Joanna Gaines’ Garden Cottage Looks So Incredibly Cozy

Updated: Mar. 22, 2024

Cozy up in a small cottage with a book and a cup of tea? Yep, count us in!

Who wouldn’t love cozying up in a tiny little cottage? Joanna Gaines certainly would, especially as she shares the latest glimpse into the tiny cottage she has at home. Surrounded by massive beds of flowers, cozy corners, warm wood furniture and lots of books, it seems Joanna Gaines is also an advocate of the cottagecore trend. Plus, she certainly knows how to make the most of any small space.

If you haven’t heard of cottagecore yet, it’s a viral trend that encourages you to “romanticize” everyday life, making the simple and mundane of each day look like a romantic setting from a movie or book. While this cottage may be a very different aesthetic from Joanna Gaines’ recent castle renovation, it seems that she’s definitely a fan of it.

What Is Cottagecore?

Cottagecore is a particular design aesthetic that is inspired by the simple, homemaking days of living in a tiny cottage in the wilderness. You can thank TikTok for popularizing the use of “core” attached when describing a design aesthetic, which is a suffix typically used to define a genre, type of music or design. Other popular design trends have flourished thanks to this creative online platform, such as cluttercore, which takes a maximalist approach when it comes to decor in your home.

So what makes cottagecore different from the cozy, cluttered look coming from cluttercore design? Cottagecore is all about living the simple life that one would experience in a cottage, with gardens, home-baked treats, sewing, pickling and canning, and even wearing “cottagecore” attire that involves a lot of ruffles, florals and aprons.

As for the design of the cottage, think Kate Winslet’s character’s Rosehill Cottage in The Holiday with cozy small rooms, fluffy couches and blankets, and charming tea sets as you sit next to the roaring fire conveniently placed next to the kitchen table. If you’ve ever dreamed of doing a house swap so you can escape to Rosehill Cottage for the holidays, then cottagecore is likely the design aesthetic you’ve always been searching for.

Joanna Gaines’ Cottage Is Full of Cottagecore Inspo

Thankfully, home improvement television star Joanna Gaines’ “shed”—a small cottage located on the Gaines’ family property in Waco, Texas—is full of all the cottagecore inspiration you could have ever dreamed of.

When you first walk up to her shed, you are welcomed by beds of beautiful flowers for picking. If your ideal morning consists of snipping a few flowers in the garden and placing a beautiful bouquet on the table before breakfast, then this would certainly be an ideal way to use up the front yard space of your dreamy cottage. Some of the flowers Joanna grows in her garden include Delnashaugh daffodils, Copper Image tulips and Clearwater tulips.

As you step into Joanna’s cottage, you’re welcomed by a cozy wooden table with a set of mismatching chairs surrounding it. Having perfectly symmetrical pieces of furniture really isn’t the vibe for cottagecore—it’s all about having a bunch of beautiful, homemade pieces (or at least pieces that look homemade) that are thrown together to make a cozy cottage full of love.

Behind the table there is a small station with all of the supplies you would need for your beloved cottagecore activities; potting plants, hosting dinner parties, reading books and more.

There truly is nothing dreamier than a sliding ladder for your bookshelf—especially if you can fit it in a cozy cottage as Joanna did. Plus, on the side, we also see an easel ready for painting beautiful pictures, another cozy cottagecore activity—and also a clever design piece to give this shed an even homier vibe.

Winter day by fireplacesvetikd/Getty Images

And of course, it isn’t truly a cottage without a cozy corner to read all of the books on your shelf. We’re not looking for minimalistic couches or chairs here: the bigger and cozier the chairs and blankets, the better. And a fireplace—or at least a freestanding electric fireplace—is pretty much a requirement to solidify your new cottagecore lifestyle. Because nothing says cozy cottage like curling up with a good book and a steaming cup of tea by the fire!