Before Rich and I moved to upstate NY, we worked for an Ad Agency on Madison Avenue in NYC. I was in Account Services and Rich was in Media. One of the many perks of working for a large ad agency was we received free copies of every magazine you can imagine. When we would take weekend trips up to Lake George to escape the city, we would grab bags and fill them with magazines and spend the weekend at the lake flipping through all the pages. I lovvveedd having this down time and being able to take in tons of inspiration from the many home magazines. I dreamed of what our first home might look like and always pictured having a quaint cottage home. After 9/11, we decided to move out of the city and have a slower paced life in upstate NY. I missed getting all those magazines, so one of the first things I did was get a subscription to Cottage Living Magazine when it debuted in September, 2004. Cottage Living Magazine was the best home magazine! I cannot believe it only lasted four short years and the last issue was December 2008! This magazine had the best content and was filled with quality articles and pictures that are still relevant today! I’ve never saved any magazine in my life but I saved every issue of Cottage Living Magazine. Every so often, I take them off my office shelf and flip through them when I feel like I’m in a decorating rut and looking for some inspiration.
I’ve recently grabbed my copies to flip through because I’m excited to start planning for spring and the renovations we have planned in our yard at the lake house. We will be adding on a new deck and designing landscape and hardscape to the front and back yard. Here are some of the images that caught my eye and are influencing our vision.
One of my favorite features of Cottage Living Magazine was they had a front section where they showed a space (in this example it’s a front porch – you can see it in the top left upper corner) and they show it styled four different ways (a simple style, bold style, warmer style, and a classic style).
Another feature I loved, is in the back of every issue they had a Dear Cottage Living… where people could mail in pictures of their homes and get curb appeal advice from architect Hoyte Johnson. He always showed how moving windows, adding shutters, getting a new door and window boxes made such a difference in the charm of the home.
It’s a shame this magazine had such a short run, but I ‘m happy I kept my copies and can still flip through them for continued inspiration!
Leave a Reply