Fall – Cottage Style

More than anything else, blue-&-white check says ‘cottage’ to me. Doesn’t matter what it is; a pillow cover, a runner, a dish towel, a table cloth, a LOVE SEAT. Blue-&-white check says fresh, simple, comfortable, charming, happy, which is what inspired Fall – Cottage Style. 

The inspiration came from the blue & white window pane check love seat that is (for now) part of the seating arrangement in the ‘conversation’ area part of our long combination living/dining room. 

Here is the post about purchasing this Ethan Allen love seat from a consignment shop.  In Red Shutter Cottage (our San Diego home), this love seat was in the TV room, where Lucy and I cuddled together to watch HGTV, Hallmark and Lone Star Law. Here in the Dupont house, it fits better in the living room.  (For more about our cross-country move from Southern California to NE Indiana, please read “Our Story”.)

One of the classic looks for fall is the warm terra cotta, golden and green hues of autumn matched up with a blue, any blue. It all works together effortlessly, which is what helped create a  fall-cottage style look here.   

This is one of two couches in the Dupont house; one in the family room, and this one in the living room.  The bad news about this is I am not yet fully equipped with enough pillows and pillow covers to have pillows on BOTH of the couches.  I had to “borrow” these pillows from the family room couch for today!  This love seat is typically ‘decorated’ with old blankets and throws for Max to sleep on.  He waited impatiently for his next nap while I worked on this post!   

Max…with his impatient face.

I found this tote at Tractor Supply.  I actually find LOTS of things at Tractor Supply.  Last Christmas I found the most adorable Carhartt onesies for both my great-nephew and my grandson. (They are 5 months apart.)  I bought my winter boots there, along with a plant pot for the front porch.  

And then this tote, on the “Sale” table, marked down more than 50%.  This is the first time I have used it, but it fits in well with the ‘fall – cottage style’ feel here. 

The runner I have had for years, the throw is Pottery Barn (again, years!).  And here you get a peek at the pillows I sewed from a terra cotta window pane check fabric from Hobby Lobby.   I sewed the “pumpkin” pillows from a tablecloth a few years back.

I almost named this post “Thrifted Fall in the Living Room”. Much of what you see here is thrifted, starting with the love seat!   On the coffee table flanking the tote are a couple of wrought iron candle holders.  These are a thrift shop find, and give me no end of delight every time I look at them.  Those little tea lights (from Amazon) are battery operated with a built-in timer. (I was wondering how long it would take before they developed tea lights with timers!)   I just tossed some white beans into the bottom of the glass to serve as a ‘bed’ for the tea lights.

What else?  The little shelf unit, behind the love seat in the corner.  I won’t send you out to another post to read that story, I will tell it again here.  I was carousing my favorite consignment shop (the same one I bought the love seat from) and there it was.  At the time, we were planning our move to NE Indiana, and my instant thought (after the rush of delight) was: “No, you can’t buy it; you’ll have to lug it all the way to Indiana. This is a bad idea. In fact, very bad!”  But then I looked at the price…the marked-down price!  Completely against my will, it jumped into my hands and we headed to the cash register.  When they rang it up, the final price was even LESS than the marked-down price.  I shoved the change into my purse, grabbed my receipt, wrapped my arms around the shelf unit and dashed out of the store before they realized their ‘mistake’ and changed their mine!  And now, here we are.  (But here is the post in case you are wildly interested in reading it!)

A thrifted buffet lamp, on a thrifted corner shelf, next to a thrifted love seat…okay, enough is enough!

Oh, and the lamp sitting on the top shelf is also a find from a thrift shop here in Fort Wayne.  Even before I left San Diego, I had decided that I wanted to fill my new home with buffet lamps. I’m just not a fan of bulky lamps, modern lamps, ornate lamps, lava lamps, whatever lamps. 

Buffet lamps have always struck me as elegant and timeless…oh, and of course, cottage-y. (Okay maybe not classically ‘cottage’, but they still work.)  But when I priced them on line, it wasn’t good for my blood pressure.    

All of this to say that in the space of probably 2 weeks, I found 3 buffet lamps in various thrift shops here in Fort Wayne.  Amazingly, they all have the same design feel and similar finish.  They are all 3 the same height, and have the same shades.  In addition to the one in the corner behind the love seat, there are 2 on the piano. 

I found these two buffet lamps together in the same thrift shop. I like that they are a bit mis-matched.

We spend almost no time in the living room itself, especially at night.  But I have placed battery operated tapers and those tea lights in the living room so that it doesn’t feel like a dark hole. (I found the battery operated tapers from this post on Exquisitely Unremarkable.)  And when I turn on the buffet lamps, they create a warm glow that is cozy and inviting. 

I said it in the previous post, I will say it again.  This room is nowhere near complete, but it’s made such huge progress from last Thanksgiving (2021), which was the day we moved in.  All the credit goes to Sailor.  I brilliantly thought that the piano should go in the corner where the love seat and shelf unit are now.  Except it was not brilliant. Not even a little bit.  Having the piano in that corner threw the whole room off.   Sailor realized it fit better in the opposite corner of the room, and of course, he was right.  Once we re-positioned it, everything else just fell into place. 

Listing photo of the living room.

The piano in it’s perfect spot!

This room basically breaks up into thirds; the first 1/3 is the ‘media’ part, the piano and the (non-functioning) TV.  The second 1/3 is the conversation area of 2 chairs, love seat and coffee table.  The spacing needs to be worked out some, but we will get it.

Listing photo of the living room.

I originally had the movers put the piano in the corner where the couch is. Big mistake!

The recliner will be put out to pasture as soon as we find a chair to replace it.  And a regular sized couch and an area rug pulling it all together will help to define the space.  The back 1/3 is the dining room, which for all intents and purposes, is complete. I just need to frame and hang a pair of botanicals I bought on Etsy for each side of the hutch. 

This mahogany carved bar helps define the dining room area from the living room conversation area.

It’s early October right now. For the past few weeks, the temperatures have been dropping into the 70’s and then the 60’s.  Every day at sunset, I can literally see the sun slowly, progressively moving southwards as it arcs back to its winter position.  The leaves are changing in small sections of the trees and the afternoon sun has mellowed from bright to golden. A flock of geese just flew overhead and there is frost on the pumpkins. I didn’t realize I would experience this deep and quiet sense of joy and wonder from all this. I thought it would be all about the leaves changing colors.  It is so much more. 

Happy Fall (Cottage Style) from the Dupont house!

Kristine

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