Modern Cottage Style: All About The Design Trend That’s Currently Taking Over
For a long time, it seemed like the modern farmhouse trend would never die. The all-white walls, black windows and doors, pale wood floors and shiplap everywhere was it. For years. But sometime around 2021 things slowly started to change. Wood tones got deeper, walls got darker, and things started to feel a lot more cozy. Enter: Modern cottage.
Modern cottage style is the latest design trend to take over the mass market. It’s all about saturated colors, lots of floral and botanical patterns, authentic antiques and plenty of charm, all balanced out by a subtle modern edge. There’s a distinct British undertone running through it all, too. While the term we’ve all decided on is “modern cottage,” I actually think it’d be more accurate to call this style “modern English cottage.” It feels like you popped an old house from the Cotswalds into one of Studio McGee‘s Utah mansions. If I haven’t said it yet: I’m all about it.
If you’ve been seeing this turn toward moodier tones and layered interiors and you’re thinking “I want that in my house.” keep reading, because I’m going to share everything I know about this style, including where it came from, how to get it in your home, and my favorite modern cottage spaces to get you inspired.
Where did modern cottage style come from?
It’s always interesting to me to look at trends and think ‘how did we get here?’ And usually, the answer to why new trends take shape is actually in the old trends. Trends are generally a reaction to whatever came before them. In the 2010s, the modern farmhouse felt like a breath of fresh air after the Tuscan kitchens of the 90s. At the same time, it was also a contemporary evolution of another big trend at the time, Shabby Chic.
People start to get sick of looking at the same thing for years. Shabby chic started to feel a little cluttered, and Tuscan style felt heavy. Modern farmhouse took some of those elements, like distressed finishes, layered neutrals, and country-inspired accents, and made them feel sophisticated.
Now, after a decade of modern farmhouse, we all got a little sick of the bright white walls, light woods, and the shiplap. We’re craving color and pattern. We might love the charm shiplap brought to a space, but we want to do it in a way that’s less cliche. Modern cottage delivers on all of the above.
Let’s look at some of the signature elements that make up the modern cottage style:
Modern Cottage Style Musts:
Saturated, color-drenched walls
Color-drenched walls might be the biggest hallmark of the modern cottage trend, as well as the biggest departure from modern farmhouse, which was all about bright white walls. Color-drenching is painting walls, trim, and sometimes even ceilings, the same color. And often a color that’s rich, like dark gray-blue or a medium sage green.
Warm neutrals
This is a trend that’s happening across all design styles, but warmer, brown-toned neutrals are a hallmark of modern cottage style. Millennial Gray and greige have been replaced with mushroom tones, chocolate browns, and taupe.
Botanical and floral wallpaper
Vintage-inspired botanical and floral wallpapers are going up in rooms around the country, Brands like William Morris, Sanderson, and Sandberg’s wallpapers have become go-tos for embracing a warm, rich, cottage-inspired interior design.
English-style kitchens
I used to work for a British design magazine called Homes & Gardens, and one of my favorite parts about it was looking at all of the British kitchen photos we featured. The UK does kitchens a little differently. For one, many of them are free-standing, which means the cabinets move, like furniture, instead of being fixed (or ‘fitted’) to the wall. They also tend to have more furniture-like elements in them in general, like kitchen island that look a little more like library tables than the typical American island. Colors tend to be more unusual (think pink and green, or butter yellow), and European-style ranges are popular.
All of these things are now happening in the modern cottage trend,
Darker wood tones
Light wood tones were everything for years. Furniture was whitewashed oak, ditto to floors. Antiques were often painted with chalk paint and then distressed. No more! The modern cottage trend incorporates deeper wood tones, and leaves antiques in their natural form. Flooring trends have also turned deeper and richer.
Beadboard and vertical shiplap
After shiplap started to feel tired, the new wall-trim of choice became beadboard. I shouldn’t say new, because beadboard is a classic that was used even through the modern farmhouse trend. But now it’s having a moment, Vertical beadboard, often done 3/4 of the way up a wall and painted in a rich hue, is everywhere. Same with tongue-and-groove paneling, or “vertical shiplap.”
Overall, the look takes some of the things we all loved about farmhouse style—the layered, lived in, approachable vibe—and adds a layer of moody sophistication that makes it feel fresh and elevated. I’m definitely a fan and look forward to seeing how this home trend evolves!
