28 English Cottage Style Ideas to Charm Your Inner Jane Austen

Step inside a romance novel with these English cottage style ideas, including floral prints, unfussy furniture, and book-ready nooks.

Caitlin Sole

Wed, May 25, 2016 at 9:57 AM UTC

10 min read

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English cottage style radiates charm through floral prints, unassuming furniture, and relaxed but dignified design. It looks like something straight out of the English countryside circa 1812, but the look is easily achievable—even if you live in the middle of a city.

The key is to create a lived-in atmosphere that features sweet architectural details, soft color, layered rugs, floral wallpaper, and other cozy details. To inspire you, we're sharing some of our favorite English cottage style ideas to incorporate into your home. From the tufted chairs to the toile-covered walls, the following rooms will have you swooning for more than Mr. Darcy.

Window Nook

The most thoughtfully arranged rooms look good even before dressings or furniture are added. The architecture alone should hold its own, and English cottage style typically stands up to such scrutiny. With its tucked-away seat, built-in drawers, rustic wall planks, corner corbels, and angled ceilings, this window nook offers a sense of the room's inner beauty. Can't you just picture Lizzie Bennet curled up here with a book?

Statement Piece

Even the humblest items can enhance English cottage-style designs with the right supporting players. Here, an antique pedestal table with peeling paint becomes an object of intrigue. Everything else—including the beadboard, shutters, and even the slouchy banquette cushions—nods to the table's texture without overpowering it.

Farmhouse Table

Few things evoke the English cottage style more clearly than mismatched chairs pulled up to a long, wooden farmhouse table. This lively kitchen's cheerful floral wallpaper and full pot rack make it the perfect space to host friends and family.

Functional Mudroom

English cottages are often on working farms, where long days are spent outdoors. A mudroom is a clever way to confine grit and grime and provide a resting spot for boots, gloves, and hats before entering the central part of the house. This durable, rugged, slate countertop and trough-style sink look just as handsome indoors as outside.

Country Garden Florals

Bundles of bouquets bloom across this bedding in a nod to the floral prints inspired by English cottage style. It's just one of many ways to bring the glory of a garden inside, but these blossoms last much longer than cut flowers. Planked walls and patinaed pieces are popular, too, in English cottage-style decor. These heavily distressed blue walls check both boxes.

Indoor Patio Furnishings

With clever juxtaposition, items commonly used on patios or in gardens blend seamlessly into an English cottage-style breakfast nook or kitchen. Here, old columns capped in iron urns flank a rickety hutch strung with chicken wire. Within reach, a weathered but welcoming table and chairs provide casual English cottage-style seating. A swath of antique lace, fresh flowers, and a sparkling crystal chandelier add glamour.

Lived-In Look

One of the many appealing elements of English cottage style is that the room is unmistakably lived in. There are no furnishings meant only for appearance; everything eventually takes on a well-worn—and well-loved—patina. In this kitchen, notice the distressed island finish, where paint has been rubbed off the corners and edges. The hutch looks older than the rest of the room. Such versatile pieces are darlings of English cottage design.

Tips for an English Cottage-Style Kitchen

Cheery and bright, English cottage-style kitchens often feature simple, white cabinetry, a farmhouse sink, and plenty of charm. Get inspired to add cottage style to your kitchen.

Neutrals and Color

Decorating in English cottage style is a lot like planning a dinner party. You're inviting elements from all sorts of backgrounds to gather in a single spot, and the goal is merry mingling and fantastic storytelling. This bedroom scores on every count, as neutral furniture, fabric, and artwork buzz harmoniously, and a few shots of color inject allure. Each item is interesting on its own, but together? They're unforgettable.

Weathered Finishes

Paint can cover many sins, which is why it's popular among English cottage style enthusiasts. But sometimes, a scraped surface that's seen better days has just the right patina for a room. Here, no fewer than four shades of blue—all worn and weathered—beckon guests into a cottage kitchen with a message: Come as you are. Pretension has no place in an English cottage.

Formal English Cottage Style

For a formal room, this living space certainly hasn't forgotten how to make guests feel welcome. There are just enough homey touches—down cushions to sink into, carefree cotton slipcovers, and a serene color scheme with a hit of sparkle—to remind visitors that English cottage living rooms are places to let your hair down.

Window Shutters

Regency-era English houses often relied on shutters to control sunlight and shield interiors from an unexpected burst of rain or snow. Today, shutters are still considered a distinguished window treatment, especially in rooms where privacy is critical and curtains might seem heavy-handed. This bathroom features interior shutters that can be adjusted to welcome sunlight as well as bygone-era touches like marble flooring, a claw-foot tub, and an assortment of unframed mirrors.

Salvaged Treasures

English cottage-style rooms provide a space for old things to find new life. Repurposed pieces are especially popular, whether from your attic, a neighbor, or a side-of-the-road rescue. Here, old shutters stand in as a headboard, a vintage suitcase as a footboard, and a castoff chair as casual seating.

Cottage Breakfast Room

Streaming morning sunshine is nearly all the decoration this breakfast room needs. A long-loved table with a collected set of chairs, wide-plank wood walls, and homey white paint create the ideal setting for the start of a day in the country.

