The Cottage Journal Autumn Cottage 2022

SEASONAL SPLENDOR This special issue holds a collection of our fall favorites from The Cottage Journal! From cozy, rustic retreats to inviting outdoor entertaining ideas, our creative editorial team has thought of everything to help you celebrate the season. Autumn is an ideal time to gather with family and friends, and the cooler weather allows the opportunity to extend your living spaces outdoors. Whether you’re hosting a formal Thanksgiving dinner or a more relaxed luncheon with friends, don’t miss our three unique, harvest-inspired alfresco tablescapes beginning on page 101. Layering patterns and colors and warm, cozy textures is key, and our expert stylists showcase their tips and tricks on creating showstopping tables that exude effortless cottage style. These gorgeous looks can be recreated indoors and will only be enhanced when you add…

For an elevated garden style this season, go beyond a simple bowl of gourds or jack-o’-lanterns. Autumn is all about texture. Try layering pumpkins and squash into a collection of baskets or straight into garden beds, piled high among the flowers like bright jewels. The rich red-oranges, buttery yellows, and crisp whites make bold companions for mums and marigolds. On the porch, where displays are protected from the weather, arrangements of autumnal harvest fruits and vegetables can create beautiful inspired moments—whether they’re enclosed in rustic lanterns or used as an accent to a wreath or centerpiece. Try adding some of nature’s most beautiful fruits to your next dinner party or garden picnic for a look that will not only impress but also inspire others to embrace the coming fall months.…

Elaborate details and nature-inspired motifs are the identifying features of the carving style commonly known as Black Forest. But despite the name, the carved goods originated not in the Black Forest region of Bavaria, Germany, but rather a lakeside community in Switzerland. In the early 1800s, when a famine devastated the Swiss village of Brienz, local artisan Christian Fischer began selling carved pieces to tourists and was met with wild success. It wasn’t long before he needed to enlist and train other artists to meet the demand, starting the town on a path to history. While at the beginning, Brienz carvings mostly featured animals native to the area, their growing popularity among travelers from the United Kingdom, North America, and other parts of the world led to a wider variety of pieces.…

Yvonne Pratt has always loved decorating, but she realized early on that, as much as she enjoys color in other people’s houses, she prefers the serenity of whites and neutrals for her own home. “I like a calm look,” she says. The spacious country home near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that she shares with her husband, Bobby, has a semi-open floor plan, so sight lines travel through several rooms. “You have to go through a lot of things visually, and you don’t want it to overwhelm you,” she says, “so the calmer and more neutral the palette, the better.” Even seasonal decorating obeys the quiet neutrals rule. For fall, autumn leaves pressed between glass and a few pillows embroidered or printed with pumpkin designs nod to the season’s traditional earthy colors, but the…

When it came to decorating her client’s mountain home in Wilson, Wyoming, Kate Binger, founder of interior design firm Dwelling, had a clear goal for the space. “We wanted to honor the heritage of the West as well as the farmhouse architecture,” Kate says. To accomplish that, Kate and her team incorporated mountain-style elements into a space that maintained the comfortable airiness of farmhouse design. From the stone fireplace in the living room to the wooden ceiling beams throughout the home, rustic details are balanced by vaulted ceilings and stretches of white surfaces. “My clients gravitate toward a refined masculine aesthetic,” Kate notes, adding that the design style was inspired by some of the homeowners’ original furniture and art that was sourced from Orange County, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. “I…