Built Ins And Cozy Nooks Add Cottage Charm

Built ins, such as shelves and seating features lend a historical flavor to any cottage style home while providing beautiful storage options and comfortable areas to relax as well.

Cottage living is all about an easygoing way of life. Cottages are a popular place to vacation, but many people are creating their very own cottage style homes complete with built-in features that make a house a cozy cottage home.

Window seats are a popular built-in feature of cottage style homes. The space beneath a window is often overlooked as a stylistic and functional area of the home. Whether you have a small or large expanse under a window, a window seat can be custom fit for your space.

Imagine tucking yourself away in your window seat to read a book, sip a mug of coffee, look out over the garden, or watch the raindrops slide lazily down the window glass…sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

Window seats give you another opportunity to incorporate splashes of color into the space with cushions and throw pillows too. Build in drawers, cabinets, or a bench seat that lifts up and you have instant storage for additional blankets or seasonal items.

Built-ins can also be called banquettes, which are a casual and comfortable design feature of a cottage style home and can be added into a small or large space. A banquette is a bench that is built into the walls of your eat-in kitchen or dining area. The bench is upholstered with comfortable cushions.

This is an excellent space-saving feature, allowing you to seat more people in this space than you could if you had a traditional dining table and chairs that require more space. Just as with a window seat, built-in banquettes provide additional, hidden storage under the bench seat, so this feature is not only beautiful, but functional too.

Nooks and corners naturally lend themselves to built-in features, so take advantage of that and create some wonderful built-in shelves, drawers, or cubbies into your cottage home.

Stairways provide a unique opportunity for built-ins. Custom fit drawers and shelves in the space underneath the stairs. Custom-sized shelves will fit wonderfully along the stairs for displaying collections, books, or antique quilts. Stairway landings are ideal for creating built-in seating, complete with a bench seat and pillows (yes, pillows are everywhere in cottage style home).

A fireplace is often the focal point of a sitting or living room. Add warmth and function to this room with built-in shelves on either side of the fireplace. Display your favorite classic books, antiques, or collectables on these shelves.

Kitchens have a lot of unused space that would be ideal for custom built-in features. Use the space in the island for tilt-out bins to store dried goods. Cubbies or nooks can hold and display cookbooks. Create open built ins in a corner of a kitchen between cabinets to tie it all together and make it look as though it’s always been that way. Pots of fresh herbs, cups and saucers, and other collectibles will add charm to your kitchen.

Cozy nooks and built-ins add not only warmth and charm to your cottage style home, but value as well. Take a look around and see how you can include these wonderful design features into your home. You may be surprised with the results!

Return to Top of Built Ins

Return to Home