The English Country Cottage - Softcover

With a decided emphasis on cozy country charm, The English Country Cottage explores 25 delightful old cottages that have been updated with all the comforts of modern life and yet manage to retain much of their period flavor. Even the names ring with the unmistakable sound of the quaint English countryside: Smuggler's Haunt, Mustard Pot Hall, Wealden Close, Rose Cottage. Most are relatively traditional, though no less appealing, with lots of plump chintz cushions, botanical prints, nautical themes, pleasantly weathered furnishings, and hutches overflowing with crockery. But a few are refreshingly different, such as the vibrantly hued Cider-House Cottage, where the owner painted fanciful designs all over each room to warm the cold look of the stone walls, or Folly Cottage, with its bright red walls and many Gothic accents. The clear photographs display plenty of good ideas for mimicking the style, but by and large readers must extract these ideas themselves since the text focuses much more on examining these particular cottages (what renovations were needed to make the old structures livable today; descriptions of garden designs or color scheme choices) than on analyzing the key design elements or explaining how to re-create the specific effects. --Amy Handy

Sally Griffiths is a well-known writer and journalist whose work has been widely published in Britain, France and America. She was a contributing editor with House & Garden and her work features in several international magazines. She is also the author of 100 Great Pasta Sauces, 100 Hot and Spicy Sauces and The English Country Cottage