The Cottage Journal French Cottage 2024

TRANQUIL HOME Welcome to our special edition of The Cottage Journal, shining light on cottages around the South. From Texas to North Carolina to Virginia, the cottages in this compilation bring that personal Southern style and sense of home that you treasure. This issue is packed with plenty of unique ideas for all spaces, including inspiration for adding color, thoughtful design, and intimate details to your home. Among collected home accessories, you’ll find majolica pottery in “Timeless Earthenware” on page 11. Popularized in the 19th century, majolica exudes a plethora of bright colors and textures, making it perfect for a modern or traditional display. Revived in 1970 by a London art dealer, majolica patterns are loved and collected by many. In “Southern Splendor” on page 45, you’ll meet a design…

Boasting a variety of functional objects including planters, tableware, and tea sets, majolica pottery is earthenware covered in a colorful tin glaze. Ancient history, exotic creatures, and agrarian imagery account for popular themes that are sure to include at least one of these five jewel tones: cobalt blue, antimony yellow, iron red, copper green, and manganese violet. Majolica pottery finds its origin in the Italian Renaissance. Italian ceramic artists observed new Spanish imports and adopted their techniques. Molds and three-dimensional pieces were introduced during the 19th century when the Minton company began producing the decorative pottery, debuted at London’s Great Exhibition in 1851. Following the Industrial Revolution, Minton hoped to capture the attention of the emerging middle class with the lively, practical earthenware pieces. Changes in tastes led to the…

Elaborate details and nature-inspired motifs are the identifying features of the carving style commonly known as Black Forest. But despite the name, the carved goods originated not in the Black Forest region of Bavaria, Germany, but rather a lakeside community in Switzerland. In the early 1800s, when a famine devastated the Swiss village of Brienz, local artisan Christian Fischer began selling carved pieces to tourists and was met with wild success. It wasn’t long before he needed to enlist and train other artists to meet the demand, starting the town on a path to history. While at the beginning, Brienz carvings mostly featured animals native to the area, their growing popularity among travelers from the United Kingdom, North America, and other parts of the world led to a wider variety…

Both originally from Louisiana, Laura Jelks and her husband have always known their style. Acadian architecture with accents of French and Southern styles mixed in makes Laura’s heart skip a beat, and it’s exactly why she fell in love with their current house. “The Charleston architecture of the neighborhood just felt like home,” she recalls of first seeing their Alabama abode. The Jelkses had already been living in the same neighborhood but were looking to downsize from their previous home, a 3,300-square-foot house not far away. “When we went in the house, we loved the open floor plan, 13-foot ceilings in the great room, and light spilling in from every direction,” Laura says. “It was only three bedrooms, but we were ready to downsize, and all the rooms we use…

When it came time for ceramic artist Susan Gordon and her husband to trade their bungalow for a house more suitable to their growing family, Susan knew that, rather than buy a finished home, she wanted something she could put her unique mark on. “We were trying to find basically the ugliest house on a good lot on a good street so we could redo it, because I knew I would want to buy a house and make it mine,” she says. Once they found it, Susan, with the help of Willow Homes, worked her magic. The addition of an extra bedroom and bathroom provided needed space, and a rework of the layout created an openness between the living room and kitchen, which was relocated to the front corner of…

In much of interior designer Kristen Nix’s work, you’ll see a variety of wall coverings. From soft, subtle textures to brightly colored patterns, she loves them all. “I feel like nothing changes a space like a wall covering,” she says. So, working with client Erin Donahue Tice was a dream come true, because Erin just so happens to love wall coverings as well. The two made a dream design team, working together to transform Erin and her husband’s 1936 quintessential cottage. Starting with the formal living room, Kristen opted for a neutral grass cloth wallpaper that brings texture to the room and complements the sisal rug. Considering the room’s small dimensions, Kristen chose a more subdued wall covering so as not to overwhelm the space. She also tweaked the furniture…