Jefferey Pouros
Looking for home decorating ideas that foster a cozy, casual, and welcoming vibe? Cottagecore design is an easy way to create warm and inviting living spaces both inside and out. Cottagecore is both a life and home design style that focuses on simple living, self-reliance, and comfort while connecting with nature.
Thus, it embraces a relatable and sustainable existence that is often found in more rural settings where you’ll find organic natural textures, plants, soft flower prints, thrift store, and handmade decor.
Cottagecore design evokes the five senses and lends a cozy, welcoming vibe. Similar to cottagecore aesthetic home decor, garden-style decorating is more focused on creating cozy and comfortable living spaces by bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out with plants, flowers, and textured and garden-inspired accessories.
As a huge plant and flower addict, cottagecore design is a completely unique and personal style of decorating. To start, garden-style is an approachable, easy-going style that fosters the feeling of kicking back and relaxing. We found a huge gazebo that covers a large part of our deck from Lowe’s to shade the space. Before purchasing that gazebo, we could barely sit out there in July and August because it was too hot with the New Jersey sun pelting down on it all day long.
I found a large wood table from the Facebook Marketplace for $50 that I refinished with deck stain so it could weather the elements. To finish off this outdoor living space, I added lots of container gardens, houseplants and mood lighting.
Whether you thrift the big ticket items or buy them from a retailer, look for natural materials like wood, marble, and stone. Set them on a table, add them to a shelf or dark lifeless corner of the room and you’ll breathe life into dull spaces. But the great thing about growing live houseplants is that they love to summer outdoors as we do.
Bringing them outside during the more seasonal months warms things up and lends a tropical feel to outdoor living spaces. Cut the stems to fit a vase or make your own arrangements for less than you’d buy from a florist. To keep the blooms looking their best, you’ll want to follow these tips to make fresh flowers last longer.
While I am an avid gardener who loves plants and flowers, I also understand my limits, my time, and how I live my life. When I tell my horticultural friends that I incorporated faux plants or flowers into an area, they tend to gasp with questions as to why I would do that when I can easily use the real deal. If you want the look of greens and flowers but lack the experience, time, or energy to care for the real stuff…by all means, incorporate faux.
But the key to incorporating faux flowers and plants is to choose ones that look very real.
The colors, textures, and feel should resemble and mimic real plants and flowers that you’d find in nature. Before purchasing anything, seek inspiration on Google, Pinterest, TikTok or Instagram and try to mimic what you like.
While I recommend going with live plants outside, there are some occasions that warrant going with faux flowers and greens outside. It is important to note that you’ll probably need to freshen and update these outdoor faux flowers more often than what you use indoors because the sun and elements fade them much quicker. When my kids were younger and we had our old ranch, I had a hard time keeping window boxes going because they needed to be watered like 3x a day midsummer with the NJ heat and humidity.
Since I did not have time to water them 3x a day and I did not want to spend a ton of money on self-watering planters, I planted them with faux.
We created an outdoor oasis under a huge canopy with a farmhouse wood table, comfortable wicker chairs, and lots of real plants. Add beautiful plant urns, metal buckets and terra cotta pots together with other natural, textured accessories like baskets, totes, throw pillows, and knit blankets.
Whether you are inside or out, consider adding string lights to create a cozy atmosphere in living spaces. And finally, you don’t need to stick to one particular style when decorating your home with a cottagecore aesthetic. Mix and match pieces from different styles to create a unique look. We don’t have to be the best gardeners or interior decorators to warm up our spaces with a cottagecore aesthetic. Sign up for my free newsletter to get blog posts, seasonal tips, recipes, and more delivered straight to your inbox! Plus, get free VIP access to my Resource Library where you’ll find insider freebies not readily available to the public.
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