Budget Friendly Country Cottage Living Room Ideas | Beautiful Simplicity

I’m excited to share some of the budget friendly country cottage living room ideas we added to our living room during our cozy living room makeover.

I know it’s been a long time coming.

But we finally gave our living room a little makeover.

In this post I talked a little bit more about how our living room looked when we first moved in.

The Amish family that lived here before us had high gloss primer white paint on everything.

Everything: ceiling, trim work, doors, and walls.

The paint was also peeling off of the trim work and doors.

So it wasn’t as simple as throwing some paint up.

We had to scrap, sand, prime, and then paint.

But now that it is done, it was so worth all the work.

We did a few more updates that I can’t wait to share with you.

If you read about my mudroom makeover, then you know my husband was sweet and surprised me with some custom corbels that I wanted.

He did the same thing with one of my country cottage living room ideas.

I wanted a new door, but they’re expensive.

So I told my husband that I would paint the existing door and leave it at that.

Well, he found a way to turn our existing door into a version of the door I was wanting, and he did it without buying anything!

Design should exude a feeling

Now that the country cottage living room ideas are all done, the space feels different.

After church, my husband sat down on the couch and said “I know I’ve said this a million times but this room just feels so much better.”

He’s right.

This space doesn’t feel the same way it did before.

It’s tangible and it helps me know that the main goal was achieved.

The main goal of a room makeover isn’t to make it beautiful.

Do I want it to be beautiful, yes.

But the main goal is that my family would feel the tangible feeling that home has.

Cozy, warm and inviting.

What to put on cottage walls?

For a home with cottage style there are a few options for what to put on the walls.

The first option is to consider some wall treatments such as:

• Beadboard
• Board and batten
• Picture molding
• Vertical or horizontal shiplap/paneling
• wall paper

But there are many other things that you can use on walls that add cottage style if you already have wall treatments:

• artwork (gallery wall or single pieces)
• wall sconces
• hanging tapestry
• vintage mirrors
• open shelves
• wooden peg rails

Adding country cottage style to your walls can be as labor intensive as adding wall treatments, but can also be as simple as a framed piece of art.

How to decorate a living room cottage style?

Country Cottage Living Room Ideas

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Creamy Neutral Walls

The first thing we did to add cozy cottage style to this living room was paint the walls a creamy white.

We chose White Dove by Benjamin Moore, but at the old house we had Swiss Coffee by Behr.

Many creamy white colors are a great option for living room walls.

While we were painting the wall White Dove, it almost looked yellow.

This was because I was seeing the difference between the primer white that was already there next to our new creamy white.

I started to panic for a minute about it.

My husband laughed at me.

He said when we first got married we would fight with each other about what color to paint the walls and now he trusts the colors I pick, but I fight with myself.

Now that the entire room is White Dove it looks perfect.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Bold Front Door Color

Another thing we did that was budget friendly was give the front door a face lift with a new coat of paint.

It wasn’t originally on the list of things to do, but next to the walls and trim it looked tired.

So I painted it Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams.

This is the color I had on the front door at our old house and I loved it.

I love it here too.

One thing about country cottage style is that it isn’t all calm.

Country cottage style uses bold colors.

The front door is one of my favorite places to do that.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Warm Neutral Trim Work & Doors

Another way to create country cottage living room style is by adding warm neutrals.

The trim is Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore.

This is the same color as the beadboard in our kitchen and dining room.

I could have put another beautiful color here like Stingray by Benjamin Moore, but we had paint left over from the kitchen.

Since we wanted to stay on a tight budget for this makeover, I decided to just use what I had in the basement.

The other thing we did for the trimwork was add caulk to the crown molding.

This part of the house was built in 1850.

So it is not flat or straight in any way.

But by adding caulk to the gaps between the molding and the wall and the molding and the ceiling, it helps in two ways.

It gives the illusion that the walls and ceiling are flat/straight.

But it also makes the space feel more cohesive and put together.

More peace and less chaos.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Plank Door

I’ve been seeing plank doors on Pinterest.

As soon as I saw one, I knew that is what I wanted in our home.

But upon looking at the price for a new door it was too much for our country cottage living room makeover budget right now.

My husband found THIS YouTube TUTORIAL and used it to turn our hollow core door into a door with more character and charm.

Not to mention it now looks like the plank doors that I want for our house.

We were talking about it after we finished this one: all of our doors are hollow core doors.

So to add character until we’re ready to replace all the doors in our house, we might do this little update everywhere.

A small project, but it would make the house feel so much more cozy.

If you zoom in at the pictures you’ll see we didn’t do a perfect job.

But after we put it back on the wall, I thought those little imperfections looked like they belonged in our 1800s farmhouse.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Antique Hardware

This was an idea I got from a few of you when I first shared our living room.

I said that I wanted a new door for the closet, but that we didn’t plan on replacing doors for quite some time.

We’re still sharing one shower between the 5 of us here haha

But the idea to replace the hardware was a very budget friendly and beautiful option for the meantime.

I found this on Amazon and it was one of the most inexpensive options I found.

So far it is not only beautiful, but it works well too.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Expanded Gallery Wall

A gallery wall is a great way to add country cottage charm to the living room.

My favorite gallery pieces are now the original pieces we have that my mother-in-law painted.

There are so many tutorials that tell you how to organize a gallery wall.

But the way I do it, is by gathering all the items I plan to hang on the wall.

I put them all on the floor and just start moving things around until it looks and feels the way I want it to be.

Then I just start hanging it up on the wall to match the way I have it laid out on the floor.

Doing it this way, I always end up with holes in the wall that aren’t being used because I move something a couple inches in one direction.

But I’ve learned to not let the fear of a misplaced hole in the wall discourage me from starting.

Little nail holes are easy to patch or cover up with a picture.

So don’t let the “formulas” scare you.

Just start.

The truth of the matter is, the next time you see this gallery wall I will likely have tweaked it.

Gallery walls add so much cozy charm.

Cottage Living Room Ideas: Future Faux Mantel Makeover

This is a project we started, but haven’t finished yet.

When we painted the walls, we took the mantel off the wall.

While it was off, we decided to paint a piece of wood black (the same color as the door) and nail it to the back of the mantel.

We have plans to make this mantel look authentic, but since this country cottage living room makeover took us 5 days to complete we decided to finish another time.

But doing this gives us the foundation.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

I hope that these country cottage living room ideas inspire you for your living room.

A doesn’t have to be expensive.

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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