Cottagecore Decor 101 Getting the look on a budget

Cottagecore has been around for kind of a while now, and I honestly keep waiting to get sick of it, but I just don't. And maybe that's because it's a style that speaks to me personally, and also it just kind of fits perfectly with our house, which is in fact a cottage. I also kind of feel like cottagecore is sort of a modern iteration of a style we've seen many times before in the past. It actually reminds me a lot of sort of the shabby chic cottage decor of the early 90s when I was growing up, and I just love that too. If you're new here, hi, I'm Josie, and I share videos on home decor, thrifting, DIYs, and some behind the scenes of us renovating our own little cottage. One of the things that I love most about the cottagecore aesthetic is that I think it's just both really affordable and really attainable for most people. In fact, I feel like the more of sort of the found, you know, old vintagey items that you have, the more authentic-y cottagecore it can feel. In case you are still new to the cottagecore or you're just like looking to add more to your home and sort of like up that cottagecore feel in it, and this will be a little cheat sheet on how you can do that affordably and fairly simply. Just to give you some examples of what, you know, I have available to me in my thrift stores. I know all thrift stores are different, different prices, different availability, but these are generally items that I'm able to find throughout the country when I go thrifting. So I'll be sprinkling all of that out throughout this video to kind of illustrate some of the things that I'm talking about. That way you kind of know what to look for when you're hitting the thrift store. I have found that textiles have a really big impact when you're trying to get that like cottagecore feel in your home. And when I say textiles, I'm just kind of generally referring to like fabric pieces throughout your home. So things like curtains, tablecloths, bedsheets, blankets, all of that sort of stuff I kind of throw onto here. And even talking about sort of the fabric that maybe your couch or, you know, your chairs are covered in, I kind of lump that all into textiles just to make it sort of simple. Often in my experience, some of my favorite cottagecore spaces include a lot of different textiles with different patterns and different textures. And so you might see like a toile wallpaper on the walls, and then you know maybe a gingham bedspread, and you know even more patterns throughout the room on different textiles. Whenever I thrift, I never skip that aisle that has all those random, you know, household wares of like curtains and bedsheets, and they always just throw them all in together. But I never skip that because you never know what you will find. And when I'm digging through that aisle, I always tend to look for florals, gingham, toile, handmade quilts, hand embroidered pieces, basically anything with ruffles and lace. And while we're talking about textiles, we'll talk specifically about windows because I really think that window treatments can really up the cottagecore feeling of a space. Our home has some really lovely original windows. They're like a lattice pattern, and they're just so cute and obviously cottagecore-y. But obviously most people don't get to choose what windows their home has, especially if you're a renter or something like that. You know, you're stuck with what you've got. And even within the rest of our home, we have plenty of boring old plain windows. But there are two ways I found that are really easy to kind of up the charm of your windows. The first is obviously curtains. Of course, curtains can be really, really expensive. I don't know if you've looked at the price of curtains lately, but I don't know what's going on, but they are crazy expensive. However, I found that you can honestly find a lot of curtains at the thrift store. Over the years I've found some really fun matching curtain sets. Now obviously the downside is that if you have multiple windows in a room and you want them all to have matching sets, it's often hard to find more than one pair at a thrift store at a time. And so you're kind of left with figuring out what you want to do with those other windows in a room. One cheat is that if you do so, you can often find bedsheets, sometimes like a matching flat and fitted sheet, which gives you a lot of fabric. And you can turn those into curtains, which I've done before. In fact, recently I just made a custom little curtain for the bedroom from a bedsheet that I thrifted. And I was able to completely customize it, make it exactly what I want, really up the cottagecore feel, adding some ruffles and lace and all all the fun stuff. However, even if you don't sew, a nice little cheat that I found is that most thrift stores are kind of overflowing with like lacy curtains. And often you can get a nice long lacy curtain and you can honestly just hand trim with your scissors along the lace to kind of follow the pattern that the lace is. And you don't even need to sew it, you can just hang it up as is. So that's one cheat that pretty much anybody can do. And another benefit of using those lace curtains is that often you don't need to have matching lace all the way around your room. You can have different lace patterns throughout the room and honestly it kind of adds a little bit of an eclectic feel, but at the same time your brain just kind of all sees lace. So it feels like it matches, but it also feels a little bit eclectic. So I don't know, I think that's a really fun option. Now I will share with you a non-thrifted option here too, because I think it is just such a good fun option. And it's fairly affordable and it is super renter-friendly. And that is Pattern Window Cling. So the windows actually behind me used to look right out at our neighbors. They still technically do. However, recently I decided I wanted to add some privacy to them and also some pattern because they were just big plain pieces of glass and they were just kind of boring. So I was able to get this really lovely like lattice pattern that actually mimics the original windows on our house. So I thought that would be fun, but it was also frosted, so it gave us some privacy. It is incredibly easy to hang up. The biggest tip I have for you is to make sure that whatever knife you're using in order to trim the film is super, super sharp. Otherwise it'll be kind of a frustrating thing to do, but if you have a nice fresh blade you can cut it really easily and it it takes very little time. Plus, like I said, it is super renter-friendly. It is damage-free. It'll just peel right off whenever you're you're done with it, but it also will last for years. I added similar cling to a different window years ago and it has not budged. It has not moved. I haven't had to do anything to it. It's still going strong. So this is a super great option, I think, if you want to add a little bit of charm to your space and you can spend just a little bit of money. But it's not super, super expensive and it can easily be taken off at any time. Finding decorative touches in the cottagecore style at the thrift store is honestly, like, maybe