Text by Katie Ellis
Open the door to this 1948 classic post-war-style bungalow and find a space filled with natural light, cozy furnishings, and sentimental accents. Homeowner Harriet Alley spent almost eight years updating and decorating both the exterior and interior of her cottage, seamlessly blending the cottage’s rich past with contemporary pieces.
Harriet describes her style as traditional but fresh, and from the front gable to the main bedroom, that sentiment rings true as she highlights the cottage’s best features with innovative ideas, colors, and textures.
Columns separate the living and dining rooms, giving the front of the home an air of openness. “There’s a little bit of space separation, but it’s still just one big room,” Harriet says. To help the room feel larger than it is, Harriet capitalized on the natural light that pours through the large windows and furnished the space with neutral, beige-colored pieces. “I just wanted to keep it light and airy to open up the space as much as I could, but I still wanted it to look cozy, so I added some pretty drapes, a pop of color in the pillows, and natural artwork,” she says.
Just off the dining room, the cozy cottage kitchen is a space Harriet aimed to renovate while remaining true to her home’s style. She updated the 1950s-style black-and-white-checked laminate flooring with black slate tiles and painted the once white walls and cabinets a calming shade of green.
Because the kitchen space is limited, Harriet opted for a few smaller tables rather than one large table that would have overwhelmed the space. She was able to tie the whole room together with a handful of decorative accent pieces—an antique light fixture, a curtain panel she had made just for the space, and a unique plate display. “I wanted to do something different to add some depth,” Harriet says of the plates hanging on her wall, noting that she started with the fish prints and incorporated the dinnerware when she updated her collection.
The neutral palette continues throughout the home and into the bedrooms. And the guest room adds a contemporary flair by incorporating vibrant accents of coral with the room’s base of pale green walls in Benjamin Moore’s Vale Mist. “Once I found that color,” Harriet says, “I knew these two shades would be interesting mixed together, but not necessarily expected.” The result is just another example of how Harriet’s cottage marries warmth and openness, underlining her traditional but fresh design style.
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