Cottage Style Furniture

Cottage style furniture is cozy, charming, inviting, comfortable, and unassuming. Cottage furniture looks as though it's been through some hard times, but is still sturdy and willing to work for you.

Country cottage furniture is rustic and features a lot of warm wood tones along with pieces that have a distressed or whitewashed appearance. Furniture in a cottage style home is often repurposed and used for a completely different function from what was originally intended.

Cottage style furniture pieces are "multi-taskers"

Here are a few ideas on how to think outside the original purpose for the piece and turn it into cottage style furniture.

• Create a school desk or home office desk from a kitchen table. Stack wire baskets, wicker baskets, hatboxes, or antique suitcases underneath for storage.
• Armoires can be used to house a computer, television, china, or simply as a display case for your favorite collections. If you have space, leave the doors open to showcase your items or replace the door inserts with glass.
• Create a unique headboard from cast-off wood shutters
• A glass paned door can be a kitchen table top
• Shutters can be turned into small tables for a bedroom or sitting room when topped with glass
• Farmhouse benches are extremely versatile and are used as coffee tables, side tables, bathroom seating, or simply as a cottage-style display area.
• A potting bench could easily serve in the dining room as a hutch, bathroom storage, cottage bedroom furniture, or even in place of a baker’s rack in a cottage kitchen.
• A headboard and footboard could be fashioned into a uniquely cottage-style bench for your porch, living area, sitting area, or bedroom
• Use an old-fashioned kitchen stepstool as a plant stand, a bookshelf, display photos, or to showcase a favored collection.
• A worn out dining room chair can serve as a unique planter when the seat cushion is removed.

Cottage furniture is rustic and casual. White is the color most often seen in cottage style homes, but furniture in these homes also bring in warm wood tones and the colors of sage and cream for variations.

Cottage style furniture can be a mixture of old and new pieces, so don’t feel you have to purchase all antiques to achieve your cottage-decorating scheme.

Go to the your local furniture store and purchase sturdy pieces and distress them yourself. Many paint stores sell crackle paint finish products for just this reason. Or, you can paint the piece with a few coats of varying colors and then sand off areas here and there to make it look aged.

Wicker furniture can be brought inside the home and painted to match your décor. This is a popular choice for cottage bedroom furniture. Add floral covered cushions and several throw pillows and you have instant charm and beauty.

Country cottage bedroom furniture could also include wrought iron headboards and footboards for a truly rustic look. Soften the hard metal with tons (yes, tons) of throw pillows and comfortable quilts.

Change out the hardware on your cottage furniture to create a cottage style piece. Glass knobs and vintage style knobs or pulls can add cottage character to your furniture piece quickly and inexpensively.

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