29 small cottage bedroom ideas for a wonderfully cosy feel
The country cottage, in all of its low-ceilinged, rabbit-warren-esque glory, is indelibly associated with English interior design. Exposed beams, wooden floors, sloping ceilings, leaded windows – all of these architectural quirks are beloved features of this type of house, although they can be pretty difficult to decorate around. One of the trickiest areas of all is surely the bedroom, often squeezed into small spaces and nestling under steep rafters. A lack of storage and little room to manoeuvre can present some serious issues, but there plenty of small cottage bedroom ideas that can help you to successfully negotiate these challenges and create a room that is as charming as it is practical.
When it comes to decorating small cottage bedrooms, it is natural – and often very appropriate – to gravitate towards antique furniture, classic fabrics (like florals and checks) and soft, traditional, paint colours. However, you might also like to consider a contemporary take on the archetypal country cottage aesthetic, bringing in some bolder shades or newer pieces for a slightly fresher feel. This could work well in a newbuild cottage or in a more urban setting. If space is really at a premium, you could also consider a box bed or bed nook, which is endlessly charming and offers lots of potential for additional storage around the bed.
Whether you’re looking to decorate a small cottage bedroom, replicate the look in your small city flat or simply dream of such timelessly charming spaces, there is plenty of inspiration to be found within the pages of House & Garden. From clever solutions for layout or hanging art, to perfect paint colours, wallpapers, textiles and accessories, these wonderful examples will give you no end of ideas when planning (or imagining) your own scheme.
Small cottage bedroom ideas from the House & Garden archive
Christopher Horwood1/28Cottage bedrooms are not the preserve of the countryside. Take, for instance, this small but perfectly considered space in designer Tamsin Saunders’ Richmond home. It is north-east facing so required a careful use of colour and pattern. ‘Pattern is much kinder and easier to live with than solid colour,’ explains Tamsin, who softened the cool light with a blue-and-white Bennison fabric on the bed that her daughter Ottilie chose herself for the room. The lamp above the bed was painted by her other daughter Freya Morton of Black Lion Workshops. A mid-century Swedish butterfly collage serves as a striking focal point against the pale walls.
Dean Hearne2/28This attic bedroom in artist Rachel Bottomley’s 17th-century Surrey cottage is testament to her excellent eye for colour and pattern. The exposed beams and sloping ceiling were actually a ‘surprise gift’ from the house after a crumbling ceiling was removed. ‘Herbarium’ wallpaper by Tess Newall is a lovely modern take on a traditional floral and provides the ideal backdrop for one of Rachel’s own artworks, ingeniously attached to the beam using bulldog clips.
Dean Hearne3/28Twin beds are an excellent choice for a guest room or children’s room, especially when you are dealing with an awkwardly shaped room that might not lend itself to one large bed. In the Peak District home of ballet dancer Lauren Cuthbertson and antique jewellery dealer Matt Gerrish, the attic room features Heal’s 1920s mahogany and canework beds that are enveloped by trailing ‘Sweet Pea’ wallpaper from Cole & Son. Brita Sweden wool blankets and a valance in ‘Lagoon’ linen from The Cloth Shop pick up on a painting of a cottage by Pia Pack.
Dean Hearne4/28Bed canopies never fail to add a wonderfully whimsical touch, especially in children’s bedrooms – like something straight from the pages of their favourite book. This one in the Dorset home of designer Tattie Isles came from local company Projektityyny and tones with walls in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Trumpington’. The sleigh bed was a lucky antique find.
Dean Hearne5/28Another fabulously pretty canopy can be seen in designer Marin Montagut’s Normandy cottage. The pink stripe was inspired by the bubblegum pink walls, which were already painted this colour when he moved in. It provides the ideal backdrop for his ‘wonder wall’ of curiosities, featuring many of his own designs. The contrasting green bed frame completes the striking scheme and proves that bright really can be beautiful in small spaces like this.
Mark Anthony Fox6/28The main bedroom in Lucy Cunningham’s Hampshire cottage started with ‘the most amazing early 19th-century crewel work curtains’. These became the starting point for the scheme, providing inspiration for the choice of colours and textiles. The result is an inviting, warm space with striking Jet by Whiteworks paper lining the walls.
