Love English Cottage Style? Here's How to Recreate the Look at Home

The décor trend that is sweeping social media, cozy English cottage-style design, will make your home feel rustic and closer to nature than ever before. "English cottages are defined by their coziness and usage of local and traditional materials both inside and outside," says Ana Perez, owner, and designer of Spinks Nest Cottage.

Warm, comfortable, and inviting, this design style is characterized by extensive gardens, thatched roofs, and rustic interiors full of wood and character-filled antique furniture.

Ready to add some "cottagecore" style to your own home? Read on for everything you need to know.

There are many ways to implement this design style into your home, even if your home doesn’t classify as a cottage. Here’s how to incorporate elements of English cottage design into your home’s décor and create your coziest space for the wintertime—or anytime.

Plant Lush Greenery

Characteristic of classic English cottages is the focus on a green and growing exterior. Plant bushes, trees, and other greenery native to your area, as well as creeping plants like ivy that will make your home look like it is emerging from nature.

Have Fun With Color

Beige brick, step aside: English cottage exteriors embrace the colorful and whimsical with color selection. Pops of pink, yellow, and blue are often seen in cottage-style design, as the small homes are unafraid to play with color. 

Embrace a Brick Exterior

Brick has a way of looking effortlessly classic, and it truly withstands the test of time—which is perfect for a vintage English cottage home. This home embraces a primarily brick exterior, and its shabbiness makes it all the more chic. 

According to Perez, this style is characteristic of a classic English home. "Soft red bricks and flints are very English."

Add a Cottage Door

There are ways to incorporate small touches of cottage style on the exterior of your home as well, with rustic elements like wood or an antique latch door that looks like it's straight from the English countryside. As Perez notes, "Fitted wooden pieces make everything feel so special—designed for that space and that space only."

Cozy Your Space With Plush Textiles

This quaint bedroom embraces several elements of cottage style: rustic wood, antique art, and the incredibly plush and comfortable bedding that feels vintage, yet modern. Layering textiles will add warmth and English charm to your space.

Incorporate Rustic Wood Elements 

A great way to add a touch of history to a space is to incorporate reclaimed wooden elements, which add character to any ceiling or floor. This space not only features exposed wooden beams but a wooden side table that adds personality and charm to the space.

"Making beautiful wooden furniture and fittings for a small space afforded by a cottage is really very important," Perez notes. "All English cottages need some elegant, yet practical bespoke joinery to elevate them."

Play With Windows

Add some architectural interest to your space with a cottage-style window, like this arched kitchen beauty that allows the sun to stream into the space. 

Go for Vintage Pieces

A lovely aspect of English cottage décor is making the old new again and incorporating vintage pieces in the home. Think reclaimed furniture, antique trinkets and ceramics, and traditional lighting like ornate chandeliers, as pictured here.

Use Every Nook and Cranny

If your home features some angular, tight spaces, don’t be afraid to turn them into cozy and livable rooms. Features that are seemingly difficult to navigate are easily given purpose with English cottage style.

Add Visual Interest

An easy way to give your home English cottage character is to incorporate traditional design elements, like beadboard, as featured in this countryside mudroom. The sage green color feels close to nature and appropriate to the trend while giving a touch of class to the walls.

Perez notes that this is an essential piece of English cottage design. "Beadboard is something we strongly associate with an English cottage, and in Spinks Nest, we have lots of varied-width beadboard in every room, painted in different finishes: some mid-brown, some dark brown, and [some] rich greens—all with a narrow bead," Perez says.

Tone It Down

Another characteristic of English cottage style is a muted color palette, often featuring earthy neutrals and pastels. As showcased in this bedroom, you can feature one of these neutrals as the primary color of a space to have room to feature vintage art and other pieces.

Go With the Overflow

As cottage-style living is often in tight quarters, embrace the overflow of ceramics in your kitchen with open shelving and lots of decorative dishes to display. Diverting from the trendy minimalist style, cottage design embraces the clutter and lived-in look of a space, from kitchens to bedrooms.

Perez says that vintage pieces were key in designing Spinks Nest. "We love things that have character—and so many older pieces of furniture and vintage kitchenwares have so much style and just good design," she says. "All of these reclaimed and vintage objects brought so much design elegance for almost no money, and they brought their wonderful history and patina."