Living Large In Small Spaces - East and West


Twelfth post in the series
"Living Large in Small Spaces"
Welcome and thanks for joining me for another installment of Living Large In Small Spaces.

Today we're going to tour two small homes, one in New England and the other on the West Coast. 

The Writer's Cottage

My thanks to James Crisp of Crisp Architects, Millbrook, NY for allowing me the privilege of featuring The Writer's Cottage. 



The cottage is used as a guest house on an estate that once belonged to Pulitzer Prize winner William Styron.


Crisp Architects was hired by the current owners to update the one bedroom, one bath cottage while maintaining its historical integrity.

Wide plank floors, a floor to ceiling stone fireplace, and rugged wood beams and walls set the rustic mood.

"We took our cues from the unpretentious building and kept it simple." ~ James Crisp

The cottage may be unpretentious, but its character is impressive.



Traditional Living Room by Millbrook Architects & Building Designers Crisp Architects


I imagine it as a woodcutter's cottage in a fairy tale.

The tiny kitchen is well-appointed. 







There's a joyous primitiveness about the cottage.


The wagon wheel chandelier was an existing fixture.



The second floor bedroom offers a serene retreat.


Traditional Bathroom by Millbrook Architects & Building Designers Crisp Architects

Although used as a guest house, there's no reason why this cottage couldn't serve as a full-time residence for a single person or couple.

Am I right?
The second home is a 950 square foot cottage located in Laguna Beach, California.



The galley kitchen has plenty of storage and work space. Love those soapstone countertops!



Windows surrounding the eating nook allow natural light to flood the room and make it appear more spacious.




Mirrors on the closet doors give the illusion of more space.



Clark Collins - Collins Design & Development

"My goal on this project was to restore the home to how it would have felt when it was built in 1946 (with a few modern conveniences!)." ~ Clark Collins, Collins Design & Development

I'd say mission accomplished.


Now I'd like to hear your thoughts. Do you feel inspired looking at these small homes?  Could you see yourself living in one of them? 

This post was featured here.
Dwellings-The Heart of Your Home


Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces
See more home tours in the 
Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.

From the comments I've received on this series, many
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd 
love to feature your story, too.
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)
By Nancy at 45 comments
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Every Room In The House Party - #12

Can you believe we've been partying at Every Room In The House for almost one year?  
This month we're in the Christmas spirit, so we're going to

Deck the Halls in December
Decorate for Christmas and You choose 
the room you want to link up.

 We had a really good turnout at November's party. Let's take a look at some of the dining spaces that were shared.
Please pin from the original post and not from this site.  Thanks!

Most viewed post from November
Judy at Cranberry Morning gave us a glimpse of her Country Farmhouse Kitchen , and asked if we've ever thought of living in a schoolhouse.  She says that's her dream.



The farmhouse theme continues in Anne of Design Dreams by Anne's delightful Farmhouse Dining Room Transformation.  I love her hutch and wicker chairs. Cheerful colors, too.



Do you enjoy inspirational photos as much as I do?  In her post Intuition Magali at Little House on the Seaside revealed that she'll be transforming her dining room in 2015 and she shared twelve dining room photos that are inspiring her.  She really knows how to pick them! (You have to visit her blog to find out what she means by "intuition".)



Romance reigns in Penny's Vintage Home dining room.  She created a gorgeous Pastel Fall Tablescape featuring her china trimmed in delicate pink flowers.  Very feminine.


DSC00126

Jann of Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson shared her Thanksgiving decor In The Dining Room.   She always gives great styling tips. Wait til you see how she displayed her collection of gravy boats. So clever.

Family heirlooms, in my opinion, are part of what makes a house a home.  In Rita's Roses Poppy at Poppy View shares the story of the stunning painting that hangs in her dining room.  She gives a beautiful, loving tribute to her mother.






Gina at Victorian Wannabe gave us a tour of her amazing Dining Room Transformation.  I'm still shaking my head over the before and after photos. Gina's antiques are stunning, and this photo doesn't show the one that's really out of this world "fancy".  You have to see it.



The colors in AnnMarie's Victorian farmhouse dining room were a great start for her Fall Dining Room decorations.  This warm and inviting room reminds me of the Victorian farmhouses where I grew up.



What Defines a Dining Room? is the question Kim of Exquisitely Unremarkable asked.  She gave us her answer in the form of a lovely story about her family and the place where they gather over a meal.


Sideboard makeover with one door removed for open shelving


 Marie of The Interior Frugalista gave a 70 year-old sideboard a new French look and named her "Old Violet " in honor of the makeover paint she used.  Très chic.



As part of her fall house tour Casey at Living A Cottage Life showed us her Dining Room.  I love that chandelier and her fall centerpiece.



Laurel at North End Loft updated her 75 year-old maple dining set in Taking The Plunge - Refinishing Dining Room Furniture. The beautiful outcome is enough to make me go out and look for an outdated maple dining set of my own to redo.
Thanks to everyone who shared last month. You are are a creative, talented bunch.

If you were featured, please grab this button.
A Joyful Cottage


Thank you to all who visit 
and leave comments.
I love reading them.

