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Welcome to the Cottage.

The Tiny Canal Cottage is a resource for helping folks mindfully conceptualize, decorate and enjoy versatile + smaller home spaces. Founded by designer, consultant, stylist, creative director and author, Whitney Leigh Morris, this family-owned small business recently finished the construction of a new, compact cottage and greenhouse-office in the southeastern US, and are also restoring a little 1800s French farmhouse and its outbuildings with co-stewards. Morris’ focus is crafting flexible, sustainable, and more community-focused home spaces. Explore Whitney’s book, blog, and social channels for years of tips and tales from living and working in — and with — a smaller footprint.

Avoiding "Fast Furniture" and Taking Time to Source

Avoiding "Fast Furniture" and Taking Time to Source

Upon moving into our new cottage, we needed very few furnishings, despite having moved from our previous home with so few large items. One thing we did need, however, was a comfortable armchair for the living room office.

We took our time sourcing the perfect-for-us reading chair. With our planet in crisis, a temporary piece of “fast furniture” was out of the question. Did you know that 12.2 million tons of furnishings and home accents end up in landfills annually? This results in horrible amounts of of solid waste that have increased 450 percent since 1960 per the Environmental Protection Agency.

Instead, we borrowed a chair from family (which itself was a handmedown from neighbors) for a few months, covering it with a linen sheet so it better suited our decor (as pictured below).

Pictured above: A borrowed chair, covered with a linen sheet to better match our decor.

We wanted to find seating that would fit snugly yet welcomingly in the corner without jutting into either the bedroom entry or the thoroughfare to the living room’s French doors. We finally found what we were looking for— this timeless looking chair with casually draping cushions, an overstuffed vibe, and yet a space-savvy curved seat and rounded back.

We added a vintage stool, a handmade rattan wall sconce, a handmade ceramic airplant cradle, and a propagation station (designed by our friend Hilton Carter).

The end result is a very comfortable reading nook that all of us — pups included — enjoy daily.

Loula Chair by Sixpenny
Color: Oat Flour
Fabric: Light Weight Linen
Fill: Vegan Fiber

Feature: Our New Cottage in House Beautiful

Feature: Our New Cottage in House Beautiful

Small Space Laundry Zone Solution for Air Drying Linens

Small Space Laundry Zone Solution for Air Drying Linens

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