Café Design

Decorating Consultations

Book Review| Notes on Decorating, by Markham Roberts

When you make a purchase using our links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. You can read our full privacy disclosure here. Thanks for your support! 

Thank you so much for your sweet messages after Thursday’s post! It makes me happy to see that so many of you share my love of English cottages. I’ll make sure to follow up with a second part soon. In the meantime, I wanted to take a moment to welcome new subscribers ( Thank you so much for following along! ) and to share with you a fantastic new book that’s just been released last month – Notes on Decorating, by Markham Roberts, published by Vendome Press.

View Post

10 Ways to Add English Cottage Charm to Your Home

With a cult following of its own, the English Cottage Style has long transcended its geographic boundaries, becoming a favorite style of decorating for legions of design lovers worldwide. Yours truly included. Smaller in size and cozier that any other style of house, cottages can live large in the way we decorate them. Smart planning and making the best out of limited space are key. If you count yourself among the many fans of the English Cottage Style and would love to create a similar look in your home, below are ten design elements that I believe can help you do just that. 

View Post

A Little Bit of Love

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a good start. Instead of a usual blog post, today I want to share with you a little furniture makeover I worked on over the weekend. This old dresser came to me from a friend who was clearing out her basement and asked if I wanted it. She knew I love old furniture and seeing that this is such a great piece, I said yes. The dresser is an antique and I liked that it had good bones and pretty drawer pulls that were original to the piece. But the layers of cobwebs and gunk, and thick green oil paint made me instantly regret my decision so I cleaned it up and left it out in the garage for a while, not knowing whether to chuck it or keep it.

View Post

Book Review | Pietro Cicognani: Architecture and Design

With so many design books being released this Fall, we have a great opportunity to expand our design sensibilities and enrich our home libraries! If you’re interested in what’s out there, in the following weeks I will be sharing more reviews here on the blog but for now, I thought we’d have a sneak peek into a volume scheduled to launch next week that I think you will very much enjoy – Pietro Cicognani: Architecture and Design.

View Post

Our New (Old) Dining Room Hutch

About a month ago I spotted an antique china hutch on Facebook Marketplace (as one often does) that I fell in love with and thought would be perfect for our little dining room. (Who can resist turned legs and scalloped aprons?) The proportions were right and the time-worn walnut finish – not too orange, not too yellow – was exactly what I wanted for the space and tied in really well with the highboy in our living room (another Facebook Marketplace find!). 

View Post