Let’s get your home-away-from-home spruced up for the summer season. Incorporating a few of these French country cottage must-haves will make your summer home extra comfortable.
1) A large coffee table is perfect for a leisurely afternoon of playing board games, reading and relaxing feet-up. A solid-wood 48″ square coffee table has a hefty French country style that will endure for generations.
2) Novelty beds transform that dull, dingy sleeping cave into a fun room that all will clamber to bunk in. This nautical bunkbed has extra storage for books, clothing and a clever rope railing. Guests will want to sail away into sleepland.
3) Be a spirited host by adding a French country wine bar console that neatly stores a large selection of reds, whites, and liquors. Make drink selections available for guests when they arrive back home after a long day of fun in the sun.
4) Add cool colors. We’re seeing it everywhere—stark white combined with robin’s egg blue in cottage kitchens bedroom and bathrooms. We love this perennial combination…why not add a writing table, wheat back chair, and hutch bookcase to a summer bedroom.
5) Pick a table that extends. This 5ft. French country trestle table would slide into a compact nook and still comfortably seat 6 to 8 guests. Add the 16″ company boards, and you’ve got yourself a party! A trestle tables allows guests to be seated without straddling a table leg.
6) Get more counterspace. Cottage kitchens never seem to have enough work surface for a hosting a gang. Add a free-standing island for guests to sit and chat while you cook. After all, everyone likes to hang in the kitchen.
7) Add a place to drop your stuff. Hang sandy beach bags, stack extra flip flops and store all your must-have raincoats for summer weekends at the beach. A mudroom storage unit is the answer to your cottage clutter problems.
8) Get flexible seating. Sometimes you have four for dinner, other times a gang of six kids show up. That’s why a perfect seating option is a low country bench.
9) Invest in storage. Nothing says cottage-charm like a solid-wood painted dresser. Closet space tends to be lacking in cottages, so a great dresser or armoire is a must-have. Pick a timeless bonnet chest, or a 6-drawer dresser or a wardrobe to store your all your favorite shorts and T’s.
It’s time to start planning all your summer cottage updates, let’s hope the snow melts soon!
