COTTAGECORE: YOUR GUIDE TO ACHIEVING THE LOOK
Cottagecore is an aesthetic and lifestyle movement focused on pastoral pleasures and rustic simplicity. As a reaction to modern hustle culture, it embraces slow living, creativity, environmentalism, and old-fashioned countryside charm.
In interiors, cottagecore celebrates vintage styles, lush greenery, florals, and a relaxed maximalism. It creates a cosy, welcoming home brimming with personality. While cottagecore fantasies originate in idyllic country living, elements can be incorporated anywhere for wholesome charm.
Cottagecore has become one of the most popular aesthetic movements, romanticizing pastoral living and embracing creativity, environmentalism, and nostalgia. This guide covers the history, motivations, and major design elements to help you incorporate cottagecore style into your home.
Table of Contents:
- The Pastoral Fantasy
- Cottagecore Style Fundamentals
- Achieving the Look In Your Home
- What is a cottagecore personality?
- Is cottagecore still a thing?
The Pastoral Fantasy
Origins & History
- Traced back to ancient Greek aspirations for simple living
- Gained popularity online in 2010s among millennials and Gen Z
- Coined as “cottagecore” in 2018 on Tumblr
- Surged in 2020 during quarantines as an escapist fantasy
Motivations & Appeals
- Idealizes the countryside and craftmaking
- Rejection of hustle culture and modern stresses
- Appreciation of sustainability and slow living
- Provokes feelings of comfort, nostalgia and whimsy
Cottagecore Style Fundamentals
- Design Characteristics
- Mix-matched patterns and textures
- Earthy color palette of muted neutrals
- Abundant greenery and natural light
- Vintage, weathered, and antique furniture
- Maximalist décor with unfettered personal flare
- The Cozy Cottage Kitchen
- Exposed pots, pans, herbs, giving an inclusive feel
- Wood, brick, colorful cabinetry, farmhouse sinks
- Invites mess, busyness and communal activities
- The Whimsical Cottage Bathroom
- Overflowing plants and flowers
- Vintage clawfoot tubs and brushed metal fixtures
- Playful wallpaper and shower curtains
- The Dreamy Cottage Bedroom
- Plush bedding and translucent curtains
- Wrought iron beds and weathered wood floors
- Dried floral bundles and pastoral landscape art
Achieving the Look In Your Home
The cottagecore vision isn’t restricted to rural homes. You can infuse cozy, nostalgic country charm into any space. Lean into vintage finds, emphasis on plants and lighting, embrace DIY and craft projects. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to decorate in ways that make you personally happy. Cottagecore is about surrounding yourself with things you find beautiful, relaxing or inspiring.
Cottagecore Style Basics
Key Characteristics Cottagecore celebrates heritage styles like English countryside cottages. Interiors feature vintage furnishing, abundant greenery, floral motifs, and eclectic collections for a relaxed maximalist look.
Defining Features Muted color palettes, soft textures, wood and brick accents, plush soft furnishings, and displays of china, books or craft projects create cozy whimsy. Layers of mismatched patterns add depth.
Connection to Nature Channeling the outdoors is essential, whether through dried botanical garlands, herb gardens, or simply opening windows to let sunlight and fresh air in. Aim to fuse interior and exterior into one seamless pastoral vision.
Rustic Spaces: The Cottagecore Kitchen
Vintage Assets
Incorporate antique-style assets like farmhouse sinks, exposed wooden beams, colourful cabinetry, hanging copper pots, and carved wood accents for timeworn character.
Accessible Openness
The cottagecore kitchen displays all tools, ingredients, and projects in progress openly, keeping messiness embraced as part of the creative process.
Humble Heritage
Well-loved furniture, signage showcasing seasons/harvests, ceramic canisters, and window herb planters infuse heritage humble-ness. Even modern essentials like fridges visually recede through clever concealment.
