Cork and Cottage

Cork and Cottage We are here to enhance your vacation home property experience.

06/02/2026

The unhinged home rules 👇

1. Never start a project without finishing the last one. We tiled the bathroom, replaced cabinet hardware in an entirely different room, and dove into a declutter in our basement. Momentum beats order.
2. Stick to a neutral palette for the resale value. We’d rather love our home while we live in it. You can always paint again later.
3. You have to spend a lot to make it feel like yours. A $6 drawer pull changed an entire room. Small things add up faster than you think.
4. You have to be a pro to do something like tiling a bathroom wall. Does it help? Sure. But if you have the desire to learn it, you can figure it out. Every project is a learning experience for the next one.
5. A project has to be completed in a weekend. Your project will likely take longer than a weekend or two. We don’t rush ours to keep up with the pace of the internet and you don’t have to either. Slow progress is still progress.

Not every rule is wrong. But some of them were just fear dressed up as advice.

Which one hit home for you? Save this, share it with someone who needs permission to slow down, and follow along. We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again.

05/29/2026

If you’re seeing this, let’s be friends.

You just found the corner of the internet where bold colors are always welcome and your home is allowed to be a work in progress.

If you are here you probably live in the in-between too. That space between the home you have and the home you actually want. Most people do. Nobody talks about it honestly.

We spent years playing it safe. Beige walls, neutral everything. Not anymore.

This is the place where color is celebrated and you are allowed to love your home exactly as it is right now while you slowly make it yours.

Save this for the day you feel like you need permission to paint the wall.

Send this to the friend who is ready to stop playing it safe.

Follow along. We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again and there is room for you too.

Less stuff. More home

05/27/2026

Our last house was beige. The color was called “Milktoast” and we lived in it for twelve years.

When we moved into our current home I knew I wanted something bold. Something that would stop you when you walked in the front door. Something that would still feel right for years to come.

I was nervous when we committed to it. Twelve years of beige will do that to you.

Our family wasn’t sure about the color drenching either. It felt like a lot, but we did it anyway.

Now it’s the first thing people comment on when they walk in. We get compliments on it on Zoom calls. Zoom calls.

Comment ‘color’ and we’ll send you the exact paint name and finish. Found at your hardware store, because bold doesn’t have to be expensive.

Send this to the person who has been living with a color they don’t love because they were afraid to commit.

Follow along. We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again.

Less stuff. More home.

05/25/2026

Number 10 will save you a headache.

1. Timeless beats trends every time.
2. The internet can teach you almost anything.
3. Beige is never the answer.
4. The right tools are everything.
5. A house is never finished and that’s okay.
6. IKEA is a perfectly good starting point.
7. Take the leap on the bold color. It’s just paint.
8. Trust yourself. You know what you like better than anyone else.
9. Spend your money on high-quality materials when you can. Find the very best inexpensive option when you can’t.
10. Always buy all the tile before you start. All of it. They will phase it out and you will have to pivot.

Save this for when you’re planning your next project.

Send this to the person who keeps saying they’ll start the bathroom tile someday.

Follow along, we’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again.

The running list never gets shorter. It just gets better.This is the powder bath. It’s been on the list for over a year....
05/23/2026

The running list never gets shorter. It just gets better.

This is the powder bath. It’s been on the list for over a year. The tile is in, the walls are painted, the vanity is chosen and there are still things left to do.

That’s okay. That’s just what it looks like to love your home in the season you’re actually in.

Each month we’re going to show you a room like this one. Where it is right now, where we want it to go, and how far we still have to get there. Because a home is never really finished and we think that’s worth showing.

Follow along. We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes. Less stuff, more home.

05/22/2026

It’s giving hydrated.

Sometimes loving your home in the season you’re actually in means finding the hacks that make the things you’ve been putting off finally feel possible.

We wanted a veggie garden. We did not want to water it every single day.

Enter: terracotta stakes. Soak them, plant them, fill with your repurposed wine bottle and let them do the work. And yes, it’s giving hydrated.

Comment “water” and I’ll send you the link.

Save this for when you’re ready to actually start that garden and send this to the friend whose garden didn’t make it this year. They need this.

Follow along. We’re giving ourselves permission to love our home again and there’s room for you too. One project at a time.

We’ve been there. All three of these. At the same time.The chaos, the house that didn’t feel like ours, the Milktoast wa...
05/20/2026

We’ve been there. All three of these. At the same time.

The chaos, the house that didn’t feel like ours, the Milktoast walls we thought we were supposed to have.

In our current house we just dove straight into the color. Bold walls, cooler tones, whatever felt like us. We stopped asking for permission and started making it ours.

Send this to the friend who also wants to love their home again.

We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again. Follow along.

05/18/2026

Nobody tells you that loving your home while it’s still in progress is actually a choice you have to make on purpose.

These are the five weird rules we gave ourselves to love our home in our current season:

1. We use the middle of a messy project to reset the rest of the house. Chaos in one room means clarity everywhere else.
2. Every project gets two questions: Can we do what we actually want? And if not, what compromise still makes us happy? We don’t settle. We problem solve.
3. The kids toys won’t be here forever, but that doesn’t mean they have to be everywhere right now. We aim to reset at least once a week. Outer order equals inner calm for everyone.
4. We stopped making decisions based on resale value. This is our home and we live here now.
5. We decorate for our own happiness, color included. What other people want to see in our home is for them and not us.

Save this if you’re still waiting for your home to be finished before you let yourself love it.

Send this to the person you’re building your home with.

We’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again.

Less stuff, more home.

05/16/2026

Can anyone relate?

There is something about getting your hands in the dirt on a sunny day that just resets everything.
 
We planted the vegetable and herb garden this week. It’s not much to look at right now. But knowing that sometime this summer we’re going to walk out here and actually pick something we grew — that part is exciting.
 
The basement will get there. Today we chose this.

Because our toxic trait is cleaning our house like no one lives in it.Send this to the person who cleaned before you cam...
05/15/2026

Because our toxic trait is cleaning our house like no one lives in it.

Send this to the person who cleaned before you came over.

Follow along, we’re giving ourselves permission to love our homes again.

Less stuff, more home.

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Morgantown, WV

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