Indholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2025 i The Cottage Journal

If there’s any region in the United States that’s synonymous with autumn, it’s New England—and rightfully so. There’s no experience quite like strolling the history-filled streets of Boston or traversing hills wrapped in technicolor wonders, appreciating views that people have enjoyed since long before the country’s founding. That’s why, for this issue, we made a point of visiting homes in and around this iconic locale, showcasing the spirit unique to this corner of the nation. From a family home in Massachusetts made timeless with personal style and a historic working farm with ties to the Rockefellers to Connecticut-based artisans who honor the processes of the past, the features to come are as rich with stories as they are with the vibrant shades of fall. If you’ve ever savored the season…

Though New England’s fiery foliage often steals the show, the region’s ubiquitous bank barns are an equally intriguing sight. Usually located directly behind a classic white Cape Cod–style house, the weathered edifices serve as year-round reminders of the region’s agrarian roots. But when the owners of a Vermont vacation home wanted to add space for a growing family and extra guests, Ann Sargent, the creative principal of Sargent Design Company, recognized the barn’s multilevel structure offered the perfect framework for their project. “New England has a short building period,” Ann notes. With that in mind, she turned to a prefab timber frame with fully insulated wall and ceiling panels crafted by Bensonwood. “It’s not the same as buying a manufactured house,” she says. “You’re just getting parts of it done,…

Looking back, John Francis Welch can identify a few elements of his childhood that helped lead him where he is today: a TV tuned to Julia Child and This Old House; a handmade Valentine gift for a childhood sweetheart; trips to the grocery store during which he picked out new ingredients for family dinners. The pieces were in place long before he carved his first wooden spoon. While his interest in woodworking lay dormant throughout his teen years and into adulthood, the purchase of a town house with his wife—and the inevitable home improvement projects that followed—relit the spark. Eventually, John united the craft with his love of cooking, carving spoons with which to serve the meals he created for friends and family. Moving into a local studio space led…

The Charm of Churchtown Pages 29–40—Interior designs by Marina Case, The Red Shutters. Special thanks to Churchtown Dairy for the location. Rustic Roots Pages 41–52—Interior designs by Ann Sargent, Sargent Design Company. Architectural Designs by David Sargent, Sargent Design Company. Construction by Housewright Construction. Timber frame by Bensonwood. The Story of Home Pages 53–62—Interior designs by Jen Smith. At Home with the House Cricket Pages 63–70—Interior designs by Cailan Matthews. A Stroke of Sable Pages 73–77—Interior designs by Liz Kennedy, ELM Construction LLC. Pillows from Serena & Lily. Plates, chargers, and napkins from Bromberg’s. Gracious Gatherings Pages 79–82—Tablecloth from Vivo Veronika. Plate by Spode from Replacements, Ltd. Blooms & Branches Pages 85–88—Tables and chair from Warren Family Garden Center. Heirloom pumpkins and chrysanthemums from Hilltop Farms & Market. Exploring Stone…

While cottage style means many things to many people, at the heart of everything is something that lives in a storybook—thatched-roof homes hidden away among the rolling hills of the country, surrounded by rippling creeks, stretches of green, and fields of jovial wildflowers. This is the image that first enamored many of us with cottage style—and in the English countryside, it often comes to life. That’s why we at The Cottage Journal are thrilled to introduce our newest book, The Collected English Cottage. Through its 220 pages, we present the spaces, elements, and principles that lay at the roots of cottage style, from personal homes in the Cotswolds to historic manor houses as rich with pattern and color as they are with history. Readers will discover the allure of pattern…

Fall arrives quietly in the South, like a hushed version of summer where everything begins to slow and the foliage seems set ablaze with brilliance. As farmers, Deborah Stone and her daughter, Alexandra Stone Flowers, are ever in tune with this changing hum of Mother Nature. They have been since the beginning. Their family heritage was born from the land itself, with Deborah’s parents and grandparents having each had farms of their own. Having been immersed in this hardworking lifestyle in her youth, it was almost by osmosis that she learned to make things grow. And after a successful career in medical aesthetics—which involved founding one of the earliest medical day spas in the nation in the early 1980s—she sought to bring her family’s hands back to the earth. In…

In 2012, Cailan Matthews moved to Iowa. Her husband had just obtained a position at the university, and the retiring English professor whose mantle he would be taking up happened to be vacating his residence. The Sears Roebuck kit home was built in 1914 and, though it wanted for some alterations, seemed the perfect place for their growing family to settle. Oak-trimmed interiors set Cailan’s heart aflutter, and ideas began to brew like an eagerly anticipated morning cup of Earl Grey. Over the course of the next thirteen years, the place would be transformed by way of new paint and old furniture; brass fixtures; and a bounty of books, cherished china, and much more—all the while nurturing the hearts of the six Matthews family members (and four pets) who dwelt…