Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2018 i The Cottage Journal

Spring is here! Welcome to the season of fresh new inspiration at home. Gardens are in bloom in this issue, and each has its own style. “Create Your Garden” on page 111 features a stunning courtyard garden of hardscapes and blooming annuals and perennials that burst with color while a fountain bubbles from the center. “A Garden to Nurture,” page 115, is a lovely cottage garden with charm-filled outdoor rooms, from the terrace lined with manicured boxwoods to a cozy dining oasis just off the kitchen and, of course, a gorgeous wall of ‘Limelight’ hydrangeas. One of my favorite features in this issue highlights the magic that happens when a place inspires a space. “A Breath of Fresh Air” on page 41 features views of the waterway nearby and was…

There are some homes that don’t simply reside on a piece of landthey’re a part of it, from the windows that welcome enchanting views to the color palette that echoes the natural surroundings. Leslie and Ken Mann have such a home, nestled in the heart of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay area. The couple wasn’t looking to buy when the 3,955-square-foot home drifted into their lives. In fact, they were already living in what they believed to be their forever home. “But this house was for sale close to friends of ours, so we took a look and immediately fell in love with the view and the property,” says Leslie. Built in 1966, the house needed some care, but the couple saw its potential and knew it was destined to be theirs.…

“For as long as I can recall, I grew up riding and showing horses in the Virginia countryside,” recalls decorator Bethany Brower, who shares an interior design business with her mother, Nancy Powell. “I’ve always wanted to live in ‘horse country,’ so when my husband and I decided to purchase a home, we knew where to look,” she says. In 2015, the couple bought a three-bedroom, 2,100-square-foot cedar cottage on 10 acres of woodland in Warrenton, Virginia. Though it was fairly updated when the Browers bought the home, it was not entirely to their taste. “The farmhouse was pretty much builder-grade,” says Bethany, adding, “I knew I wanted to make it leaner and a bit more modern.” The Browers and their three dogs moved in, savoring their new habitat, and…

Cottage gardens that are carefully planned and developed can be as dreamy as the home in which you live. In fact, I consider the garden an opportunity to surround myself with plants that fill me with contentment and delight. With each leaf that puts forth and each bulb that returns year after year to bring a welcomed splash of color, the seasons come alive! If you don’t have much of a natural green thumb or if your garden space is limited, creating a charming hardscape is the way to go. When designing my garden, I wanted the house to have an English cottage design and feel as if it had been there for years. The fountain (left) is the centerpiece of my walled garden. It is the simple trickle of…

Shades of Inspiration Pages 17-20—All products from Dwelling & Design. An Artist’s Escape Pages 35-40—Artwork by Augusta Wilson and Aaron Whitehouse. Page 37—Artwork by Melissa Payne Baker. Page 38—Bar stools from Ballard Designs. Page 39-40—Bedroom armchair, side table, bathroom lights, and garden stool from Ballard Designs. Page 40—Plates in guest bedroom from Anthropologie. A Breath of Fresh Air Pages 41-46—Interior designs by Julie Sweeney, Coastal Haven Design, LLC. Diving into Cottage Style Pages 55-64—Interior designs by Amanda Friend and Jamie Merida, Bountiful Interiors. Architectural design by Jon Braithwaite, Atelier 11. Shingles from NuCedar Mills. Page 57—Large furnishings upholstered in Sunbrella fabrics. Farmhouse Modern Pages 65-74—Interior designs by Powell Brower Interiors. Pages 69-70—Backsplash and kitchen counters from Fairfax Marble & Granite. Cabinets refaced by Warren Cabinets. Hardware from Knobbery. Bar chairs…

How do you feel when you walk into your home? Energized? Peaceful? Content? Or do you instead feel overwhelmed, tired, and stressed? Our homes have the potential to inspire and comfort us, but they can also drain or unnerve us. Physical clutter is mental clutter. With spring right around the corner, I challenge you to ruthlessly declutter your home. It sounds like a grand challenge, I know, but little by little, you have the power to transform your home from a place of chaos to a place of rest and rejuvenation. Begin by tackling the heart of the home: your kitchen. It’s where you spend a majority of your time and can often be the most cluttered place in the house. First, start with one particular space (a drawer or…

