American Country Home decorating styles includes beach cottage, urban cottage and classic cottage home decor. The design invites a casual friendly lifestyle.  Whether in a seaside setting, an urban environment or a countryside location, cottage style home decor is cozy and unassuming, combining the past with the present.

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. While there can be many colors and patterns in a cottage style setting, it’s good to have a unifying theme.

Cottage beach style is a comfortable, casual look using vintage accessories, painted furniture a simplicity of furnishings that you enjoy.  For beach cottage style homes near the shore, try colors of soft blues and sandy beiges with lots of white.  Shutter style cabinets painted white or black give an open-air feel to the room. Patriotic or faded color schemes also fit well in these casual homes. A shutter dividing screen adds cozy comfort and privacy to your room.  Contemporary cottage styling is achieved by combining graceful details with the texture of bead board.  Beadboard was frequently used on walls as wainscoting and as backing for open shelving. Cottage style implies light and airy, charming and casual. It is no longer relegated only to summer homes, but chosen for year-round decorating.
 
There's urban cottage with funky touches, bright artwork and neutral background colors.  Wicker and painted wood are frequently used for cozy seating areas, and pine is the material of choice for flooring and furniture.  Brightly colored wicker furniture adds an urban cottage charm.  Make wicker furnishings comfortable and stylish with cushions covered in colorful fabrics. Give secondhand wood furniture a fresh look with white paint and new knobs.  Our Urban cottage furniture collection is fun & functional contemporary designs for the dining room and/or kitchen.

Classic cottage chic is overstuffed upholstery, soft floral fabrics and painted woods. It's one of the hottest trends around that mixes new, worn, elegance and above all, comfort.
The classic cottage style creates an inviting atmosphere that makes you want to hang out with friends. Simplification is the mainstay of cottage design: use a monochromatic color scheme (traditionally white), leave the shelving open and accessible, use flat panel doors and cabinetry with minimal detailing. A colorful, comfortable look characterized by painted and/or decorated furniture with graceful lines, textural elements like baskets, beadboard walls and natural fiber rugs, weathered finishes and colors taken straight from a lush flower garden.

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.  Shabby Chic Decor and Cottage Garden Style combines vintage floral fabrics with garden furniture and vintage home decorating style; the lovely juxtaposition of crystal chandeliers with chipping iron garden style details and furnishings. We believe that Shabby Chic Decor and garden style home decorating is merely viewing the outdoors as an extension of our home decor just as in the European conservatory. And of course, bringing exquisite garden shabby chic furniture, decor and artifacts indoors, table-top, mantle-top and elsewhere.  White is the most often used cottage color, but other choices might include darker colors that have an aged patina. 

Understanding how to decorate cottage style homes means including items like cottage linens and quilts, antique furniture or reproductions, flea-market pieces, trunks, chests, armoires, stenciling, wallpaper, adirondack chairs, flower wreaths and bistro chairs. These types of elements give cottage style homes the kind of country decor that is simpler, very personal and warmly inviting. There is a cottage look for everyone. Start with a launch pad--a great rug or fabric--and build the room from there. If you want to give a space that cottage look without going overboard, try adding a cheerful braided rug.

Cottage Styles are popular for their vintage good looks and casual, romantic feel. Using painted pieces, pale floral fabrics, and pretty accessories, the cottage look can take many forms.  Read all you can find and learn what creating American Country Cottage means to you no matter where it is located. Enjoy expressing your personality and showing what the definition of home means to you.