the easiest thing in my opinion. Lately I've been absolutely loving the look of a vintage plate wall and let me tell you, almost every thrift store I've ever been to has just, like, giant stacks of unused decorative plates. So that would be a really affordable, quick way to add some sort of art and decor to your wall. If you have a big blank wall and you want something a little different, maybe you don't have any art that you really love, doing a plate wall could be really fun. I also, over the years, have been collecting those, like, copper molds. I feel like Ina Garten and Martha Stewart really made those popular back in the 80s and I love to see them sort of coming back. And they're really fun. You can get them in all different shapes and then kind of create, like, an art wall installation with them, which is really fun. Baskets are also always a really great touch for a decor moment that's very, very cottagecore-y and most thrift stores are overflowing with baskets. I often will just kind of sit them, maybe put some dried flowers in them, but if you have tall ceilings, a really fun option would be to actually, like, hang them from the ceiling and create sort of, like, a little little installation of hanging baskets. That would be a really great way to kind of utilize really high ceilings, in my opinion. I also recently got this, like, super teeny teeny tiny basket when I was thrifting and I just, I couldn't say no to it, so I got it and it's been hanging on my peg wall in my kitchen and it really is just the perfect touch. Candlesticks are another great decor moment when it comes to cottagecore style, and often at thrift stores you can find all different types of candlesticks. So for years I have been collecting brass and glass candlesticks and I like to kind of mix and match them together to create a little bit of an eclectic feel, but there are also often really pretty, like, painted ceramic candlesticks that are very cottagecore-y that would be kind of perfect. So find ones that you love and I would say just kind of collect any in those style and then just mix and match and have some fun. Now when it comes to actual art, I've always had the hardest time finding art that I really truly love, but I think that's just because I'm, like, super super picky about it. However, there is typically some really great cottagecore, you know, style art that I see at the thrift store, so things that you want to look out for is, like, anything that looks, like, handmade, hand-drawn, hand-painted, are all really great things. I've also regularly seen pieces that are, like, hand embroidered and then framed and, like, anything like that, anything that has, like, a handmade touch to it is perfect when it comes to adding some art to your home decor that feels cottagecore. Lighting can really set the stage for, you know, a cottagecore home and I always love to see little touches, like, using little little baby lamps in your kitchen and sort of unexpected places and I feel like it just gives that sort of warm, cozy, cottagecore feel and it sprinkles at it throughout the home. Even if you have a space where you can't easily plug in a lamp, a really good sort of cheat that I found over the years is that you can get one of those battery-powered sort of rechargeable light bulbs instead and honestly I'll just cut off the wire at the back of the lamp base and I'll use one of those rechargeable light bulbs and then you can put a lamp anywhere at that point, which is really fun and opens up all sorts of possibilities. Personally, for me, I really love looking for more simple lamp bases and then finding a really fun pattern lampshade to go with it. Most of our stores have tons of different lamps and lampshades, so it's a really good space to pick those up. Now, if you can't find a lampshade that you love, you can always pick up a more simple one and then maybe recover it yourself. There's a lot of fun little DIYs you can, like, get your pans dirty and make it your own and add some fun maybe floral, maybe gingham, maybe plaid pattern that would just, like, really make it feel cottagecore appropriate. And lastly, let's talk about kitchens because I honestly feel like kitchens are the heart of the cottagecore home, especially. I often see really cute little, like, wooden shelves, wooden pegs, all sorts of little little touches like that at the thrift store and those are such perfect pieces to add to your kitchen, especially if you're a renter and you can't, you know, do any major changes to your kitchen. I really think adding those sort of, like, little warm, fun, like, eclectic touches to your kitchen can really take it to a more cottagecore feeling. We renovated our home. One of the things that I was really excited to add was our peg wall with our open shelving and it's so fun for adding little different cottagecore-y touches throughout the seasons, but if you can't do that, oftentimes you see those, like, accordion peg racks or even just, like, a little wood shelf that has a peg rack. I feel like I see those at thrift stores pretty often or you can pick them up on Facebook marketplace sometimes and, you know, just being able to, like, sort of hang fun little stuff, I feel like that's very, very cottagecore-y and, you know, just adding one of those to your kitchen, even if it's a small kitchen, might really change the whole vibe of it. And personally, I love the look of, like, having sort of some of your baking goods out and, you know, as part of the decor, basically, so for years I have collected sort of vintage canisters that are, like, mostly all glass and they're really lovely and fun and they're all just a little bit different and I put all of my, like, flour and sugar and all of that fun stuff in there and they live on my open shelving and so they sort of serve as decor, but I think there's something about it that has, like, a very cottagecore feeling to it to have, like, your baking goods, like, sitting out on the shelf. It did take me several years to collect, sort of, all the different sizes that I needed and wanted for for doing that, but I do think it's worth, sort of, the long haul. But you never know, sometimes I do see full sets of canisters that would be perfect if you like a matching set, so keep your eyes out, you never know what you'll come across. I hope that this has inspired you to add, like, a little bit of cottagecore vibes to your home, because even if you're not a full-blown cottage girlie, I still think that there's something so fun and magical about the aesthetic. And I love that you can do it without spending a crazy amount of money and it just is something that feels authentic and unique to every single person because there's a lot of found items in cottagecore. I just love that each cottagecore home feels a little bit different. It doesn't feel like, you know, somebody just went out and bought everything from Target or Bed Bath and Beyond or, you know, wherever. It all feels like it has a little bit of a unique touch for every single person who does it. If you love home decor and DIYs, I would love it if you would check out my channel, but either way, I hope you are having a lovely day and I will see you next time.