My Top 10 Cottage Make-Over Tips

From the West coast to the East Coast, I think most Canadian’s would agree the ultimate summer past-time is cottaging! That being true, one might say the second favourite past-time is searching for that ultimate summer cottage to call your own, but often the reality of what’s available or affordable can look more daunting than dreamy. But don’t discourage - just learn to focus on the potential. I’ve compiled my top 10 favourite ways to update and transform a dated, dysfunctional drab cottage interior into your dream retreat, without the need to take a sledgehammer to it. This is a refreshed post from 2015 but all my tips remain the same. The focus is on affordable quality materials, editing fixtures and neutralizing the palette to net you enduring style and functional ease.

1. TAME THE WOOD:

Wood on wood on wood, furnished with more wood,,,is simply too much wood. Everything in wood just looks like a sea of brown (or orange).  If you love wood and want it to be a feature,,,,,then you must paint some of it out, this will in turn will highlight the natural unpainted wood so it can be appreciated for all its beauty, not drowned out.

2. CLEAN SWEEP:

Remove wall to wall vinyls and broadloom and replace with light to medium coloured character grade wood planks or natural stone slate tile (available in every imaginable size). These super affordable but high quality natural materials will be durable, forgiving, easy to clean and age well. When ultra low maintenance, budget, and practicality is the priority check out wood or stone look LVF (luxury vinyl flooring) or porcelain tiles that mimick stone or wood. Layer natural fibre area carpets and flat weave kilims for luxurious comfort and coziness.

3. UN-OBSTRUCT THE VIEWS:

Strip the windows of fussy ruffled fabric or boxy valances and heavy dark coloured blinds. Replace with fully retractable simple rollup blinds, shades or swing open shutters. There are loads of inexpensive ready-made options that can even be cut to size in-store. Less is definitely more when it comes to window coverings. My go-to’s are matchstick and bamboo blinds or cotton roman shades, mounted above the windows. Alternately or additionally use cotton or linen drapery panels on a dark metal or wood rod and rings that fully stack back to reveal the outdoors but can easily draw closed for privacy. Selectively clear away overgrown bushes and trees that are blocking views or robbing interior spaces of daylight.

4.  COUNTER POINTS:

Many old cottages have plastic laminate, tile or plywood counters that are chipped, stained or dated in colour.  A new solid wood counter will add instant quality and substance. Custom made ones can vary greatly in price point depending on species, joinery and edge details but you can also find ready-made and easy to install solid wood countertop material at Ikea and most building supply stores. Perfectly suitable and charming for kitchens and bathrooms. Alternately a pre-formed laminate counter-top from the building centre, in white is a super inexpensive way to instantly freshen and brighten those surfaces.

5.  SINKS:

A simple sink swap out can add more function and style. Replacing a small kitchen sink with a larger size will make clean up a breeze (or hide the mess til later), or swapping to a smaller size can net you more precious counter space.  Adding a second sink makes the kitchen doubly functional for two cooks or family gatherings.  In bathrooms, replacing a stained or retro coloured sink with a new vessel or drop in style is an affordable, easy install even onto an existing counter - no custom fabrication required!

6.  FAUCETS & HARDWARE:  

A new faucet and cabinet knobs are an instant style update to kitchens and bathrooms and interior doors.  Look for styles that will enhance your cottage character and evoke vintage, shaker, or rustic charm, in dark or aged metal finishes. Large gooseneck spouts, industrial pulldown sprays, classic bridge style or convenient single levers with high arc spouts. Splurge on fixtures made with solid brass cartridges and you won’t be replacing these anytime soon. 

7. APPLIANCES:

Replacing older mis-matched appliances is not only an aesthetic upgrade but the newer models are more multi-functional, energy efficient and space saving. Today you’ll find a wider choice of sizes and finishes available so you don’t have to default to the same sizes that were put in place 20 years ago. Most cabinetry can be modified fairly simply if needed.

8. LIGHT IT UP:

Replace generic looking lighting with simple vintage or rustic style fixtures to enhance your cottage character and create a cohesive style.   Evoke rustic or coastal charm by selecting fixtures with aged or painted metals. (Black metal or oil rubbed bronze are my favourite!). You can add wall sconces, pendants and swing arm task lights without hiring an electrician - just use plug-in style fixtures that can be mounted to walls or suspended from ceilings wherever you need more light (which will be mostly everywhere!) and create ambience, all you need is an outlet nearby. Book shelfs, step lights, wall art, under kitchen cabinets,,,with LED lighting there is almost no where you can’t install lighting, even wirelessly.

