Turn your bedroom into romantic retreat full of the beauty and grace of a charming cottage garden. Classic cottage details, personal touches, mixes of garden inspired fabrics and patterns come together against a backdrop as fresh and inviting as a garden in spring to create a perfect cottage bedroom getaway. Take these tips and personalize them to make the space your own.
Step 1
Fresh and Informal
Create the perfect cottage background for your room with richly textured walls. Dappled cottage wallpaper, or wallpapers in broad pastel stripes or florals provide a patterned background. Or, try classic cottage wainscoting or beaded board painted in a creamy shade of white. Run it half-way or three-quarters of the way up the wall and top it with a chair rail or a narrow shelf. The shelf is a handy place to display garden themed plates, vases or other collectibles.
Create the perfect cottage background for your room with richly textured walls. Dappled cottage wallpaper, or wallpapers in broad pastel stripes or florals provide a patterned background. Or, try classic cottage wainscoting or beaded board painted in a creamy shade of white. Run it half-way or three-quarters of the way up the wall and top it with a chair rail or a narrow shelf. The shelf is a handy place to display garden themed plates, vases or other collectibles.
Step 2
Bed, Bedding & Furnishings
The bed will be the centerpiece of the room, whether it is made of antique white or wrought iron, natural or painted wood, or amorously covered in fabric trimmed with hammered upholstery tacks. A striped dust ruffle can be topped with a floral or a double wedding-ring quilt or a lacy coverlet. Mix up fabrics such as chenille, lace and cotton quilts and always layer patterns when building romantic cottage style. Of course you will want to use some floral patterns, but also mix in stripes, plaids and checks. Choosing colors with the same hue intensity will pull it all together. If your wall colors are white or pale, the colors in your bedding and accents will stand out. If you chose floral wall paper, striped and plaid patterns, gingham checks and solids will coordinate if accent colors are pulled in. You can even mix different floral patterns if they are linked by color and style.
The bed will be the centerpiece of the room, whether it is made of antique white or wrought iron, natural or painted wood, or amorously covered in fabric trimmed with hammered upholstery tacks. A striped dust ruffle can be topped with a floral or a double wedding-ring quilt or a lacy coverlet. Mix up fabrics such as chenille, lace and cotton quilts and always layer patterns when building romantic cottage style. Of course you will want to use some floral patterns, but also mix in stripes, plaids and checks. Choosing colors with the same hue intensity will pull it all together. If your wall colors are white or pale, the colors in your bedding and accents will stand out. If you chose floral wall paper, striped and plaid patterns, gingham checks and solids will coordinate if accent colors are pulled in. You can even mix different floral patterns if they are linked by color and style.
Try a different look in the bedroom by angling the bed in a corner. Break out of the box and soften the lines of the room with a bed, furniture or mirror with graceful curved lines in the headboard, dresser or wall mirror.
Step 3
Garden Fresh Accents add Romance
- Make your vanity a one-of-a-kind personal statement by layering on nostalgic white table dressings. Add a pair of matching silver champagne glasses filled with roses, a collection of family photographs, silver jewelry box and an elegant glass base table lamp.
- Make a statement with a wall collection of straw garden hats and floral plates. Place a straw hat on a hat stand on a corner table and hang additional hats and plates behind it to make a multi-dimensional grouping. Add a tea pot or sugar bowl full of your favorite blooms.
- Details count. Hang a bunch of dried lavender from a glass knobbed closet door. Place a collection of floral and striped hat boxes on top of an armoire. Place topiary on a dresser. Add aromatherapy with candles and potpourri in floral scents.
- Add architectural pieces from yesteryear to add garden inspired touches: An antique wrought iron fence grating makes a unique focal point on a wall or as a headboard; perch old birdhouses atop work posts for a whimsical statement in a corner.
- Make the look distinctly individual by repurposing garden items in the bedroom. Include a plant stand in a reading nook to hold favorite books as well as a few plants. Top a large urn or garden pot with a piece of glass and use it as a night stand or side table.
- Bring in outdoor decor such as a statuary or a bird bath. A tabletop fountain can be placed in a birdbath to add the soothing sound of gently cascading water.
