Cottage Tour

Hello friends! I am officially now on YouTube and I thought we would kick things off by doing a full cottage tour. This is by far one of the most popular questions I get on other platforms is to do a tour so we're doing that today. Starting out in the front car park area slash garage I consider it to be, we have my trash cans and my little weatherproof storage box with a fake greenhouse on top of it right now and then a little conversation pit area which is being worked on so do not judge it please. I will share an update when it is more complete. Moving inside though, first thing when you walk in the kitchen is on your left and it is just one wall of the cottage and I kind of extended it by adding a table into the middle. There are a few different nooks, little kitchen sections. Let's start over by the fridge. I believe in a busy fridge is a happy fridge so cover it with postcards and pictures. Just a cute little way to be reminded of things and people that you love. Next to the fridge I have my little coffee and tea station which I really love. It kind of took me a while to figure out how I wanted to organize this area but I love where I ended up and then I have all my mugs and cups and vases right above it which I think makes sense for this kind of flow. Forgot to cover the cupboards above the fridge so moving back over to that area it is kind of hard for me to reach this area so I do have a kitchen stool that I use all the time but yeah this is where I keep more harder to reach things that I don't use all the time like extra linens and napkins and placemats and items like that. Okay moving onwards, above my sink I have my plates and bowls and dishware items like that which I have collected over the years. My mom used to be a ceramicist so some of this is hers, I've made some of it, some of it is thrifted, some of it is family heirlooms, it's just a huge collection of items. And moving over to the next cabinet this is my mini pantry and believe me I know it would not work for everybody. This lifestyle is not for everyone but for me it works and this is where I keep all my food. Well there and the fridge and the freezer. But yeah it's a very small little pantry item so I don't buy in bulk and I just buy what I need as I need it. And above the stove more storage area it's kind of a little not very organized up there and I also keep pots and pans inside the stove. I don't bake too often so I'm not really worried about starting the oven with items inside of it but when I do bake I always take things out of the oven and this is just where I store all those other kitchen items. It works for me, again, it's not gonna work for everyone. All of the little spoons and dishes and everything you see here have been collected over time. Either I've made them, oh please ignore these holes in the wall, my landlord was doing some work on the wall and he hasn't painted over it yet. Anyway like I was saying everything you see has really been collected over a long period of time and I think that is what makes a space special when it's worked on over a long period of time and you're collecting things that you truly love and that you're going to use really happily. Pointing out this is why these curtains are usually drawn because they're sheer enough where you can see outside but they do cover all the trash cans and they are magnetic so check if your doors are magnetic. You might be able to add a little curtain rod there. This is the table that I thrifted for kitchen prep and also dining. I added a little extender bar and a little piece of fabric to kind of cover up the baskets. I have my little junk drawer basket and extra storage for blenders and heavier items like that. It also extends which is great if I ever have company that needs more seating. Moving into the living room we have this bookshelf and it is built into the unit. It is not, you can't buy it anywhere. My landlord who made this place made the bookshelf. I get a lot of questions about that too so I wanted to cover that and I added these curtains behind it to kind of divide the a little bit more. So you can see the book titles from the back and I only turn around the book titles from the books that I've already read. I do get some people commenting, why did you turn the books around? You can't see what they are. Well I have read them all so and I can read what they are from the other side of the bookshelf. Everything that you see on my bookshelf has been collected over time, was handmade by me, a family member, or a friend, or I've thrifted it. Just really collected over lots of time. I also really love collecting shells and rocks and really pretty things on walks that I think are a nice little decoration to add to spaces. I get a lot of questions about how I would define my style and I've gotten a lot of people on the internet describing it as coastal grandmother, coastal cottage, English cottage, cottage core, all different kinds of describing words. I personally think it's a mix of like shabby chic and coastal coastal cottage but it's changing all the time and I think there's beauty in that. Coffee table was thrifted and I restored it. It had really harsh varnish on it as well as my couch was thrifted and it wasn't really my vibe but I loved the the shape of it. The bones of it were great so I got it anyway and it was $65 and I really needed a couch and I just covered it with linens and preserved the pattern for whoever wants to own it next if they want that pattern. If you want to know how I covered the couch with linens I do have a blog post diving into that on my website. Out into the garden we have some veggie starts that I grew from seed and it's been really fun to explore having a garden. This is my first ever garden since like my childhood garden and it's been fun experimenting heading into the spring with what is going to grow here, what the bugs love, how to prevent the bugs from eating everything, and just having fun with it. A lot of these flowers were planted before I got here as well as the olive tree but I brought in these barrels that you see on the deck and all the herbs. Heading back inside we'll do the bathroom next. The bathroom was very drab when I first moved in. Here's a before shot. There wasn't anything wrong with it it was just very dark and not welcoming so I added a little a little character to it. I brought in this cabinet for some extra storage and just changed out the knobs to make it a little bit more cozy rather than stainless steel. I also put some wallpaper over the vanity to kind of bring some warmth into it. The wallpaper I used was paper not like peel and stick so it does kind of come up around the edges a little bit and I would recommend using peel and stick removable wallpaper if you want to do the same thing but I made a tutorial on my blog showcasing how I did it and what I used to do it. And that is kind of the little bathroom. Nothing too crazy but it works. Moving over to the bedroom area, figuring out storage in here was a fun little challenge but over in this tall dresser I have bags and shoes and on top of it I have my perfume collection as well as some art and just some beautiful treasures to see every morning. Again a lot of it was thrifted or collected over time but if anything is available for people to buy I do have things linked in my Shopmy. I use Shopmy instead of LTK because it allows you to link out to any website not just the websites that LTK partners with so that way I'm able to link out to smaller businesses and just websites that are anywhere in the world. Over on this side of my bed, the artwork up on the right side I painted and I do sell prints on my website if you're interested. I thrifted the nightstand and I just changed out the knobs once again to make it a little more suited to my style and then the armoire I thrifted as well and it is a beautiful vintage piece. The family that I got it from was moving to France so they had to part with it and they were so sad to part with it but I was like, you're moving to France y'all! You're gonna have a great time and have so many beautiful vintage pieces there. I think it might have been in a little kid's room and the name David is scribbled onto one of the sides and I decided to leave it there instead of erasing it because I thought it was a really cute homage to the family who had it before me. This is the closet space in the bedroom and it came with this dresser before I moved in and I just left it because it's great for workout clothes and other items like that and then I have my luggage and winter coats and just some random items shoved into the closet. That's pretty much it. The whole place is a little bit under 500 square feet and I love it. I want to stay here for a while. I haven't felt like that about a place in a long time so I'm really happy that I finally feel that way about this space. It feels like a home and not just a place I live. If you have any other questions like how I found this space or other questions like that, I do have a lot of information on my blog post on my website which is rozadel.com and if it's not answered over there, leave it in a comment. Bye!