The Cottage Journal Summer 2024

SUMMER VACATION One of my favorite things about the summer months are the long, hot days where time spent outdoors is abundant. For me, there’s always been so much to look forward to during this season—at the top of that list are a handful of special family birthday celebrations and annual getaways. Growing up, we would count down the days till we loaded up the car for a week of fun in the sun at our favorite sunny beach town. In recent years, we’ve traded our holidays by the ocean for cool mountain air and alpine lakes. No matter how or where you spend a vacation, it is always a gift to rest and recharge, making new memories with the ones you love. This special issue is packed with beautiful…

Spanning continents and centuries, blue-and-white china has proven to be a time-tested fan favorite—and with good reason. This beloved tabletop pairing’s origins date back to 14th-century China, where artisans identified cobalt oxide as the only pigment able to survive the high firing temperatures necessary for producing their fine porcelain. As these wares made their way along trade routes, Europe found itself immediately enchanted with these imported beauties. It didn’t take long for other manufactures to follow suit, and today’s collectors find themselves with a plethora of Asian, Scandinavian, English, and American patterns to choose from. Collecting is just the beginning, as styling these lovely pieces proves to be just as thrilling as the hunt itself.…

Classically Southern, casually elegant, and graciously detailed are only some of the ways to describe Ashley Gilbreath’s style. In her debut book, The Joy of Home, Ashley focuses on how to achieve the home of your dreams through excellent design and plenty of personality. Throughout the book’s 240 pages, Ashley breaks down many of her interior design projects and her process for those homes. “For every project, I focus on creating a home tailored to each family’s needs and to stand the test of time.” she says. “I tap into my clients’ histories and memories to understand what resonates with them.” Her ability to dissect each client’s personality and desires while also reflecting her signature touch is what makes her method so interesting. She identifies some of her distinctive elements…

When Samantha and Andrew Chused started the hunt for a second home, they were searching for a true haven from the stresses of everyday life—a place to escape and recharge with their young son and daughter as well as extended family and friends. They found the perfect retreat in a 1969 Cape Cod gambrel-roof abode in the scenic Racing Beach area of Falmouth, Massachusetts. The home had just undergone a full-gut renovation and expansion by a developer who planned to use it for himself but then decided to sell. As luck would have it, the spacious, updated layout showcasing stunning views of Buzzards Bay from every corner proved to be precisely what the Chuseds had hoped to discover. Now, all they needed was to give it the tranquil aesthetic they…

Charming doesn’t begin to describe this one-bedroom, 908-square-foot guest cottage built to accommodate overflow from its main historic farmhouse located on pristine waterfront property in the Chesapeake Bay area. “We designed the cottage in a style that complements the existing farmhouse, with beaded lap siding, black shutters, and a metal roof, all reflecting other materials used throughout the farm,” says architect Christine Dayton, who worked on the cottage with local builder Ted Boettger from 2020 to 2021. Perhaps the most striking feature is the cottage’s wraparound porch, which features tongue-and-groove Ipe decking and a beaded board ceiling painted haint blue. The porch adds an additional 835 square feet to the cottage, which features an en suite bedroom, a half bath, and an open-plan kitchen and living room. Jamie Merida of…

Designer Liz Williams knew Kathy Gillespie long before she was brought in to design this new build in Florida’s Seagrove Beach community. “We grew up together in Atlanta,” Liz explains, adding that Kathy now primarily resides in Denver, Colorado. Considering the area’s snowy winters, the family’s secondary home needed to be a breath of fresh—and balmy—air. “They just wanted everything light and bright and colorful,” Liz says—and that preference took center stage in selecting everything from paint to draperies to bedding. Liz took the familiar blues and greens of a beach setting and cranked up the saturation, pairing the bold hues with plenty of white surfaces and making sure to, as she notes, “make each space a little bit different but keep the flow of the house going.” In any…