Cottage-Style Bedroom Decorating Ideas

Bring the refined charm of cottage style to your bedroom with these cheery, colorful and pattern-rich decorating ideas from top designers.

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April 27, 2022

By: Maria Conti and Brian Patrick Flynn

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Give Your Bedroom the Cottage Treatment

Bring enduring cottage charm to your bedroom with furnishings and finishes synonymous with the happy, garden-inspired design style. From pastel walls and posy-clad prints to wicker baskets and weathered wood beams — we’re covering all the bases and sharing 20 decorating tips to help you master the cheerful, timeless style.

First tip? Use an iron-frame bed as the focal point of your cottage bedroom a la Massucco Warner Miller Interior Design. Select a wrought-iron bedframe with a canopy silhouette for your main bedroom or opt for a spindled Jenny Lind-inspired design for a laidback approach in the guest room. Opt for an inky iron finish to balance the featherlight color palette at play in your cottage room or lower the contrast for ethereal appeal with a white-washed iron frame.

From: Massucco Warner Interior Design

Play Doubles

Searching for inspiration for your cottage-style kids’ room or guest bedroom? Interior designer Bria Hammel offers a crash course on coziness and symmetry by using two of everything to finish this sweet space. A pair of scallop-edge beds flank a shared blue dresser topped with a creamy table lamp at the center of the room. The matching continues throughout the space with floral-patterned linens, bed quilts, storage benches and area rugs. Try Bria's twice-as-nice technique in your shared cottage bedroom design to yield a polished, put-together space.

See More Photos: Shared Kids' Room Design Ideas

From: Bria Hammel Interiors

Illuminate With Lanterns

Skip the glam gold or silvery chrome sconces and wash your cottage bedroom in warmth with timeworn lantern-style light fixtures. Noelle Interiors uses a pair of charming aged brass wall lanterns above an antique bench to create an inviting reading nook. Set the tone for the book nook in your bedroom with similar brass lanterns on your wall or dangling overhead. And, if you're bored with brass, you can always switch it up with patinated copper, oil-rubbed bronze or pewter fixtures instead.

Get the How-To: Aged Brass Hack

From: Noelle Interiors

Welcome Charm With Weathered Wood Doors

Retire your plain builder-grade doors and replace them with rustic, reclaimed wood doors for unmatched cottage appeal. Designer Marie Flanigan brings storied charm to this otherwise crisp-white cottage suite using a weathered wood door and polished nickel knob. Get the same show-stopping look at home with a quick trip to your local architectural salvage shop. Pro tip: Be sure to measure your doorway (twice) before you head out to ensure a seamless fit.

Get the How-To: Reclaiming Antique Doors

From: Marie Flanigan Interiors

Frame Sentimental Frocks

Pastoral prints and landscape paintings are lovely, but both feel lackluster compared to this one-of-a-kind framed christening gown from Marian Parsons. Create a meaningful focal point for your cottage bedroom walls using a priceless playsuit or christening gown and our easy-to-follow tutorial below.

Get the How-To: How to Frame Antique Textiles

Be Pretty in Pink

Make interior designer Ashley Gilbreath your guiding light and use blush-pink pillows as a kick of color in your white cottage-style bedroom. The romantic hue is ageless and elegant, serving as a seamless complement to cottage bedroom mainstays like antique wood furniture, distressed accents, warm woven baskets and creamy-white bed linens.

Watch the Video: Pink Bedroom Paint Tips

From: Ashley Gilbreath

Cue the Chintz

Embrace garden-cottage flair in your bedroom with bold layers of chinoiserie, toile and chintz in pastel hues. Designer Kim Armstrong expertly marries whimsical vine wallpaper with plush ruffle-edge bed pillows and a matching posy-patched armchair to create a supremely welcoming feel in this cottage guest room. Create this storybook look at home by selecting three unique textile and wallcovering patterns that share at least one color. This technique ensures the mixed motifs appear intentional and cohesive rather than overwhelming or chaotic.

Make a Statement on the Ceiling

Give your contemporary white bedroom sophisticated cottage allure with character-rich wood ceiling beams a la designer Ashley Gilbreath. Sun-bleached beams frame the crisp shiplap ceiling to bring subtle interest overhead in this polished suite. Recreate the understated cottage look in your bedroom with reclaimed wood from a salvage store and our step-by-step installation guide below.

Get the How-To: Faux Ceiling Beams Create Rustic Feel

From: Ashley Gilbreath

Layer Patterns Like a Pro

Pile your bed with peppy hues and lively patterns like the pros. Layer your headboard with pillows donning mixed large-, medium- and small-scale cottage patterns like embroidered botanicals, birds, checks and stripes. This trick cuts down visual clutter and creates subtle contrast between layers for polished results.

Get the How-To: How to Mix Patterns Like a Pro

From: H. Camille Smith

Go Au Naturale

Take cues from interior designer James Farmer and usher a sense of ease into your cottage bedroom with furnishings and accessories made from natural materials like rattan, wicker and bamboo. Massive woven trays hung above the fretwork bamboo headboards bring dimension to the wall and accentuate the ceiling height in this coastal cottage guest room. Bamboo Roman shades dress the window while twin seagrass benches foot the beds to tie the space's organic elements together.

See More Photos: 15 Woven Accents to Warm Up Your Home

From: James Farmer

Dress to Impress With a Floral Skirt

Slip a showy floral skirt onto your cottage bed to sleep in style. Interior designer Kim Armstrong sets the bar in this boudoir with a voluptuous chartreuse bed skirt paired with a tailored white duvet and scallop-edge shams. Follow her lead and dress your windows with custom drapes sewn from the same floral fabric as your bed skirt to yield an elegant, cohesive design.

