Cottage Style Homes
The word cottage conjures a picture of warmth and coziness. While this remains true, today’s cottage home designs have more flexibility in both architectural style and in size. Yankee Barn Homes has built cottages in sizes and styles ranging from small and quaint to large Shingle Style homes.
No matter the size or the architectural style, cottages have three things in common:
1. Charm with a Down to Earth Aesthetic
2. Functionality
3. Asymmetrical Design Features with Porches and Gables or Dormers
Read this: COTTAGE
Charming and Cozy
Regardless of size or geographic location, the cottage style home embraces the element of coziness. The cottage-style home is quaint and yet charming and the rooms are cozy and comfortable. No formal settings are furniture will be found in a cottage. Even when the house itself is larger, the décor invites you to relax and be comfortable.
A sense of well-being and happiness are key to the cottage style vernacular. Pleasure is derived from a sense of welcoming and acceptance of a “come as you are” lifestyle. Nothing fussy or stiff fits in a cottage style home.
Design Functionality
Functionality is required in good cottage design not only because the footprint is often smaller, but because “waste not, want not” was/is a true English lifestyle (and subsequently, New England).
On the interior, a floor plan that flows along with a goodly amount of storage space is primary. everything has a purpose, there are not frivolities in a cottage. This is not to say there is not joy. A true cottage has joy in profusion. But the function of the structure itself is to provide everything one needs and enjoys wrapped in charm and a sense of well-being.
Asymmetrical Design Features
The exterior of a cottage design can run from English quaint to 21st Century Modern and everything between. However, there should be asymmetry that most often includes gables and a porch. Siding is chosen in tune with the cottage’s surroundings. Stone, clapboards, and shingles are all appropriate. Let the location dictate this choice for a cottage to appear authentic to it’s location. Mixing exterior siding elements is always classic. Add an oval or a square window on it’s point in a peak to create yet another popular cottage element.
Some of today’s cottage design do have symmetry as the style has expanded to include bungalows, beach homes, and ever barns. It’s the essence of charm and informality that typifies a cottage at it’s core.
