Is The Cottagecore Life For You?
Is The Cottagecore Life For You?
If you have found yourself wishing for the calmness of countryside farm life. Or, just the peace of living simply and making an effort to slow down and appreciate the moment? Enjoy flower arrangements, soft pillows, and baked goods. Are you attracted to baskets, mushrooms, and house plants that you proudly display? Learn how to make jam and then spread it across freshly baked bread. Then the Cottagecore lifestyle is for you!
What is Cottagecore?
Cottagecore embraces the charm of the 18th-century English countryside. Most of the time, it is a romanticized idealized representation of farm life.
When did it become popular?
The cottagecore aesthetic saw a cultural explosion in 2020 as people desired to create safe, cozy, inviting spaces in what felt like a world of the unknown.
After months of lockdowns, people began to realize they enjoyed the simple slow pace of living as they made personal sanctuaries from the outside world in their homes. The movement continues as many people begin to make those idealized symbols of Cottagecore an actual practice and way of life.
Here is a link to my Cottagecore Pinterest page where you can gather some ideas from as I add on our own and others ideas : Wildwood Wonder
Living Cottagecore Today:
Self-sufficiency, connection with nature, and embracing the slow, simple life have become common goals. We focus on back-to-basic skills such as baking, crafts, and gardening.
I split my Cottagecore homestead into three main areas:
- Cottagecore Home
- Cottagecore Garden
- Cottagecore Kitchen
To see if Cottagecore is for you, let's explore these three main areas and the elements that make up each one.
Cottagecore Home:
A Cottagecore Home is where you can find comfort and refuge from the outside world. It's a place you can't wait to come home after a day on the job. I've often heard people say they can't stand being home, and I've always thought that was such a sad thing.
A house is not a home until it's not just a place you sleep but a place you can live. Home is a place unique and personalized to you; filled with your favorite things.
Your home should be where you can find peace, stillness, and love. One way we can achieve that is to create an aesthetic that embraces those feelings. I accomplish this in my home by aligning with the Cottagecore aesthetic.
To embrace the cottagecore aesthetic in your home, you are doing to want to look for the following key elements:
Elements of the Home:
- Texture, Color, Patterns
- Display in Layers
- Bringing Nature Inside
- Handmade Items
- Vintage/Recycled Items
- Artwork: Nature, 18th-century farm, or mushroom themed
You can take these elements as minimalistic as you want or as a maximalist; it depends on your taste. The cool thing about your home is its YOURS. You get to decide what direction you what to take it.
For example my reading nook area has all the elements of Cottagecore home, but is heavily themed with nature elements.
Cottagecore homes can also fall into the following three styles:
Darkcottagecore (think witches hut in the forest), Farmcore (a mix of little house on the prairie and farm life), and grandmacore (yep, that sweet little old lady's house with knitted sweaters and crochet dollies). But, a well-balanced home will sprinkle a little of each throughout it.
Remember, it is all about DIY. Try out your handmade skills with macrame plant hangers, sew pillows yourself, and try your hand at pressing flowers! Create flower arrangements with flowers from your Cottagecore Garden.
Cottagecore Garden:
Stay calm about this area. If "I have killed every plant I've owned" went through your mind, then you are in the same place as everyone new to gardening or house plants. I'm letting you in on a secret.
During my first two years of gardening, most of my seeds didn't even come up, I managed to kill every plant that did sprout, and one year I was overtaken so badly by weeds I just let them take over!
Even after failing so miserably, not just once but twice! Something inside me couldn't let the desire to grow food out of the soil go. My body, mind, and spirit naturally yearn for good simple, and wholesome food, even if, at the time, I didn't know what that meant.
But, honestly, I only had myself to blame. I needed to do the proper research and preparation for a successful garden. My failure is a gain for you because I will teach you everything I've learned and continue to learn. I will go deeper into the five key elements in another blog post, and will have resources available in my Cottagecore Garden Blog section.
Don't let "space" keep you from gardening, either! You can create a small garden on an apartment balcony or even inside your apartment with the proper knowledge. I also have several tips on how to do this in the Cottagecore Garden Blog!
The Cottage Garden is an 18th-century garden that fits perfectly with my gardening style. Just like back then, we use natural practices and stay way from synthetic fertilizers and poisons.
So, let's go over the basic elements of this area and their connection to cottagecore.
Elements of the Garden:
- Food Production
- Healing
- Works with Nature
- Visually Pleasing
- Sustainable
Cottagecore gardening focuses on slow gardening and works with a natural process of how the garden can grow and develop. It should be a pleasurable experience to work amongst the flowers and veggies. Not the stories you may hear from your uncles about how miserable they were hoeing row after row of butter beans!
You also what to attract birds and butterflies to your yard. It should be a place to sit and enjoy a good book and tea. If this sounds like a fantastic place to be, then a cottagecore garden is for you!
Cottagecore Kitchen:
I saved the kitchen for last because we have to have a place to use all those homegrown goodies! If you are not ready for a garden yet, no worries! You can still start a Cottagecore Kitchen, as it's all about the aesthetics and the food!
Food is a universal love language. We spend all day everyday eating. My kids love eating fresh warm oven bread; add some local honey, and you have heaven on a plate! I want my kids to walk into the kitchen and know they can find good food.
Aesthetics & Cooking Blend together
Cottagecore Kitchens follow a lot of the same elements as Cottagecore Home. We see the exact characteristics of layers, texture, color, patterns, nature, handmade, and vintage/recycled pieces. The difference is they are focused on cooking and preparing the food, whether baking, canning, or pots of soup.
The cottage kitchen is also about quality ingredients as close to their natural form as possible and how you use them. Displaying fresh veggies, fruit, and eggs on the counter will allow easy access to ingredients. The same goes with your bread and pastries, easily accessible and displayed out in the open, tempting everyone who passes by!
Your cottage kitchen is one of the three main Cottagecore areas I would slowly develop over time. Remember you want your kitchen to be functional as well as pleasing. I give several examples and suggestions in my 2 Steps to Creating a Cottagecore Kitchen Blog.
If any of the three main areas, Cottagecore Home, Cottagecore Garden, or Cottagecore Kitchen, sounded like the perfect cozy escape, then Cottagecore is for you!
Thank you for stopping by our Cottagecore Homestead!
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