How to Style a Cottage Stylishly and Cheaply: Real Example

This cozy bright house is located in the city of Brisbane, Australia. Its owners are a photographer, stylist, and writer Kara Rosenlund and her husband, who searched for the perfect place to live for quite a long time. They wanted to buy a traditional building from the previous century, distinctive, with high ceilings and a wonderful view from the windows.

In 2009, the couple came across this small cottage and decided to settle here.

All the renovation and decoration work was done by the homeowners themselves. The proportions and main architectural features of the house remained unchanged, and the new owners only added a dining room, made some changes to the kitchen and bathroom.

The old wooden floors were sanded and painted. The walls, clad with wood paneling, were also repainted. The main background color in the interior was white: it perfectly serves here as a connecting element for the variety of gray, beige, and brown shades.

When selecting furniture, decor, and other elements of the interior, the cottage owners focused on natural materials, mostly textured. There's a lot of wood, natural stone, textiles, leather, skins, wicker baskets, and pottery in the interior.

It's interesting that the owners are enthusiastic collectors. There's a place in the interior for a collection of vintage cutting boards, handcrafted ceramics, and antique kitchen utensils.

Overall, vintage motifs are exactly what sets the mood in the house. Worn window frames by the head of the bed, old wooden shutters, a kind of collage from retro mirrors, a console touched with rust in the dining area... Even in the bathroom, there's a place for these kind of 'echoes of history': a worn stool, a vintage bench, and a bathtub.

When combined with modern furniture and appliances, a refined style, restrained color palette, and thoughtful functionality, retro elements don’t look outdated or foreign in the setting. They only add warmth and highlight the history of the building. By the way, this approach allows you to decorate an interior with minimal costs and keep furniture and items that are dear to the heart in an old house.