Innholdsfortegnelse for Country Cottage Christmas 2022 i The Cottage Journal

COUNTRY CHARM Welcome the holiday season with us as we decorate with treasured vintage collections and prepare our homes for entertaining family and friends. Creative details and thoughtful design elements—both new and nostalgic—help make Christmas one of the most magical seasons of the year to embrace cottage style. In this special issue of The Cottage Journal, we’ll step inside extraordinary rooms filled with precious memories and unique personal stories. We invite you to find inspiration within our featured farmhouses and cottages. Heirloom elements put on display hold a special place in country style—especially at Christmastime. Honoring important traditions of the past and sentimental family connections is at the heart of this issue. And our highlighted homeowners and collectors are eager to share their beautiful labors of love that are sure…

There’s no shortage of Christmas cheer when it comes to Margy and Eldon Richter’s home, built in 1890 and located in a small town just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. “Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I just deck out the whole house,” says Margy. “The home has so much character anyhow that you can just have fun with it.” The fun begins before guests even step inside the home, with an enchanting front porch display featuring white Christmas trees the couple crafted from recycled doors. Conveniently, the doorknob even functions as a place to hang a greenery-filled bucket accessorized with a festive plaid bow. Inside, Margy’s creativity shines through the new motifs she thinks up for her tree decorations each year. With anywhere from four to nine trees…

It’s fitting that the Allen family found their forever home during the Christmas season. Amy and Eric Allen’s shared enthusiasm for the holidays is evident everywhere from the festive mantel to the garden shed draped in fresh greenery—and it starts to show as early as November. “I don’t think I ever stop looking at Christmas decorations,” says Amy. “I have a basement filled with Christmas décor.” It starts going up before Thanksgiving, in part because Amy wants to share inspiration with her online following but largely because she and Eric—along with daughters Madilyn and Emma—want plenty of time to enjoy the magic before the hustle and bustle of December sets in. “I really like to keep it cheerful and charming,” Amy says, which means, despite changing up the décor style…

When Amanda and James Upton found their 1970s fixer-upper on an acre of land in the Forest Knolls area of Langley, British Columbia, Canada, Amanda knew it had the potential to become the perfect canvas for her primitive farmhouse style. “I have a lot of collections—I am a bit of a hoarder—everything from stoneware bowls, marshmallow tins, and scales to Christmas ornament boxes and seasonal blow molds,” says Amanda, who shares her revolving host of vintage collections on her Instagram page and resells them as a side business, both of which she calls Forest Knolls Vintage. “The great part about my collections is that I can love them for some time and then pass them along to someone new.” Come Christmastime, she clears out her everyday collections and makes way…

Walk through Ashley and David McAlpin’s farmhouse, and you’ll find it difficult to tell the new from the old. “The house was built in 1940, and all the lumber that was used to build the house was from the land the home is on,” explains Ashley. When she and her family moved in, a number of updates had to be made—including the addition of three bedrooms and two bathrooms—but the McAlpins were careful to preserve the antique personality of the original structure. Trim work sourced from a dismantled barn on the property, rustic planking on the walls, and plenty of timeworn pieces blur the line between historic and fresh. “Nothing in my house is new—not even the furniture,” Ashley says, and her approach to year-round décor extends into the Christmas…

When, in 2002, designer Amy Wilson and her husband purchased their home just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, it was filled with classic design elements from the ’90s. Over the years, the home’s floor plan proved to have great bones, and it has continued to adapt and grow, right alongside the couple and their five adult children. As time passed, Amy found ways to infuse her interior designs with a fun farmhouse charm as she reworked some of her favorite pieces via creative DIY projects to make her traditional house into a well-loved home. “Back in my 30s, I was wanting to make things more austere,” the content creator says. “I wanted things to look grand and rich, but as I’ve aged, I now want things to look relaxed…

When Cindy and Bill Fowler first stepped foot inside this 1986 ranch-style home in Davie, Florida, they knew it would be the ideal setting to welcome their family—especially the newest member, their first grandchild. Seven years later, the Fowlers now have eight grandchildren they frequently host, making use of the expansive great room that initially sold the couple on the property. “When I saw the house, I fell in love with the great room,” says Cindy. “It’s such an oversize space and the heart of the home.” While the bones of the house caught her eye, there was plenty of work to be done. Luckily for Cindy, who serves as the creative driving force behind the designs, Bill is quite the handyman and was able to help bring her visions…

Five years after relocating to Alabama from their native home of Ohio, Karen and Tony Reynolds got word that the work-related move would be permanent, and they immediately began the search for a country cottage with ample land, finding the perfect property just outside of Ashville, Alabama. The house itself needed work, but fortunately, the Reynoldses were up to the task. “We lived in a subdivision and boarded our two horses at a stable, so the main goal was to be back out in the country,” Karen says. “The house was not at all our style, but we wanted the 5 acres it was on. Tony had a hard time seeing my vision with the place, but he always trusts me. This is our fifth home we have remodeled in…

The connection between the families of Destanee and Seth Franks began long before the couple got married and built their Craftsman-style cottage on property passed down from Seth’s family in the small town of Corner, Alabama, in 2016. The couple’s grandfathers were the best of friends and spent ample time together on the very land where the Frankses’ house sits today. Though Destanee’s grandfather, Pawpaw, passed away the year before they wed, his memory lives on in both Seth’s grandfather, Papa, and pieces of family history woven throughout the home they now share with their two young sons. “I keep our home simple and cozy,” Destanee says. “I love mixing vintage items with new and adding pieces that have a story. Our home is filled with pieces that have been…

Amber Lyon Ferguson describes herself as a traditionalist at heart. Whether that means not breaking out the Christmas décor until after Thanksgiving dinner or hosting a yearly caroling party with her music students, there’s an air of authenticity to her Kentucky home that progresses throughout the holiday season. “From the time I was young, I was always fascinated by old things,” she says, noting that even in college, she gravitated toward vintage finds. “I go by the William Morris philosophy: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” This past Christmas season even more than most, Amber found a reason to emphasize aged Christmas charm, as the home reached its 100-year anniversary, and she leaned into the 1921 theme. A…