Table of contents for Spring 2024 in BH&G Cottage Style

Renovating—or in Laura Pavlovich’s case, transforming—a weathered and timeworn 1936 beach shanty into a gleaming dream cottage required both the vision of an artist and the heart of a poet. Laura, who is the homeowner and designer, looked beyond the cracks and quirks and saw the space’s possibilities, but she made sure to keep its character, spirit, and even the 875 square footage. Such a careful approach to the redesign grew out of Laura’s enchantment with the cottage, perched high on the bluffs of Three Arch Bay in Laguna Beach, California. “When I was looking for a home, I knew I wanted to be by the water,” she says. “When I opened the little door, I just saw water. I walked through the door and immediately felt at home. I…

“THE HOMEOWNER DIDN’T WANT OVERDECORATED. EVERYTHING HAS A PLACE.”—designer Barbi Walters A natural oak table greets all who enter this Los Angeles home and foreshadows the warm character beyond the foyer. The baker’s table once lived in a Belgian pastry shop. “There are even places you can see knife marks on it,” says designer Barbi Walters, who sourced the 1800s piece from a globe-trotting antiques dealer. “The homeowner wanted items that felt like they had lived a good life already.” After purchasing the 1950 Laurel Canyon property in 2020, the owner, who has since passed, tasked Walters and the other designers of The Lynden Lane Co. with a simple refresh of the backyard. But the project quickly evolved into updating the entire home (which has stayed in the family), creating…

preppy charm HADDY HOUSE INTERIORS Savannah McPartland and Ashley Hunt are a design duo based in Houston, Texas. START WITH LIGHTING. “Lighting, whether it’s in the form of lamps or sconces, is crucial,” McPartland says. “Bring in at least one, if not two, smaller-scale lamps.” MAINTAIN BALANCE. “Break the table into thirds or fourths, like this example with a lamp, a bowl, frames, and then another lamp. You can also do thirds, where it’s really just a lamp on each side and something larger in the middle,” Hunt says. LAYER PATIENTLY. “We always find a way to work in books, focusing on complemental colorways. Then we add objects—either something simple like this wavy bowl or something special. Don’t try to find all of your pieces in one shopping trip. Wait…

It was almost an interview to buy the house,” Mallory Vasquez Quigley says of the 1935 Colonial Revival she and her husband, Sean, purchased in his New York hometown. “The previous owners wanted to make sure someone wasn’t going to knock it down or flip it. That it was so sentimental to them made it even more special for us.” Granted, with the help of contractors and designer Jennifer Hunter, Mallory and Sean did make some changes to the historic property. A nine-month transformation of the 3,500-square-foot house approached the traditional architecture with a fresh perspective. The efforts resulted in a forever home for the couple (who recently left New York City) where they can raise their young children and comfortably host friends and family. The design team preserved the…

Mariya Levy and Laurie Scovotti have long dreamed of this home. Well, not this particular one, but whenever the women would catch up (because their husbands, both named Matt, are childhood best friends), they would discuss Scovotti, an interior designer, one day decorating Mariya and Matt’s forever home. The vision came to fruition in 2019, when the Levys purchased a new build in Manhattan Beach, California, and tasked Scovotti (remotely from New York) with making it feel like them. “They wanted the home to be colorful, more traditional than is typical of that area of California, and family friendly,” says Scovotti, who adds that Mariya’s attention to detail and frequent communication helped her design from afar—and in just three months, before the Levys’ third child was born. The home offered…

Designer Emily Ruff of Seattle-based Cohesively Curated remodeled this kitchen corner to seat a family of four and fit in seamlessly with its surroundings. Her furnishing, texture, and finish choices ensure the nook also shines all on its own. A NOOK BY THE BOOK…

“OUR HOME IS ALWAYS CHANGING. I’LL SNAG VINTAGE FURNITURE OR ART THAT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEREFORE WE MAKE ROOM.”—designer and homeowner Hannah Armstrong Hannah Armstrong just might have the cheeriest house on her block in Greenville, South Carolina. The interior designer has extended her style—“collected and colorful, with a touch of traditional”—to every corner of her family’s 2,000-square-foot ranch. “The house was built in the 1960s and was virtually untouched when we purchased it,” says Hannah, who works with Amanda Louise Interiors (a studio known for their use of vibrant colors and patterns). It certainly needed a few updates, but she was excited to build upon its good bones and add her personal stamp. First, Hannah and her husband, Barrett, tackled the pesky “un-fun” (as she says)…

When designer Mindy Gayer and her husband closed on their first home, a Southern California bungalow, they learned they were expecting their first child. “That kind of changed the game plan,” Mindy says. Although the couple felt the home lacked character, they originally planned to simply refinish the floors and slap on some fresh paint. They quickly realized they needed to tackle as much as they could before their first baby arrived—and fast. Mindy set out to create a charming hideaway reminiscent of the pastoral cottages in Britain’s Cotswolds. “We are certainly not in the English countryside, but I really didn’t want to design a beach house,” says Mindy, recalling the homes she admired while studying abroad in Cambridge, England. “I wanted us to have a space that felt really…