Designer Carol Ruth Weber stars in video: Learn how to decorate a comfy cottage style living room

METRO NEW YORK, N.Y. - Oct. 9, 2013 - PRLog -- Many are attracted to a cottage decor for its relaxed feel and welcoming qualities. Cottage decor does not necessarily have to be reserved for a cottage. Carol Ruth Weber teaches how to decorate a living room to instantly achieve a welcomed comfy cottage designer appearance.

Be sure to watch Carol Ruth Weber on the SFGate video (http://homeguides.sfgate.com/decorate-living-room-like-cottage-81254.html) appearing as an accompianment with this wonderful how-to design article (http://www.examiner.com/article/create-a-cottage-feel-with-comfy-living-room-decor-for-the-abode) written for Examiner.com.

Cottage decor is lovely filled with distressed and vintage pieces. Sofas and chairs should be as welcoming as a big fluffy bed. One can create a cottage feel with furnishings a wide range of furniture styles, from the elegance of carved French to the simplicity of Swedish and American Shaker.

First step is to determine your colors.

Cottage decor can be more than just whites and neutrals. Light colors in pastel hues and soft colors from nature will provide a cottage feel to the decor as well.

Use a linen white instead of a bright white.

Soft colors like rose, mint, yellows, greens and blues blend lovely.

Natural colors in browns, greens and gold in softer hues will bring a cottage feel to a living room.

Darker patterns and colors will work when distressed into a faded look.

Pick fabrics with patterns invoking a cottage feel

Bucolic French toile fabrics are often used inviting scenes of the countryside in the pattern.

Traditional floral patterns printed on a linen fabric offer a delicate country feel.

Gingham, striped fabric and plaids look lovely paired with a floral.

The furnishings for a living room cottage decor should be welcoming.

Flooring should be a natural wood for which the furnishings will sit cozily upon centered around a lovely area rug.

Make the room beautiful and cozy with a sofa fashioned in shabby chic with an oversized slipcover. Create a conversation area by adding a country French carved frame armchair.

Add vintage natural wooden nesting tables to use as an end table.

The coffee table can be an aged metal base with a glass or wood top.

Let wood furniture show their worn appearance with pride or paint wooden furnishings in white, yellow or blue using a high gloss enamel for long term wear.

Accessories add the finishing touch to the Relaxed Chic abode

Add patterns and textures with pillows tossed on a couch.

Tapestries look beautiful on the wall and add a new dimension to the room.

Area rugs should have the aged appearance that a needlepoint lends.

Add lighting with that is warm and inviting.

Decorating the living room to achieve a cottage feel is the perfect time to scour antique stores, thrift shops and garage sales.

Buy the cheap unappealing artwork for the attractive frame then use the frames to frame mirrors or old family photos.

Vintage lighting fixtures can be painted.

Stools can double as end tables.

Old patchwork quilts make lovely throws for the sofa.

Old trunks can be repurposed as a coffee table with the added benefit of extra storage space.

An old child's chair can be painted and used as a pedestal for a plant.

Use old windows as wall decor.

Frames can be painted and hung empty in a grouping on the wall that turns them into a focus of art.

Although the outside world that surrounds your abode may be filled with honking vehicles and a rushing crowd, inside you can now relax within the confines of a beautiful living room dressed up as if cottage sitting in the quiet countryside.

Achieve peace in the decor and never be afraid to dance!

Subscribe and enjoy reading all of Carol Ruth Weber's articles under the titles of Interior Decorating, Long Island Interior Design, and Lifestyle. (http://www.examiner.com/lifestyle-in-national/carol-ruth-...)