Ready to start December's party?
This month we're going to

 Deck the Halls 
Decorate for Christmas and You choose the room to link up!



The party will be open through December 29.  Bring a friend!

Please, please remember to put a link in your post back to
 A Joyful Cottage.  That's necessary to be featured. 

Last month there were some links that were not home related at all.  Just so you know, I may choose to delete such links going forward. I reserve that right.





By Nancy at 27 comments
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Living Large In Small Spaces - Living the (Cottage) Dream


Eleventh post in the series
My guest today is very, very special to me.  Although we only know each other through our blogs and emails, we have become dear friends.  It's pure joy for me to welcome Kim of Exquisitely Unremarkable to A Joyful Cottage today.  Kim's story goes to the very heart of what Living Large In Small Spaces is about. She's a great communicator, and  I know you're going to enjoy reading her words as you tour her charming cottage.  

By the way, I paid her to say all those nice things about me and my blog. ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



 I have been reading Living Large In Small Spaces each week since the series began. I was hooked from the start, however this was not a surprise. I know Nancy, and I was already a big fan of her blog long before the series ever began. It's a wonderful place to visit, a place I feel at home, relaxed and understood. I bonded with her immediately, through her words, before we even spoke, it was all in the name...A Joyful Cottage...wow. Powerful words.

  

 Here was a woman who understood that living in a cottage, a very small space, could be a wonderful, happy, fulfilling experience and it could be a choice! Imagine that! There was someone else out there who thought, as I did, that teeny tiny cottage living was THE dream, not a mansion or a 4,000 square foot penthouse, but a home with room for just enough ~ a kindred spirit for sure!
  


So when Nancy asked me to share my own home, I was thrilled. We do not live in a large house, but we live here happily and by choice. It is not a starter or stop on our destination to bigger digs. While I am not certain about the square footage, I never cared to measure and we didn't buy our home through a realtor, so there was no requirement for the seller to list it, it's small! It was built sometime in the 1920's in a very hilly, summer beach community. Our particular home was actually built as the first year round structure in the neighborhood, big billing at the time, although we don't really see any difference between our cottage and many of the other bungalows that were specifically built for summer!
 

 The "year round" layout boasted a living room, two teeny bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen big enough for two people to stand inside. There was no dining area and the basement was covered with dirt. Fancy! By the time my husband and I bought the house, the basement had been finished, a dining room had been added, along with a master bedroom and bath. The entire house needed work, updating and an addition to make the kitchen functional, but we adored the home, its charm, its location and, frankly, its price, so we snatched it up.
  white+cottage+kitchens.jpg (865×753)


We were in love with the house and felt like we had hit the jackpot. I have to say, others were not so impressed by our choice. We live in the land of bigger, better, more and our new home was none of those things. It wasn't a big step up from our old home (which was actually right across the street~ I kid you not ~ when we moved, my husband wheeled our barbecue over!) which was only 900 square feet, but to us it felt enormous. More importantly, it felt doable.
  

 I was a stay at home mom. My husband was a child of divorce and my mom was widowed when I was in elementary school. It was very important to both of us to try to keep me home with the kids, to give them something that neither one of us had growing up. While we could've afforded a larger home at the time, we liked that fact that this one was super easy on our wallet. For example, if my husband lost his job, we would be fine here, family vacations weren't something we would have to do without and debt was a word we wouldn't ever have to carry around with us and our young family. It also meant that we would be able to renovate the house and yard to make it our dream cottage and still not break the bank.

  

In the beginning, we tried to explain our reasoning to others, how we actually loved the cozy footprint, how we were generally all in the same small room hanging out anyway, that this was the dream house, but eventually we gave up. A guy my husband worked with asked if we could afford the house and when we told him yes, he told us "then it isn't big enough." We kept getting comments about how our "next house" will be the big one, as if this couldn't possibly be the goal. Even the kids' friends got in on the act. One little girl literally said, "This is it?" when we pulled into the driveway for a playdate.

  

Yes. This is it. Three small bedrooms, a living room, tiny family room and a kitchen. The furniture is all small in scale, nothing standard ever fits. Private conversations are very difficult to have. You can't load the dishwasher on a Saturday morning without waking everyone in the house and when someone sneezes, it's broadcast loud and clear. I live here with the people I love most in the world and being close to them is a gift. Why I would need any more room is beyond me.

  

Of course, after more than a decade here, people still ask if we're going to finally take that next step or build up. I have quit trying to explain myself. I just say that we are content here and that the house may be small, but it has a great layout and lives very large.

  

 Of course, that may just be our attitude!

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love your attitude, Kim. Thank you for inspiring us with your story and beautiful cottage.

 Kim is a writer, wife and mom who shares loads of great crafts, DIY projects, decorating tips, giggles and "a lot of red" at her blog Exquisitely Unremarkable.  Be sure to visit her for more inspiration.
Living the (Cottage) Dream was featured here -

Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth
Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces
See more home tours in the 
Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.

From the comments I've received on this series, many
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd 
love to feature your story, too.
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)
By Nancy at 42 comments
Labels: ,
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