Big Ideas for Decorating a Small Cottage Kitchen

By combining a country and shabby chic style to come up with your own cottage style, you pretty much have every color of the rainbow available as your color palette. While country style employs colors like barn reds, slate blues and rich chocolate browns, shabby chic brings a whole range of pastels to the table. The first thing that you need to do is to narrow your color choices down. While you can always introduce other colors later, it is good to start your design with a well-defined palette of about three colors. You can pull your inspiration by thinking where your cottage would be. Tucked in the English countryside you may want to choose pink, green and rose directly from a springtime garden, whereas if your cottage is on the beach you may want crisp white and navy blue with bold red accents.

Photo used under Creative Commons from IrishFireside.

After painting your walls take a good look at your cabinets. To bring them into the design give them a thorough cleaning, a light sanding and a couple of coats of good quality primer. After preparing the cabinets for painting you may want to paint them bright white, or you may prefer a faux finish on them like rag rolling, sponge painting or even crackle paint. You may choose to decoupage vintage photos or favorite magazine pictures to your cabinet faces to pull in a Victorian influence, while adding fabric to the faces of the cabinets would evoke more of a country influence. You may even choose to open up a cabinet by adding glass doors to showcase a glassware collection.

One of the most fun parts of decorating a kitchen in the cottage style is finding the perfect accessories. Enjoy browsing through a local yard sale, flea market or craft fair, and keep your eye open for unique vintage pieces that reflect your style. You can literally work anything into a cottage style kitchen, from farm scene wall art sculptures to fleur de lis wall art. The style is simply that adaptable.

To finish off your cottage style design, add a plush area rug in front of the sink and stove. Install lively curtains on your windows, and add a chalk or white board for lists and schedules. Place pots of fresh herbs or colorful flowers showcased in a collection of vases along with some art on the walls, and you have created your signature cottage style kitchen.

Photo used under Creative Commons from John Weise.

If the thought of an entire cottage style kitchen makes you a little crazy, remember that sometimes less is more. Simply adding a cottage style element to a modern kitchen can create a wonderful and interesting focal point. You can even incorporate elements of a cottage kitchen to add interest to a Victorian, rustic or contemporary kitchen design. By using your imagination, the design possibilities are endless.

Photo used under Creative Commons from Caducosity.