James McDonald7/28We love art specialist and interior designer James Mackie’s tiny attic bedroom in his Cotswold cottage. Offering a slightly different take on the colour-drenching trend, he has papered the walls and the ceiling in the same print: Morris & Co’s distinctive ‘Willow Bough’. A paisley cotton bedcover picks up on the warm tones of panelling on either side of a fireplace, designed by James and painted ‘Deep Reddish Brown’ by Farrow & Ball. Short curtains in a deep green with a cheerful red trim add to the comfortable, informal feel of the room.
© Rachael Smith Photography Ltd8/28A small cottage bedroom can lend itself to colour drenching (ie painting the walls and the ceiling in the same colour) as seen here in this Norfolk cottage by Anna Haines painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Mizzle’. This pale greyish green means gives a soft, fresh feel while still allowing the brickwork and the detail of the tongue-and-groove panelling to shine through. A headboard in Le Manach’s ‘Indhira’ cotton from Pierre Frey and a bedside table from Chelsea Textiles, with a Rosi de Ruig lamp and lampshade, complete this serene, sublty layered scheme.
Dean Hearne9/28This bedroom in Alexandra Tolstoy’s Oxfordshire cottage has to accommodate three children (she bought the house before her first child was born), so three single beds were the natural solution. But space was tight: the bed on the left had to be specially shortened to fit into the room. By introducing artwork and pretty floral quilts, Alexandra has ensured the room is soft and inviting rather than dormitory-esque. It just goes to show how, with a bit of clever thinking, you can make even the trickiest of spaces work well.
Christopher Horwood10/28A guest bedroom in this 17th-century Sussex farmhouse by Lucy Cunningham is painted in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Lute’ with a Colefax and Fowler fabric on the headboard. The vintage kantha is from Tallulah Fox Petworth and the wall lights are from CMDC Interiors. The scheme is lovely and sunny, bringing a feeling of warmth to the small space.
Christopher Horwood11/28We love a box bed or bed nook of any description, but this one in a Victorian cottage on the Bradford Estate is especially magical. In this bedroom, designer Emma Ainscough added a new wall with a bespoke arch detail to create a bed nook and wallpapered it in ‘Folies Bergère’ by Howe at 36 Bourne Street. The curtains and tented ceiling add to the theatrical yet cosy look.
Cleverly, she also had bespoke shelving (just visible on the right) built around the existing chimney breast to make use of dead space. A definite colour palette, like Emma’s choice of blue here, has real impact in a small space and can prevent a room from feeling cluttered or incoherent. It is at once timeless and contemporary, which is true of Emma’s designs for the cottage as a whole.
Paul Massey12/28‘The brief for this house was to go big on cosy and big on style,’ says designer Nadine Finnegan of these three Cotswold cottages made into one cohesive home. This attic bedroom features a Fee Greening mural, a Doing Goods tiger rug from Liberty and a rocking chair sourced by John Haswell, which all add to rather enchanting feel.
Boz Gagovski13/28A small room doesn’t preclude using lots of pattern, as seen here in this 16th-century cottage by Brandon Schubert. Delicate repeats are often preferable to large prints. Here, a small patterned paper from Jean Monro covers the walls of the guest bedroom. The shaped headboard is in Anatolia from Carlos Garcia. Next to the bed, an antique lamp is topped with a lampshade in fabric from Merchant & Mills.
Boz Gagovski14/28Single beds need not be boring, Here in this bedroom in a 300-year-old cottage, the bobbin bed by Alfred Newall has been painted in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Beetlenut’, combining decorative detail with bold colour. A bedcover in complementary colours further enlivens the scheme.
Mark Anthony Fox15/28In the bedroom of Pippa Harris’ Cotswold house designed by Emma Burns, Cole & Son’s ‘Sweet Pea’ wallpaper is complemented by striped cushions and a bedside lampshade in ‘Squiggle’, both from Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. The pendant shade is in a Howe at 36 Bourne Street fabric.
Jonathan Bond16/28Pierre Frey’s ‘Fleurs de Mai’ wallpaper tones with a quilt in Ian Mankin’s ‘Suffolk’ large gingham check in this bucolic scheme in Elizabeth Hay’s Dorset cottage. She has gone for strongly patterned scheme, but has kept it nice and fresh with lots of pale greens.
