If your family owns a cottage, you will likely spend every free weekend there during this beautiful summer season. When you’re visiting, incorporate handcrafted items and crafts in every corner so that it will feel less like a vacation spot and more like a second home.
- The Kitchen
The cottage kitchen is supposed to be comforting, giving you memories of making breakfast or whipping up hot cocoa on the stovetop. You can tie into that warm and fuzzy feeling when you frame an old family recipe and hang it on the wall — if you don’t have a recipe that’s been passed through generations, choose a favorite dish and handwrite the instructions yourself. Use sandpaper to remove some of the paint on the wooden frame to make it look like an antique or give it a rich coat of stain. Other clever DIY projects for your kitchen would be to change bejeweled brooches into refrigerator magnets and embellish recipe boxes with bent silver spoons — taking your vintage items and turning them into brand new pieces is a brilliant way to decorate this cottage space.
- The Living Room
The living room is the space where you want to lounge in when the weather is cold, when it’s raining outside or when the mosquitoes are too plentiful. You should drape every couch, chair and bench surface with soft knitted blankets and crocheted pillows to make the area look and feel cozy. You can find knit and crochet patterns for blankets, afghans and pillows on the Yarnspirations website and download them for free. The Caron Lumberjack Blanket and the Caron Turning Points Knit blanket will match perfectly with the rustic atmosphere, and Caron Cozy Cottage Crochet Pillows are directly on theme. The website has an unbelievable stock of Caron yarn in different weights, fibers, colors and brands for you to choose from — you can buy your yarn online and have it shipped directly to your home, and then start your patterns right away.
- The Patio
Mason jars are all-around essential items that can be used for storage, dishware and home décor. One of the greatest mason jar projects that you can try at your cottage is to take a bunch of jars, puncture holes into the lids and then attach them to a line of string lights. Screw the lights in so that they are completely secure and then hang them from your patio railing or along your gate. This is a wonderful idea for those nights when you decide to sit on the patio table to play cards, drink and chat for hours.
While they are small do-it-yourself projects, you will notice the difference that they make when you are moving around the cottage. You will enjoy hanging out on the back patio after the sun sets, you will feel comfortable curling up with a good book in the living room and you will be flooded with sweet memories when you stand in the kitchen.