9. SHELF IT:

Shelves are the easiest and most affordable solution for adding storage without the cost of built-ins. Install wall mounted shelving and brackets or ready to assemble shelves to not only organize but add purpose and function to any under utilized or cluttered area. Wanna amp up the style factor, use reclaimed wood, vintage metal brackets or wood corbels to create shelving that’s also a one-of-a-kind statement piece.

10. PAINT IT:

If you want a relaxing, calming, serene space that lets the outdoors be the main attraction,,,then paint over any loud, bold, intense hues on the walls in a light neutral palette that will compliment your view of the great outdoors and not detract from it. In small cottages, keep the walls and trim tone on tone for low contrast. Transform cabinetry with paint - an accent colour will highlight good quality wood kitchen and bathroom cabinets and make an instant style statement, or, simply neutralize lesser quality or unattractive cabinetry by painting them out.

11. PANEL IT:

I couldn’t stop at 10 without including my final and favourite way to add instant character and durability to walls and or ceilings - add panel moulding, v-groove, shiplap or beadboard panelling to walls, ceiling, islands, or backs of cabinets.  When painted with an enamel paint its also a great inexpensive alternative to tiling around bathroom or kitchen sinks and provides a sturdy backing for installing hooks and shelves (see tip no.9!). 

To see how I applied all of these strategies in this family cottage make-over check out the links below for individual before & afters:

Cottage Master Ensuite

Kitchen Progress

The Guest Bathroom Progress

The Guest Bathroom Before and After

The Boathouse Bathroom Before and After

The Boathouse Before and After

Photos By:  Carol Reed

For more advice and round-ups of Carol’s favourite finds and products - subscribe to our News letter in the sidebar! When you sign-up you’ll receive the next edition of CREED For Your Home in your inbox and a link to the current edition.

E-Design Floor Plan & Ensuite: Century Home Renovation

floor plan: reconfiguring THE SECOND FLOOR

I first began working on the redesign of this century home for an e-design client a few years ago, beginning with designing a new open concept main floor kitchen. The homeowners are a young active family of 3 with a big picture goal of a whole home renovation and are approaching the re-design of the home with a lot of preparation, initially working with an architect to draft up floor plans to reflect their general wish list. From there, they reached out to me to review and assess their proposed plans and develop the interior design further. With the new plan for the main floor now detailed to completion, we recently took on the task of assessing the second floor.

Here’s a look at the existing floor plan, along with the initial concept they had drawn up for the second floor reno. The current layout is 2 + bedroom and 1 bath, the “+ bedroom” being an oddly small room originally referred to as a ‘carriage room’ in the old days. They’re awkwardly too small to use for a bedroom (and don’t meet minimum code dimensions for a bedroom) and not quite large enough to function as much else other than a tiny office or storage. You’ll notice that even in the client’s proposed plan the room hadn’t been utilized for a new purpose. (note the secondary back staircase was already planned to be removed for the main floor kitchen reno.)

Existing Floor Plan

Client's Renovation Plan

When I assessed their plans I saw some missed opportunity to add more value to their reno investment - the small carriage room wasn’t being utilized for a new purpose and I saw this a valuable space. I can appreciate the desire to maintain the feature of a 3rd bedroom but this space wasn’t functional for that by modern day standards and by maintaining it, it was preventing them from adding more functional upgrades like a second bathroom and bigger closets. Typically the incentive for renovating these homes is to increase the number of bathrooms and closets where ever possible.

What I liked about their plan was the large master bedroom at the back of the house, and its walk-in closet, but what was lacking by today’s standards for a newly built or renovated home was a master ensuite, although I could see there was definitely potential to add one. My viewpoint on this was that I didn’t see any added value in keeping the tiny carriage room, but if they could create an ensuite in addition to the main hall bathroom and a larger second bedroom they’d not only be adding value and function but greatly enhancing their day to day enjoyment of their rooms.

I immediately explored the potential to add that ensuite to the master. Above is a quick block plan of just one way that could be possible . Although this was perhaps the most straightforward approach from a layout perspective, we didn’t develop this any further, instead we opted for a more efficient approach of keeping the two bathrooms back to back (which would also stack them above the power room below.)

Below is a look at the final before and after plan for the second floor.

The new plan keeps the master bedroom at the front of the house where it currently is (not shown on plan the intent is for the window to be enlarged to match a new larger window on the main floor below) and it enjoys a 4 piece ensuite and separate walk-in closet. Their son now gets a more spacious bedroom, for a queen or twin beds along with a full wall of buitin storage. The hall bath is compact but doesn’t lack anything, it has a 36” vanity and full size tub/shower combo. The hallway is nicely proportioned and is spacious enough to accommodate some furniture pieces which is a wonderful bonus that always makes a hallway live larger than it is.