Tom Griffiths17/28The main bedroom of Victoria Barker’s cottage is particularly dark with a very tiny window under the thatch. Victoria took advantage of the lack of light and chose a deeper paint colour with a natural pigment, Pure & Original’s ‘Somerset Mauve’. The rug is an antique needlepoint kilim with a tulip motif, and the quilt is a ticking mattress cover from Cloth House.
Tom Griffiths18/28In another bedroom of the Cotswolds cottage owned by Victoria Barker, Molly Mahon’s ‘Tree’ wallpaper makes a feature of the sloping, beamed ceiling. The bed was designed to sit below the beams, with an upholstered headboard and frame in 36 Bourne Street’s ‘Little F’ linen in tutti.
Paul Massey19/28The interior designer Caroline Holdaway had already decorated two houses for Robin Muir and Paul Lyon Maris when they enlisted her help on their new Cotswolds home. A bedcover and curtains in Christopher Maya’s ‘Ostrich’ linen in charleston from Holland & Sherry pick up on walls in ‘Moss’ by Paint & Paper Library. The antique ceramic finial on the window ledge is from Brownrigg.
Christopher Horwood20/28A children’s cottage bedroom is the perfect place for plenty of colour and pattern to inspire young imaginations. This example in Xenia Buckhurst’s cottage is lined in Molly Mahon wallpaper, with a blind in ‘Ingrid’ from Madeaux by Richard Smith. A sweet rug from Nursery Window grounds the room.
Martin Morrell21/28In this 17th-century Cotswolds cottage renovated by Ben Adler and Pat Llewellyn, original features were retained in the bedroom for an authentic feel. A Paula Rego lithograph hangs above a bed from Alphabeds, with a vintage Welsh tapestry bedcover from Jane Beck.
Simon Brown22/28In the spare room of Caroline Holdaway’s cottage, an olive-stripe flatweave rug from Sinclair Till contrasts with a vibrant tartan rug from Toast used as a bedspread and cushions made from fabric pieces left over from other projects.
Ngoc Minh Mgo23/28Interior designer Harriet Anstruther has repurposed her grandmother’s shawl as a bedcover in the spare room of her Sussex farmhouse. This is such a thoughtful, personal way to add colour and character. Using an old crate as a bedside table is another stroke of genius.
24/28The best thing about having a small or strangely shaped room is the opportunity it presents to use your space imaginatively. In the home of designer Patrick Williams of Berdoulat, an alcove behind a door has been turned in to the most inviting sleeping nook. Enclosed behind the curtain are shelves, and a lamp for reading. The room is painted in Farrow and Ball’s ‘Lamp Room Gray’ while the random-width floorboards were bought on Ebay. Reclaimed drawers are used under the bed as storage.
Sharyn Cairns25/28In Ben Pentreath’s former Dorset parsonage, the small attic bedroom has twin beds sitting neatly on either side of a chest of drawers. The cream-painted wooden panelling and white ceiling make the small space feel bigger and accentuate the pitched ceiling.
Paul Massey26/28The chunky distressed bed frame adds a rustic charm to this tiny bedroom of a barn conversion designed by Christopher Howe. Christopher’s choices were driven by the notion that the barn should look as if it was lived in by someone working on the local estate. ‘I like the idea that the furniture could have been begged and borrowed from the big house,’ he explains. ‘The truth is, the owners have had the benefit of 40 years of my hoarding.’ The effect is a pleasingly unpretentious mix of well-designed objects that bear the scuffs and bruises of a well-lived life.
Simon Brown27/28Since moving into her husband’s 300-year-old Wiltshire farmhouse, designer Sarah Vanrenen has enhanced its quirky charm, with a clever layout and unexpected colours. Upstairs, the seven bedrooms are individual in style. This spare room is decorated with green tones, with sari fabric on the ottoman at the end of the bed. The blind and headboard have been made in a matching fabric – a cost-effective trick for adding a punch of pattern to a bedroom. The window sill has been turned into a dreamy reading nook with a comfortable padded cushion.
Line T Klein28/28The owners of this Somerset country house had not anticipated taking on such a large project, but their careful renovation enhanced by modern decorative touches has resulted in a smart yet comfortable home. Two Designers Guild beds upholstered in ‘Brera’ linen furnish this small attic bedroom. The pared-back scheme ensures the focus is on the beamed framework, with the only colour coming from the turqoise bedspreads.
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