Required Reading: Life Inside a Cottage, from the UK to Japan

What makes a cottage? The definition is hard to pin down, but for Nell Card and Rachel Vere, co-creators of Life Inside a Cottage: Interior Inspiration From Today’s Cottage Dwellers, out in the UK this week, it has to do with a feeling—of snugness, of nostalgia, of “things having happened.” Anyone who built forts as a kid, they say, knows what it’s like to be inside a cottage.

Longtime Remodelista readers might recognize Nell’s name: She’s been our UK correspondent in years past, reporting in with standout design destinations and homes. Now, in their new book (out in the US in a few days), Rachel and Nell capture cozy, sometimes pleasingly wonky cottages from New Orleans to Cornwall to Japan, both rustic and surprisingly modern.

The cheerful yellow cover is only the beginning of the charm. Join us for a glimpse inside a few favorite cottages:

Photography credits as noted, from Life Inside a Cottage.

Above: On a hillside in Brecon Beacons National Park, near the “bookish” English town of Hay-on-Wye, is the home of arts director Clare Purcell and photographer Finn Beales. It looks more clean-lined than one might expect of a cottage, but its roots are old: It’s a former workers’ cottage dating to the mid-1750s, shored up and modernized by architect Niall Ferguson of Rural Office. Photograph by Finn Beales. Above: In Mashiko, Japan, there’s the cottage of antique dealer and furniture restorer Tōru Nihei and his wife Riho. Tucked in a clearing in the woods, it was completely abandoned and uninhabitable when the couple found it, but it had good bones: timber beams, clay tiles, and lime plaster. Now thoughtfully restored, it’s their family home. Photograph by Yuki Sugiura. Above: Potter/photographer Sarah Maingot fell into a love of ceramics just before she found this Cotswolds cottage, called Spring Cottage, circa 1720. She’s since enacted a “painstaking excavation” to peel back layers and bring the cottage to life—as in the stone-floored kitchen, here. Photograph by Jasper Fry. Above: Found tools against a springy green backdrop at Sarah’s place. Photograph by Jasper Fry. Above: At this “spirited stone cottage” in Snowdonia, Wales, “time stands still,” Nell and Rachel write. Other than some thoughtful modern comforts and ample style, little has changed within its meter-thick walls for a couple of centuries. Photograph by Martin Morrell. Above: One newish update: a roll-top bath, fillable via a “reclaimed fountainhead.” Photograph by Martin Morrell. Above: There are a few Remodelista favorites in the pages of Life Inside a Cottage, among them Little Mill Abergavenny in Wales, whose mismatched wing chairs and graffitied beams are shown here. Photograph by Jasper Fry; for more, see Little Mill Abergavenny: A Once-Upon-a-Time Holiday Cottage in Wales. Above: Artists Lulu Flux and Alex Chinnock live in the medieval farmhouse next door to this peak-roofed cottage and decided to update in into a snug holiday rental, compete with yellow trim. Photograph by Kim Lightbody. Above: Inside, nearly everything is hand-made or hand-stitched by Lulu, including hand-smocked lampshades, like the one in this sunny bedroom. Photograph by Kim Lightbody. Above: Life Inside a Cottage is available for preorder from Rizzoli (it’s out in the US next week).

For more books we love, see:

• Required Reading: The World of Atelier Vime Distilled in a Paris Apartment
• Required Reading: Retrouvius, Designing Houses from a Philosophy of Reuse
• Required Reading: Vincent Van Duysen: Private, with Photography by François Halard