Almost everyone, at some point, has dreamt of a cottage. The low beams, the flagstone floor, the roses round the door. The dream runs deep, and not only in Britain, because it is the fantasy of a simpler, gentler life lived close to the land and the seasons, and it has been idealised in art and letters for centuries. Its decorating language is instantly familiar and deeply comforting: sprigged florals and trailing roses, gingham and ticking, hedgerow birds and country pursuits, all in the soft, faded colours of a sun warmed garden.
This is not a look chasing fashion. It is a look chasing a feeling, and country and cottage wallpaper is the shortest route to it, wherever you actually live. Here is where the dream comes from, and the designs on the site that carry it best.
"A cottage room does not try to impress you. It tries to put you at your ease."
A Very English Daydream
The cottage look has never needed a manifesto, only a mood, and the papers that do it best tend to be the ones that look as though they have been on the wall a while. Chelsea in Blue, by Rachel Ashwell, is an English garden in full bloom reduced to a soft trailing sprig, and under a beamed ceiling with a painted dresser it is very nearly the whole daydream in one room. Apple in Rust Gold comes from Morris & Co's Melsetter collection, named for a house on Orkney that was furnished throughout with Morris papers and fabrics in 1898, so it is the cottage ideal drawn from an actual cottage. And Victoria Garden in Beige, from Galerie, is the quietest of the three, a delicate wildflower trail on a neutral ground that asks nothing of a room but makes it kinder.
Chelsea, Blue by Rachel Ashwell
Apple, Rust Gold by Morris & Co
Victoria Garden, Beige by Galerie
Why We All Want a Cottage Now
The look has surged back under the banner of cottagecore, but the feeling behind it is far older than the hashtag. Rachel Ashwell was selling it as shabby chic in 1989, Laura Ashley through the seventies, and the Victorians were sentimental about cottages before either. Every generation reaches for the same comfort and gives it a new name. After years of sleek, hard, urban rooms there is a powerful collective longing for softness, nature and nostalgia, for interiors that feel nurturing rather than impressive, and the lovely thing is that it works its magic anywhere. Holcombe Floral in Creme, by Joules, is a fine hedgerow scatter of greens on cream that looks wonderful above dark painted panelling, and Ticking Stripe in Natural, by Next, borrows the tough striped cotton once woven to case mattresses and pillows, densely enough that the feathers could not work through. It has been in cottages for centuries doing a job, which is precisely why it never reads as decoration.
Holcombe Floral, Creme by Joules
Ticking Stripe, Natural by Next
"A sprigged floral can bring the spirit of a country cottage to a flat above a city street."
How and Where to Use It
Country patterns love the everyday rooms, the ones nobody photographs. A trailing floral or a hedgerow print brings warmth to a bedroom or a sitting room, while a small print or a ditsy design is perfect for a kitchen, a utility or a boot room, where it lifts the ordinary. Homegrown in Yellow, from Belgravia's Moda collection, is exactly that sort of paper and exactly that sort of room, a sunny garden print behind a bench, a row of baskets and a scatter of boots. For something with a little more backbone, a check holds a scheme together where a floral would go soft: Tartan Garden in Green, from Galerie's Blooming Garden, sits above dark panelling and lets the florals happen in the upholstery instead.
Homegrown, Yellow by Belgravia
Tartan Garden, Green by Galerie
It all sits beautifully with painted wood, a butler sink, aged brass and a few honest, well worn pieces. Keep the colours soft and the mood unfussy, and resist the urge to make everything match too perfectly, because a little happy imperfection is the whole point. Look to Morris & Co, Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston for country designs with genuine charm, and order a sample first to see the soft colours in your own light.
You do not need a thatched roof to live the cottage dream. Sometimes you just need the right wall.
And if the dream has a postcode, Eversley in Verdigris knows it. It comes from Cotswold Idyll, by Parker & Jules, and it is a large, loosely painted botanical of roses and trailing foliage, printed to order here in Britain. Shown around a green rolltop bath on a chequered floor, it makes the case better than any argument could.
Eversley, Verdigris by Parker & Jules
Ready to Live the Cottage Dream?
Browse the full Country & Cottage collection, or narrow it down in Floral, Small Prints and Tartan & Check.
