Winter Decorating Tips for a Country Cottage Look

Winter is a cozy season, and many people like to decorate accordingly. The country cottage look is a fine look for winter, evoking fireplaces and simpler times. If you'd like your home to have a country cottage look this winter, here are some decorating tips.

1. Your Porch - In winter, putting out a rocker isn't necessarily appropriate for the season. But you can create a welcoming, country look by using wooden crates and overturned galvanized buckets as tables, for example, and setting crockery jugs on top. Hand-painted slate signs saying "welcome" are also a friendly, country touch. Instead of a doorbell, put up an old-fashioned bell with a rope that people can ring.

2. Primitive Oil Lamps - Lighting is key to achieving a country cottage look, and it involves more than just "dim lighting." Oil lamps are a wonderful country accessory, and they don't have to burn actual oil (although those are fine, too). If you prefer, you can easily purchase lamps in a primitive, oil lamp shape that accommodate candle bulbs.

Other lamps with candle bulbs can lend a country air to your room. Look for lamps with wooden or metal bases and earth-toned shades. Lamp shades with decorative holes punched in primitive designs also add to the look.

Wrought iron chandeliers are a cozy choice for kitchen, dining room, or wherever you want an overhead light with a cottage theme.

3. Natural Light - A country cottage should have lots of natural light from windows or skylights. This gives an old-fashioned feel to the home, because in days gone by, there was no lighting during the day besides what came through the windows.

4. Pottery and Plates - Pottery, crockery, stoneware...is all lends a great country feel. Pitchers, buckets, jugs, and plates are particularly appropriate. Another good look for country cottages is enamelware, especially the blue-speckled-with-white variety. Enamelware stewpots, cups, plates, and coffeepots are pretty easy to find.

Mantel shelves and bay windows are ideal for displaying these country treasures, as are end tables and the tops of dressers and bookshelves.

5. Antique and Distressed Furniture - Speaking of dressers and bookshelves, wooden furniture that's done in a "distressed" finish lends a charming country atmosphere. You can use actual antiques or have furniture specially finished to create the antiqued look.

6. Garlands and Natural Decorations - Sprays of berries, garlands of bay leaves, and berry-spray garlands are wonderful winter decorations for a country cottage. Candle rings and swags also add to the look. Simple, natural, and primitive are the look you're aiming for; elaborate, complicated arrangements create a different look. For a country cottage, a simple sprig of berry-covered twigs in a stoneware pitcher set on a rustic wooden coffee table make the perfect decoration.