Cottage Style

by Better Homes and Gardens

With chapters on furnishings, fabrics, floor coverings, window treatments, and choosing and arranging accessories, this cottage-style decorating guide covers a wide range of trends, from rustic to refined, with more than three hundred lush, full-color photographic suggestions. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Reference

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Better Homes and Gardens is the fourth best selling magazine in the United States. Better Homes and Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by the Meredith Corporation. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the United States Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson.

Better Homes and Gardens is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.

Reviews

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely to look at. This kind of stuff gets me up and moving, sorting through clutter, walking through the house looking for pieces I can use in some new and interesting way, and it stimulates my creative side with physical and concrete ways of engaging whatever artist resides within me.

[Cheryl]

I should have loved this. Especially as we just (finally) bought our first house and I can finally do (cheap!) things to make it more ours & less generic. Mostly, though, the images showed too much clutter and busyness.

I am charmed by one spread though, as it shows green walls in a dining area. Sounds terrible, I know. But it's a sort of a dusty celadon, or a dark sage? I don't know; I have to get to a hardware store and look at chips. Paired with white cabinetry and wicker or wooden chairs with some cheery but not gaudy prints (painting, cushions, curtains, tablecloth, and/or shallow display shelving) the room is warm, quiet, inviting, but also uplifting.

Well, not bad for a Little Free Library find.
September 2024

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent beginner book for anyone looking to mimic the country style. I found myself getting bored, however, and started skimming before I reached the end. I prefer seeing actual homes, with REAL collections and artwork, and not just rooms assembled as examples of a particular style.

[Vanessa Dargain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring .

[Diane G · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on cottage core design

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly most of this was not my style

[Ms.soule MY ONLY PROFILE · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the pictures are now outdated, the decorating advice offered is still sound and easy to follow. I appreciated how this book offers several different varieties of "cottage style" - from beach house to English garden (and plenty more in between).