Cottage Kitchens to Inspire

I hope these Cottage Kitchens to Inspire will provide help with your kitchen renovation, redesign, and new build plans. While most examples here are casual country style kitchens, you’ll notice there truly is a range of interpretations for classic cottage style. While spacious kitchens with giant center islands are commonly seen online, today’s photo gallery also includes a selection of realistic, smaller, u-shaped kitchens without an island of any size.

Cottage Kitchens to Inspire

Ina Garten’s Classic Approach to Kitchen Design

This glimpse at Ina’s kitchen in Rockefeller Center is from 2009, but the kitchen’s timeless good looks and her evergreen advice make this truly worth revisiting. She loves a simple approach to design and provides concrete tips for it.

For a more detailed discussion of traditional style – keep reading.

English Country Style Kitchens

Some of our very favorite kitchens on Hello Lovely are English style from the English countryside.

But thanks to a presence in the US, deVOL Kitchens can help you create the English country kitchen of your dreams.

Dreams?

What timeless beauty!

European Inspired Kitchens to Inspire

Who wouldn’t smile every time they entered this French bistro-like kitchen? This cottage-style kitchen with exposed beams has an understated range hood, subway tile backsplash taken to the ceiling, French cookware, a French stove, and brass hardware.

I just love how clean and fresh it feels. For a much simpler, rustic warm, pared down look, here’s a beautiful country kitchen with ceiling beams, wood counters, a cottage look, and very craftsman architecture.

French Country Kitchens

Sometimes a charming French look can happen in country kitchens outside of France! This rustic kitchen space by Myra Hoefer features a marble topped work table, an absence of cabinet doors, cream tones, vintage ironstone and a restrained palette.

An Australian Country Kitchen

The restrained color palette heightens the kitchen drama and feels modern in spite of traditional elements. I spy classic materials for cottage kitchens including beadboard, vintage creamware, open shelving, and an apron front farm sink.

Connecticut Cottage Kitchen

Another kitchen with white cabinets and open shelving, yet this one invokes a different mood.

Kitchens from Sarah Richardson

We have frequently explored Sarah Richardson designed country kitchens over the past decade.

Her off the grid farmhouse in Ontario is a favorite (find the story here), and here’s a short video where she takes us behind the scenes. Sarah knows her way around classic design that feels fresh. Take a look!

Scullery in Atlanta

If light blue kitchens thrill you, you may love this one.

U-Shaped Traditional Kitchens

I don’t think I’m alone in being interested in smaller kitchens in apartments and cozy houses.

It’s inspiring to see how every inch is utilized for function, yet they also manage to be beautiful!

Go big or go home?

Okay!

And is it really the worst thing when you have to rub shoulders with family and friends in the kitchen?

Isn’t this tiled wall unexpected for such a wee space?

Traditional and dreamy!

Black and white are such a tried and true combo for classic kitchens of all sizes.

Thoughts on Traditional Design

What Makes It Traditional Style?

Traditional isn’t trendy or stuck in the past. It honors the past by incorporating antiques and beautiful print fabrics that feel timeless. Secondly, traditional style relies on comfortable furniture and cabinetry with clean lines, familiar silhouettes, and symmetry.

Thirdly, senses of order and calm are priorities. Finally, comfort ranks high on the priority list guiding decorating design decisions.

Traditional Origins

How Did Traditional Interior Design Develop? Traditional style developed as a result of furniture designs, interiors, and decor hailing from the 1800s and earlier in European countries.

Warm wood tones and rich colors associated with elegance and comfort are associated with traditional decor. A neutral palette or tone on tone is also widely celebrated. Prints such as damask, plaid, paisley, stripe, and floral are all commonly embraced for wallpaper, home decor fabrics, furniture, curtains, pillows, and bedding.

Enduring Appeal of Traditional Decor

Why Does Traditional Interior Design Endure? Timeless and traditional style works because it has withstood the test of time! Qualities of warmth, sophistication, and a sense of history or context flow from it.

Rather than push the envelope or experiment, traditional leans into the tried and true. Still, there are a wide range of creative interpretations for traditional interior design style!

Traditional and country style kitchens can be exciting and fresh without the influence of the latest and greatest new fashions on the runway.

Design Elements Traditionalists Love: Antiques with a story and pleasant lines are important in traditional design.

Secondly, hardwood flooring in warm, rich tones is a popular choice. Thirdly, traditional furniture tends to be more comfortable and formal.

Furniture details such as claw feet, carvings, medallions, tufting, gilding, and fluting are often present. Fourthly, traditional fabrics tend to be higher end as they intend to stand the test of time. Specifically, linen, velvet, silk, and leather are traditional choices for textiles.

Finally, in terms of silhouette, traditionalists admire Gustavian, Queen Anne, Classical French. Chippendale, Sheraton and historical furniture styles that continue to be relevant today.

How to Achieve a Traditional Look

Traditional Interior Design Eye Candy: Traditional style often honors architectural elements such as crown molding, arched doorways, French doors, and transoms. A modernist might deem the same touches traditionalists admire as elements that are too busy or too ornamental. Traditionalists are rarely minimalists! Secondly, symmetry is honored in traditional interiors. It’s not unusual to see a pair of sofas in a room, equidistant from a focal point such as a fireplace.

Traditional rooms feel balanced and harmonious, and there’s a sense of “the expected.” Thirdly, there is often an elegance factor in traditional interiors that may be absent in other design styles such as country or modern.

Traditional charm is rooted in more formal sensibilities than informal ones. Therefore, you will find more refined details in traditional decor choices. For example, decorative trim on drapes, carvings on wood trims, heavy wood trims and architectural moldings, paneling, formal china and glassware, silver and gold objects, bookshelves and built-in window seats, etc.

The Art of Harmonious Interiors

Create Harmony in a Traditional Style Space…Symmetry is an important factor to establish a sense of balance and harmony in a traditionally designed room. Additionally, prints and fabrics are matched thoughtfully for balance.

While traditional spaces may include contemporary furniture or art, the majority of pieces (antique or reproduction) hail from a common era to avoid an overly eclectic look. Traditional rooms have sumptuous upholstery and classical curves from furniture, mirrors, moldings, and accessories.

Traditional Elegance Deconstructed

The Role of Understated Elegance…Care is taken in traditional style interior design to avoid excessive formality or garishness. Too much metallic, heavy drapery, lacquer, mirror, pattern, gloss, or ornate finery can undo the charm of a balanced traditional design.

Understated elegance is achieved when the mix includes a pleasing proportion of shiny with matte, formal with less formal, and bold with subtle. Additionally, mid-range color and muted tones work best in most traditional interiors, as opposed to bright, dramatic, or bold color schemes.

I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

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