelf.
Some rags, drapes, and sofa covers in crochet giving a shabby look will add a rustic element to the house. Add drawer cabinets to rooms to keep away the things and aim at minimalist but forceful decorations. Painting a few windowpanes in different colors brings in colorful delight to the interiors.
Add rural elements to the house
Design and dress up the garage in horse stable or barn style. Bring in natural wild elements like natural stones, snail shells, lichens, old bird’s nests to decorate the hose. Using some logs, wood, or planks as stools, tables and benches inside the house will add to uniqueness of the house. Barn lights and traditionally designed lampshades all create an interesting setting for a cottage feel in the house.
Rebuild with old construction material
Salvage the old construction material like bricks and slate tiles to make stairways and steps, path and driveway around the house. This is one interesting way to recycle the old material, while adding rural charm of the cottage to your house.
Everyone wishes to own a cottage to enjoy a rustic rural environment. For those who don’t have budget to buy a cottage can turn their home into as cottage with simple changes in interiors as well as interiors.
