Cielo's Cottage House In The Roses

Come experience Cielo's beautiful cottage house in the roses. You will truly delight in the flourish of florals, beautiful linens, and vintage treasures alike. It is evident that this homeowner loves her home and has surrounded herself with light and beauty. You can see how Cielo loves to not only decorate, but garden and cook! She is a true homemaker.

You will possibly be inspired to start your own cottage garden and fill your own home with things that you love and that bring you joy. I guarantee after seeing this cottage style house you will feel at home and want to stay a while!

My home is everything to me; it’s my refuge and my solace, and the place I yearn to be all day long while at the office. For as long as I can remember, I have loved the cottage style—with its romantic air and wonderful blend of treasures that express a real homey feel. I believe that for a house to become a home it must welcome body and soul, and that’s what the cottage style does for me. I just love the charm, light colors and comfortable fabrics and furniture that is simple, personal, warm and inviting.

When it comes to decorating my cottage house, my decorating style, as I call it, is the “Husband-Friendly Cottage Style”. I have to decorate with compromise. My husband and I have very different tastes, and one of the real challenges I face when decorating our home is trying not to turn it into a girlie love nest.

While I dream of a pink and white ruffled castle laden with flowers, I can see my husband running away from my dreams… So I have learned to compromise by minimizing, and adding a little masculine flare… With some compromise and ingenuity, I can still enjoy a comfortable cottage style home that suits us both.

“Use what you love”—that’s my motto. I use a lot of whites to invoke the magic of light. A lot of my things are thrift stores treasures… pretty things, such as linen, tablecloths, plates, pitchers and cups found at yard sales and thrift shops that I later transform into charming artwork.

I find inspiration in magazines and books when it comes to decorating our nest. I faithfully spend several hours a week at Barnes and Nobles going through stacks of books and magazines for inspiration. It’s like going to church.

As far as my garden is concerned, however, that’s totally another world—my world. I would not have any other garden but the cottage garden, and since I’m the one who tends it, here I can plan and decorate as I please, and be my true self without inhibitions.

Cottage style decorating should be about fantasy and your personality, rather than imitation or rules, and that applies to your garden as well. That is why my garden breaks every rule of the formal design. You’ll find the most unusual things decorating my cottage garden—an old tarnished silver pot and tray hidden among the day lilies becomes a birdfeeder, part of an old chandelier found at a thrift store would be sitting among the delphiniums and snapdragons, catching rays of lights in a symphony of color, and a mixture of shrubs and ornamental grasses and plants mingles in a romantic jumble with colorful old-fashioned flowers.

My dream is to one day own a small cottage house on the outskirts of the woods and spend my days tending my cottage garden and enjoying long walks through the woods. It is here that peace and tranquility abounds. If you ever decide to come to my “dream” cottage in the woods, you’re welcome. But I recommend that you take time to “stop and smell the roses” during your journey.

Be sure to go visit Cielo's blog, and see many more wonderful inspiring images and get to know more about this talented lady!