Tranquil Timeless Tudor Design: Classic Serene 1920s Cottage Tour Now!

This unforgettable Tudor cottage on HGTV’s Fixer Upper with design by Magnolia (Chip & Joanna Gaines) known as the Scrivano House (Episode 4) inspires with an understated palette, mix of vintage plus modern, and original architectural charm. Tranquil and Timeless Tudor Design Details from this house tour may calm your spirit and quiet your mood.

If you thought Chip and Joanna never ventured beyond a modern farmhouse look, let this project inform you otherwise!

Tranquil and Timeless Tudor Design Details From a Serene 1920s Texas Cottage

1. Parisian Grey Exterior Trim

You need not be forced to live with chocolate brown Tudor trim, cottage lovers. This painted trim is reminiscent of a Parisian grey with enough warmth to keep the exterior feeling calm and traditional.

Need an idea for a tranquil grey paint color like this? Look at SW Uncertain Gray or Dorian Gray. See THIS for more ideas.

2. Warmth from Natural Wood & Beams

Don’t you love the magic happening between whispery light grey woodwork and rustic, patina-ed beams and old doors?

The decision to paint over brown stained trim and doors in an older home is highly subjective, and here we see a compromise to bring harmony. So many folks are shy about pairing stained wood doors with painted trim, but the look can be attractive and traditional yet freshened.

Speaking of traditional yet freshened, if you care to learn a little more about a design trend many Millennials embrace, see this story I contributed on the topic!

3. Airy Greenery in Lieu of Dense Florals

Colorful floral arrangements have their place in plenty of interior and more formal contexts, but a simple single stem, branch, or frond can be magically calm and life-giving.

4. Unadorned Windows

When painted window trim is this pretty and you desire to capture the maximum amount of sunlit splendor, skipping the curtains is an easy call.

BONUS DETAIL: Also inspiring me is the way Joanna Gaines freshens traditional style rooms with more modern succulents and plant choices. The rustic cement pot with greenery above keeps the mood lighter, organic, and airy.

Here’s an everlasting succulent option I own and never tire of:

An everlasting succulent like the Agave from Nearly Natural is perfect for freshening a traditional room and reinforcing the “chic” in “granny chic.”

5. Turn Down the Volume

There are so many ways to quiet a room including: a whispery color palette, uncomplicated vignettes, and gestures as simple as reversing the direction of books on a shelf to minimize the busy factor. (And I am well aware a ton of folks think turning books around on a shelf to keep things less fussy looking is an ignorant move…but kids, vintage books shelved here were incorporated for visual texture, not to show off literary breadth!)

6. Choose Light & Sculptural Seating

While chunky farmhouse dining tables work well for function and style in serene spaces, ruggedly heavy wood chairs aren’t the best complement when you’re going for a serene mood. These oval-back, modern, Louis-style dining chairs look light as a feather and sculptural. The addition of the cushions improves their function and keeps the look from crossing the line into austerity.

7. Don’t Underestimate Clear Glass Beauty

Pale shades of handmade pottery and vintage earthenware urns and vases look right at home in a Euro inspired cottage. But to freshen the look of any space mixed with vintage, think clear glass both as a receptacle (for candles and beyond) and as stand-alone understated minimally modern decor.

8. Create Movement Creatively

In serene spaces where clutter-free is a priority, colors are kept understated and atmospheric. Accessories are quiet yet pattern can play a pleasing role when emphasized imaginatively (like this checkered floor).

9. Play Up Bygone Features Like a Butler Pantry

There’s something so ‘everyday enhancing’ about these ‘room within a room’ spaces in kitchens! Designed to work hard and hide clutter, they may even function as command central.

See More Design Ideas from a Shotgun Cottage by Chip & Joanna

10. Celebrate Existing & New Built-ins

While this charming cottage came with a few beautiful and architecturally brilliant built-ins, Chip and Joanna added new ones as well. This built-in banquette cozies up a corner with restaurant-style (expand the image to notice the foot rail detail!).

Another new built-in, this unexpected tall arched cupboard is positioned smartly between breakfast area and working part of the kitchen, serving as storage, display, and a well-crafted piece of art.

11. Paint Kitchen Cabinetry With Tranquility

The softest whispery warm grey on the cabinets and wood work in this sweet Tudor plays a starring role in telling a serene story. While black cabinets in here might be chic and stunning, there’s a gentleness and tender mood that surfaces when the narrative is as sedate as this one.

Find ideas and paint color inspiration HERE.

12. Live, Sleep & Dream on a Cloud

Bedrooms can be cave-like spaces to simply house a bed and accommodate a tired head or they can SERVE. Serve as a retreat, serve as a haven for daydreaming, and serve as a meditative sanctuary to contemplate or decompress.

13. Symmetry to Soothe

While plenty of cottage designs call for quirky architectural moments and humble simplicity, something special happens when the formality of symmetry is celebrated.

14. Timeless Bath Design Elements

For a timeless look that will not feel dated in a few years, incorporating classic materials like calacatta marble and handmade glazed white tile makes sense economically and aesthetically.

More traditional bathroom design inspiration awaits here.

The hex Calacatta gold mosaic tiles used on the shower floor are the very same ones we chose for our Arizona kitchen’s statement wall. Score them for yourself RIGHT HERE.

15. Get the Look of This Beautiful Home

See this inspiring post with shopping resources, furniture, and decor to replicate or riff on this Fixer Upper beauty.

Also…mosey on over to these Euro-inspired farmhouse decor ideas to score budget friendly, cottagewares!

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

Hungry for more unfussy, laid back, country style inspiration from the Fixer Upper Texan team?

See these design ideas to Get the Look of “The Club House”

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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