Naturalist Bathrooms
Garden Inspiration Bathing spaces connect cottagecore interiors back to exterior pastoral visions. Mini indoor gardens, steam-activated botanical showers, and floral accents transform bathing into an ethereal escape.
Vintage Fixtures Clawfoot tubs, distressed wooden stools, porcelain basins, and antique-style brass fittings evoke pastoral eras. Shop secondhand, or select modern fixtures emulating old-world charm from companies like Barre Hardware.
Eclectic Embellishments Cottagecore celebrates eccentric self-expression from wallpaper to shower curtains. Employ colors, prints, and textures with playful abandon to craft a transportive, artful sanctuary.
Dreamy Cottagecore Bedrooms
Plush & Ethereal Cultivate a soft oasis with pillowy beds in delicate linens and billowing curtains diffusing sunlight. Ambient lighting enhances the dream-like atmosphere.
Rustic Touches Wrought iron beds, weathered timber floors, and furniture distressing balance airy fabrics with earthy textural depth. Dried botanical bunches provide organic richness.
Artistic Flourishes Pastoral landscape artwork, floral sketches, pressed flower frames, and collages using natural found objects embellish the space with cottagecore whimsy. Display completed craft projects too.
Cottagecore interiors may originate from idyllic rural living, but elements can be incorporated anywhere. This wholesome, creative aesthetic cultivates cozy spaces personalized by vintage goods, natural materials, and playful imperfection. Diverse inspirations converge into a singular pastoral vision, providing tranquility amidst modern chaos.
What is a cottagecore personality?
The cottagecore personality celebrates traditional crafts and practices, sustainability, and nostalgia for rural living. Though the extent individuals embrace cottagecore as identity versus aesthetic interest varies. At its core, the cozy, nature-oriented cottagecore sensibility provides tranquility and meaning missing from modern consumer lifestyles.
So, what does a cottagecore girl look like? A cottagecore personality typically exhibits some of the following traits and interests:
- Values simplicity, sustainability, and slowing down from modern life’s hectic pace
- Finds beauty, meaning, and comfort in pastoral concepts like gardening, baking, sewing/knitting, bookbinding, etc.
- Drawn to natural materials and textures like linen, wood, clay, etc. Avoids most plastics
- Prefers antique, vintage, or handmade items over mass-produced goods
- Enjoys solitary hobbies like pressing flowers, mushroom foraging, bird watching, plant caring
- Has an affinity for pastoral aesthetic through fashion and home decor
- Nostalgic for imagined historical eras portrayed in literature, film, and art
- Romanticizes the idea of living in the countryside over cities
- Interested in folklore and traditional stories passed through generations
- Philosophically values harmony between self, community, and environment
Is cottagecore still a thing?
Yes, cottagecore is still a popular aesthetic style and lifestyle movement. Here are a few reasons why it continues to thrive:
- Provides escapism from modern stress: The cottagecore vision of idyllic pastoral living offers a soothing contrast to the busyness and uncertainty of current times. It will likely always appeal to people seeking digital detoxes or breaks from urban environments.
- Tapping into sustainable living: With climate change and environmentalism on the rise, cottagecore’s emphasis on gardening, farming, and traditional crafting methods align well with sustainable aspirations. Making your own goods also counters mass consumerism.
- Nostalgic comforts: The vintage coziness and storybook warmth of cottagecore decoration seem unlikely to wane. The style brings feelings of nostalgia that people continually gravitate towards for comfort.
- Creativity and meaning: Handmaking goods and cultivating the ability to sustain yourself gives a sense of purpose often missing from passive, modern conveniences. Cottagecore activities like baking and pottery fuel individual creativity.
- Aesthetic community: There are thriving communities on social platforms dedicated to various cottagecore creative pursuits. They drive participation by idealizing and celebrating the aesthetic.
While cottagecore’s popularity may fluctuate, its evocation of meaningful, eco-conscious living and simpler pastimes ensures its ongoing appeal as a lifestyle and design choice. It offers solutions to problems of current modern disaffection. The pastoral fantasy it fulfills is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