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When Melissa Michaels started her home design blog, The Inspired Room, in 2007, blogging was still considered a hobby. “I was not a blog reader at all prior to starting my own, so I really didn’t even know what to expect,” she says. “No one really did.” But as blogging evolved from pastime to career path, The Inspired Room began to gain a following. Now, Melissa’s home tours and style advice inspire countless readers to create the home that they love. Readers of The Inspired Room have followed Melissa through the renovations of both her previous house and her current one, which is located near the coast in Washington. The charm-filled home features what Melissa calls a “subtle coastal edge” and is saturated with cottage style. While Melissa says that…

Although New Orleans is known for its vibrant culture and cuisine, the city also boasts a delightfully charming cottage scene. Seated in the Uptown-area neighborhood just off the famed shopping destination of Magazine Street is a recently renovated shotgun-style cottage. The renovation transformed the home with updated amenities while remaining true to its heritage. No longer shotgun style in architecture, the now 2,220-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath floor plan was thoughtfully designed by Andrew Stout of Stouthaus Architecture. Originally 1,560 square feet, the home had been partially gutted and sat vacant for 13 years. In 2017, Andrew reimagined the floor plan, adding more than 600 square feet to the rear of the house in order to expand the family room and kitchen, which now open onto a new rear deck. Ann Williams…

Don Wooters and Fiona Newell Weeks became business partners after they realized that they shared a common dream: to open a shop that would foster the creation of beautiful and unique living spaces. The two had worked in interior design separately, with Don working his way up through retail furniture sales and Fiona having started her own design business 15 years earlier. It wasn’t until they met at a show house Don was running that their talents came together. “Everything seemed to fall into place, and within a couple of months, we were opening our doors,” Fiona says. Now, the two run Dwelling & Design, an interior décor shop and design center in the historic downtown area of Easton, Maryland. Inside, customers can find a flawless fusion of style that…

Melissa Payne Baker and her husband, Rick, weren’t in the market to buy a house when a family member showed them what would become their dream home. “We had a 6-month-old at the time, and I thought, ‘We won’t move again,’” Melissa recalls. But a twist of fate changed their plans about six months later. The home’s original contract fell through, and when Melissa stumbled upon the house yet again, she knew it was meant to be. After moving in, the Bakers found that there wasn’t much they needed to do to make the home their own. The open-concept floor plan allows plenty of room for their son, Payne, to explore and play, in addition to doubling as the perfect space for entertaining, which the couple does often. All that…

Shannon and Tod Leggat built their home on land that has been a part of family history for generations. “Tod’s family has been going there for over 100 years,” Shannon says of the Drakes Island property. Tod’s family purchased the land—and the house that was built on it—in 1975, but after he and Shannon inherited the house, they discovered that it was in need of costly repairs. “And so, down it came,” says Tod, “and we built what’s there now.” “What’s there now” is an ocean-inspired cottage flooded with bold décor choices and plenty of space for large family gatherings. “[It was] about accommodating all of these people but also letting it be a comfortable, beautiful place to be,” says designer Emily Mattei of e4 Interior Design. Inspired by the…

Author Michelle Slatalla believes that your outdoor space deserves the same attention and care as any room in your house, and we couldn’t agree more! Your cottage garden—whatever the size or scale—should be a continuation of your living space. With help from the editors of gardenista.com, Michelle and her team have encompassed all there is to know about creating the perfect garden and outdoor space and compiled it into one book. Their motto? Gardens matter. Whether you have one patch of grass or acres and acres of land, that space is yours to create. The mission of this book is to make gardening easier to understand, regardless of whether you are a true green thumb or a novice. These pages are filled with more than 480 photographs from all over…

You could say that painting is in artist Melissa Payne Baker’s genes. Her mother was a painter, as were her paternal grandparents, so it wasn’t a surprise when Melissa picked up the brush herself. “I would sit in on art classes with my grandfather at the University of Memphis when I was about 8 or 9 years old,” she recalls. “A love of painting comes from both sides of my family.” Though painting was always a passion, it hasn’t been this artist’s sole profession. After majoring in marketing and a short stint as a business owner in college—she hung wallcoverings at the University of Mississippi—Melissa worked as an interior designer and manager at Glyn Weakley Interiors for nearly two decades. Her friends and family saw the potential for her to…