See More Photos: Large Floral Gives Life to Design

Display Keepsakes With Glass Door Cabinets

Put your keepsake quilts on display with a glass-door cabinet and woven wicker storage baskets. Marian Parsons does both in this coastal cottage bedroom, and the results could not be more charming. Get the look with a thrifted (or hand-me-down) tallboy cabinet in its natural aged wood finish or update it to your taste with a few coats of neutral chalk paint. Can’t find a vertical dresser you love? Use a vintage curio cabinet or dining hutch with glass doors for the same sweet, see-through results.

Get the How-To: Upcycle Reclaimed Doors Into a Custom Storage Cabinet

From: Marian Parsons

Sweeten With Stripes

Balance the bountiful blooms in your cottage bedroom design with tailored stripe accents. Bed linens, upholstered chairs and area rugs are prime real estate for slipping in a stripe. Interior designer Laura Boyd pairs this pretty blue-and-white floral headboard with pastel pink, cabana stripe Roman shades and two perky Euro pillows covered in the same cheery fabric.

Get the How-To: How to Stripe a Dresser

From: Laura Boyd

Cozy Up Your Bed With Quilts

Want to add cottage style to your bedroom in five minutes flat? Make your bed with simple white linen sheets and polish off with a neatly folded quilt at the footboard. Quilts are synonymous with cottage interiors and create a casual, approachable energy ideal for bedroom designs. Marian Parsons uses a cream-and-blue quilt to cozy up this charming iron bed and mirror the ruffled plaid bedskirt below. Snag a similar quilt from a family member, flea market or DIY a custom design with our quilting guide for beginners.

Get the How-To: Basic Quilting Tips

Color Outside the Lines

Leave glossy-white wainscoting to traditional abodes and lean into the one-of-a-kind charm of cottage design with a wash of color. Paint your cottage bedroom millwork a peppy pastel or warm earthy hue. The White Arrow design team adds whimsy to this shared cottage bedroom with botanical William Morris wallpaper and coordinating powder blue wainscoting and window trim. Select the perfect paint color for your cottage bedroom by picking from tones found in your bedding, wallpaper or area rug.

See More Photos: Bedroom Color Ideas: Which Paint to Pick

From: White Arrow

Ruffle Your Windows

When in doubt, add ruffles to your cottage bedroom. Frilly bed skirts and toss pillows are winning additions to any cottage boudoir, but we’re especially partial to ruffle window treatments like these blue beauties. Designer Kim Armstrong frames the garden view from this homey cottage guest room with a lively tassel-trim valance, sporting the same ditsy floral pattern as the surrounding wallpaper.

Get the How-To: Make Ombre Ruffled Curtains Using Bed Sheets

Pack In Panache With Picnic Prints

Make your cottage bedroom pretty as a picture with snappy picnic-pattern curtains or bedding. Marian Parsons makes a statement in this cottage guest room with cheerful, apple-red gingham drapes. Cultivate the classic summer appeal in your cottage bedroom with gingham fabric in a preppy powder blue, navy, kelly green, marigold or ruby-and-white colorway. Another idea? Stick to solid color linens and drapery, and add impact underfoot with our step-by-step painted gingham floor tutorial below.

Get the How-To: How to Paint a Gingham-Pattern Floor

From: Marian Parsons

Choose Spring-Inspired Shades

This pretty bedroom is packed with gorgeous cottage-style design elements thanks to the muted springtime color palette of blush, raspberry and pistachio paired with flirty, feminine accents. Pistachio green is used on the ceiling, trim and walls to create a relaxing setting, while the berry velvet desk chair shines against the diffused green tones and coordinates with the rosy pillows piling the bed.

See More Photos: Pink and Green Rooms

Add a Gingham Bench

Add a cottage-style upholstered bench or armchair to your bedroom design. This mossy green gingham bench is tucked at the foot of the bed to add more seating options to the space. Not sure if your budget allows for a new furniture item? This gingham piece was purchased on clearance for less than $150 and reupholstered to coordinate with the room's color palette. Head to your local thrift shop and find a seating option with a silhouette you love, then follow our DIY upholstery tutorial, below, to make the piece your own.

Get the How-To: How to Refinish and Reupholster a Bench

Keep It Casual

It's wise to steer clear of traditional fabrics such as crushed velvet, silk, satin or taffeta when decorating a cottage-style interior. Instead, choose airier materials like basketweave cotton, linen or cotton-velvet blends. This traditional slipcovered sofa is made cozy with sage and blush throw pillows in linen-cotton fabrics for an easy-going design. Cottage charm continues above with a gallery wall made up of clever DIY artwork to create a comfy and inviting lounge area within the bedroom.

learn more: Decorator Fabrics 101

Cottage-Style Bedroom Decorating Ideas

Related To:

Shop This Look

Give Your Bedroom the Cottage Treatment

Play Doubles

Illuminate With Lanterns

Welcome Charm With Weathered Wood Doors

Frame Sentimental Frocks

Be Pretty in Pink

Cue the Chintz

Make a Statement on the Ceiling

Layer Patterns Like a Pro

Go Au Naturale

Dress to Impress With a Floral Skirt

Display Keepsakes With Glass Door Cabinets

Sweeten With Stripes

Cozy Up Your Bed With Quilts

Color Outside the Lines

Ruffle Your Windows

Pack In Panache With Picnic Prints

Choose Spring-Inspired Shades

Add a Gingham Bench

Keep It Casual

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