Now that the floor plan was finalized we moved on to designing the master ensuite. Here’s a look at some of the inspiration images my client had collected on Pinterest which provides some insight to her style objectives.

Inspiration images are quite different than mood boards which are typically more abstract in imagery. The method of curating room images is incredibly helpful for e-design clients to communicate to me what they like in terms of style, colour palette, and architectural features. From these I can comprehend their design language and spot consistencies in what they’re drawn to. In this case, it was simple, clean lines, modern, white, light natural wood tones, touches of black and a hint of mid-century modern. A floating, double vanity was top of her wish list.

This is one option we presented for the vanity, designed to float on a wall of warm-white glazed tiles that add a distinct texture. The floating vanity was configured using standard Ikea Sektion sizes +/-” so this would give them the flexibility of having it either fully custom made or going with an off the shelf solution and adding custom drawer fronts only in a light wood tone with shelves to match.

Material Samples for Master Ensuite | Carol Reed Interior Design Inc.

Sample materials for the ensuite design included a mix of glazed wall tile, large format porcelain floor tile, white and grey marble slabs, and a grey and white geometric marble mosaic in the shower.

There’s always a unique solution for every space as each homeowner’s requirements are different. The concept above is a preliminary version of the final concept that was delivered to our client.

One of my key pieces of advice for bathroom reno’s, particularly if you’re not working with a designer, is to avoid trendy tiles, or attempting to create a complex tile scheme - use restraint, stick with finishes in timeless neutral palettes, use natural materials (or their man-made look-a-likes) that have interesting textures and classic patterns installed with consideration as to how each enhances and elevates the other. There’s plenty of space to inject your personality into the room with light fixtures, artwork and accessories, these can be changed up anytime without demolition.

If you need help with a challenging floor plan, check our E-Design services on thedesignshop.ca

For more peeks at full-service and e-service design projects you can follow us on Instagram @carolreeddesign

CREED Blog: The Subscriber Edition

March of 2020 marked the 15th anniversary of CRID and in the spirit of evolving on the Blog I had planned to launch our first subscriber’s “Newsletter”, (which is actually not intended to be a Newsletter style at all). Instead, I consider it a Subscriber’s Edition of the CREED Blog delivered to your inbox. It won’t contain the blog post themselves but rather a letter of highlights with some personal insights and shares (beyond the blog post topics) that I hope you’ll find particularly useful for your own home projects. Which is why I’ve named this Subscriber Edition of the Blog, For Your Home.

On the website and the sidebar of this blog there’s a Subscriber sign-up form which was added about 5 months ago when I first began setting up the tech side of things. To all those who have subscribed - thank you for your patience!! My plans to launch to the Subscriber’s list in March were interrupted when all COVID sh*t hit the fan and normal daily life came to a halt. Our work schedule went a bit sideways as projects accelerated to adjust for potential shut-downs so logistically I opted to postpone the launch til things normalized somewhat. Juust when it looked like that was happening the tragic death of George Floyd turned our collective attention to much larger, more important issues, and that’s where it needed to be.

This year more than ever I’ve been craving a space where I can share resourceful info for home improvements while knowing its reaching those who are interested and want to receive it, (without any algorithms to contend with) and allowing me to tailor topics specifically to your interests. For me that space has always been blogging and email. My own domain is my on-line home and where I feel most inspired to post, its where its most relevant and where I’m returning my focus.

Now here we are post Canada Day and well into July so I’ve decided I’m just going to jump right in and get this Subscriber’s Edition launched this week because I feel more ready for it now than ever, especially after these past 4 months.

I’m not sure exactly what format this new edition will take on but I have lots of ideas I want to explore. There’ll be an Ask A Designer section where you can send me a question and I’ll share at least one Q&A in each edition - so get your questions ready!! I’ll include round-ups of some favourite (and affordable!) finds and go-to’s. The content will develop organically as I get in the groove and get your feedback.

I can’t promise how often you’ll receive updates in your inbox, at least once a month as a start, ultimately bi-monthly. What I can promise is there will be no ads or sponsored content in the emails and no obligation to ‘like’ or comment (for the algorithm) - but I do hope you’ll feel encouraged to comment directly via email or in the Blog comment section.

If you’ve received this blog post in your inbox it’s because as a current or past client, associate, friend or family member you’re automatically subscribed to receive the first and future Subscriber Editions from the blog. Coming soon! If you want to unsubscribe you can easily do that at the bottom of this post or the news letter at any time. The Blog will still remain right here on the website for anyone to visit.

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