Second-Hand Organizers

Yes, you could outfit a craft room or sewing space with shiny new organizers from the local office supply store—or you could scour flea markets and thrift shops for jars, bowls, and bins with a bit of rust, some scrapes, and a whole lot of history. The second option is much more fun and puts items that might otherwise remain untouched to good use.

Back to Basics

Sometimes, the most striking schemes are the simplest, as evidenced by this charming nursery swathed in black and ivory. With the color stripped from the space, the focus turns to each lovely piece—from the antique crib painted with a pastoral panel to the weathered tulip shutters and the stately monogrammed Roman shade. Collectively, the pieces make for an elegant but understated nursery that would be equally at home in the English countryside or a metro apartment.

Formal but Unfussy

Even slightly formal spaces, such as a dining room, flourish with a touch of English cottage style, which blends elegance with a relaxed attitude. This dining room, for example, is devoid of frills but certainly not lacking in warmth. Here, high-backed wooden chairs and well-worn upholstered armchairs anchor the space, while an antler chandelier (instead of crystal) adds a nod to the hunt.

Restful Colors

Muted hues—colors hushed by adding black pigment—are common in English cottage-style decor, in part because they usher serenity and elegance into a room. They're also popular because they allow sparkling finishes to shine. Furniture and kitchen cabinetry are popular places to use these tones. Not only do they add a touch of color, they also conceal scratches and marks.

Beautiful Backdrop

Exposed structural elements, such as angled ceilings and wall paneling, are embraced (and sometimes highlighted) in English cottage-style designs. These beautiful beams and wide-plank wood walls provide a hefty dose of charm and create the perfect backdrop for stately furnishings, layered rugs, and artwork.

English Cottage Style Details

English cottage style murmurs rather than shouts. It's only upon closer inspection that the details of a space reveal themselves. Case in point: the tufting on the back of this chair is a small detail, a whispered signal that this room bends toward Great Britain. The accent is a mark of craftsmanship and is more understated than other global design aesthetics. In this cozy room, there are plenty of small details to take in, including the leaded glass windows, which provide subtle sophistication.

Toile de Jouy

Perhaps the most recognizable pattern for wallpaper and fabric in English cottage-style designs, toile has long been revered for its bucolic scenes, two-tone colorways, and large repeat. It's a classic best splashed lavishly in cottage rooms, where walls, ceilings, and even furniture, are all fair game. Here, utilitarian but intricately decorated black tole trays are a snappy punctuation over the bed.

Personal Collections

Displaying collectibles, whether for everyday use or just for show, is unmistakably English. Hanging aprons, ironstone pitchers, copper pots, and glass canisters decorate a kitchen. They're so lovely that very little extra is necessary.

Slipcovered Seating

English cottage style solves the age-old dilemma of unifying mismatched furniture without a great cost: slipcovers. In crisp cotton canvas, duck, or denim, slipcovers hide worn or stained upholstery, protect heirloom pieces, and pull a room together with a few quick zips, snaps, or buttons.

Cottage-Style Function

Even a utilitarian area like a laundry or craft room can match the style of the rest of the house. Paying extra attention to the design of a hard-working room will make it fun as well as functional. Don't hesitate to transfer detergent into shapely glass canisters, hang vintage metal shelves to hold essentials, or press a sizeable woven basket into service as a hamper. If these items have to work hard, they might as well be beautiful, too.

Dish and Glassware Storage

A few modern touches aside, this homey kitchen hearkens back to merry old England with its painted island and open shelves displaying dishes and glassware. Putting the everyday on display is a hallmark of English cottage style and a satisfying combination of pretty and practical. A black and white checkerboard floor adds panache.

Textured Whites

With so many layers of white in this cottage bedroom, texture leaps to the forefront. Notice that each shade of white differs a little from the others. Meanwhile, intriguing textures—chipped paint on the corbels and shelf, pocks on the wooden bench, open stitches on the throw, and ruffles and gathers on the linens—catch the light differently to entice the eye.

Informal Elegance

English cottage style strikes that tricky balance between elegance and informality. In this kitchen, traditional cabinets are toned down by furniture-like feet and a beadboard backsplash. A marble surface crowns a shabby-looking island with layers of peeling paint. These disparate items happily coexist thanks to a harmonious color scheme and a whimsical approach.

Cottage Layers

A well-decorated room will reveal its beauty over time as its many layers unfold. White bed linens, painted wall planks, and two different curtains dress this cottage bedroom in serene style. Thanks to a plush, oversized love seat and a fabulous shaded chandelier, the space is suitable for sleeping and lounging.

In the world of English cottage-style design, every well-loved book and softly faded floral print tells a story—much like the pages of Sense and Sensibility. By embracing soft, romantic details and laidback charm, you can create a space that feels as warm and inviting as a cozy Hampshire cottage. Whether you're curling up with Pride and Prejudice in a window seat or simply enjoying the quiet beauty of a sofa-side wildflower bouquet, your home can reflect the elegance, comfort, and enduring grace of Austen’s world—no invitation required.

Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens

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