Tuesday's Design: Cottage Love

Ever since last Thursday when I read about this cottage in the NYTimes, I've literally had cottage on my brain! I'm so all about the cute and quaintness of it all. In an attempt to distract myself from that cottage, I got to thinking about what cottages in Africa look like.


The Cape Dutch style found in many historic towns throughout South Africa definitely does the distraction trick. Before I could think twice, I was turning my search of cottages in the Catskills to the Cape area of South Africa. The Cape Dutch architectural style was taken by the Dutch to South Africa and was initially very basic and utilitarian (see the penultimate image).


Throughout the 18th century, these building gradually involved in style and function to accommodate new realities. Increasing in social income led owners to build bigger homes. Families would often build multiple cottages on the same property to accommodate their children's families or for other functions such as wine cellars, slave housing, stables, etc. As cities grew these types of housing could no longer accommodate a growing population and new architectural styles also became popular.


Here is a mini collection (as I'll certainly have to do this again) of some of my favorite cottage finds via Flickr.


Each exudes the comfort of a cosy space, an afternoon relaxing on a porch and looking over a few miles of greenery followed by an evening by the fireplace.

Cecil John Rhodes Cottage

So....do you have any favorites? I especially love the first green one, although I would certainly not turn any of these down!

You can read more about Cape Dutch architecture on the Encounter South Africa site, here.

{Photos from Flickr including Slack12, Eden, Paul Tosio, Jrozwado}