Winter At the Cabin

Cranking up the Cozy with candles, hot tea, and the vintage pink blanket I wasn't expecting.

Hi friends. Before we dive into today’s cozy tour, our friends over at Mother Root are keen to give away three bottles (with mixers) of their divine new spicy ginger elixir. I am a giant ginger fanatic, particularly during winter plague season (ie: NOW), and like your fave fire cider, Mother Root has a serious kick to it. It's a N/A aperitif handmade in England, and it recently launched in the U.S. The recipe is simple: Ginger, organic apple cider vinegar, blossom honey, and a touch of chili. I’ve been drinking it in the evening in my favorite fancy Hudson Wilder Asobi wine glass served over a cube of ice w/lots of soda water…a warming sunset ritual I am VERY into. If you’re game to try it, drop a comment below, and Mother Root will choose three ATA winners at random within 24 hours. ❤️

---

Last weekend upstate, we awoke (again:) to a fresh blanket of snow. My favorite thing to do on mornings like this, after brewing the coffee and turning on my beloved simulated fireplace heater (crikey, now it comes in BLUE), is to pile on my burliest vtg Ascente parka and go explore whatever tracks may have shown up during the night.

Deer? Raccoon? Coyote? 🐾

I wouldn’t say I’m a winter person, but having the cabin now makes me want to be cozier (aka: WARMER)…a lot. It indulges my propensity for creature comforts, like a steady stream of hot beverages, pretty thick books to escape to, and music filling in every corner like last month’s twinkling holiday lights.

In my (older) age, that process of turning a space into a home is precious to me. I really love it. I’m not an interior designer, but design as a very broad term is part of how I communicate and express myself or what I’m feeling/yearning for (and often can’t even describe). I’ve learned that moving around a space is a lot like moving around the page when I’m writing, too…throwing a lot of shit on the table, bed, or shelves to see which artwork or adjective is the one we’ve been looking for. And when we find that thing or move that really WORKS…it’s like everything around it just seems to fall into place, too.

Even with the weekend snow, I asked my interior designer friend Hallie to come over and help me move some things around in the cabin to make it cozier for the winter season. Because, whether I like it or not, I always need that decisive backup opinion (I think we all do), not to mention access to her wonderful stash of objects, blankets, and other ephemera to play with/test out that always make a room a total DELIGHT of the senses.

Since the cabin is constructed from straw panels and designed to retain/regulate the interior temperature throughout the year, it’s never super toasty, but it’s warm enough to want to tuck into the dining area, light some candles, and do a little work or read while the snow is coming down. I very much love the overall design-in-progress vibe of the cabin, but something I’ve learned about smaller spaces in particular is their freshness and vitality really depends on our willingness to shift and CHANGE—add new colors or textures w/the season, and subtract things that seem wrong, heavy, or invisible in the moment we’re living in. Like a chair left out in the sun, a tiny room can fade over time without the regular attention and the everyday puttering that makes a home…homey.

So, Hallie and I spent a few hours fluffing blankets, moving pillows around, mixing candles, and rotating artwork from spot to spot. The above is what we came up with by just reframing what was on the wall console, adding a big portrait I bought at Brimfield two years ago, and swapping our bigger lamp for a smaller one (btw, our tiny guide to FANTASTIC lamps is coming soon 🔜).

And it was pretty WILD how much this hour or two of changes just made my heart SING. (As a reminder, here’s what it looked like before in summer…)

Other than spending time at the cabin whenever we can, that’s become the biggest and most unexpected pleasure and JOY for me…treating the space kind of like an art studio—for experimenting, playing with proportions, conjuring new color combos, and continually trying new/old things out…and in! And then, out again…

And that’s today’s story…snapshots of what the new season holds for a living space that’s always a little bit in transition. Okay then, let’s get into it…xxCb

Making the concrete floor in the hallway cozier.

The first thing we did was unroll this gorgeous Schoolhouse rug to warm the floor outside the two bedrooms in the hallway. I’ve loved working with Schoolhouse over the years, and I’m truly so sad about what’s going on at the company right now. I’m hopeful like most of us who are longtime fans that things might turn around to keep the brand going (🤞🏼). For the record, if you’re in need of a fun patterned runner to refresh one of your hallways or in-between spaces, I love this one from Nordic Knots and also this one, right, from IKEA.

Switching to more dramatic artwork.

Below, what it looked like before.

I cannot tell you how exciting it was to see the vintage portrait I found (and had no place for) two years ago in such a prominent spot in the cabin. I really didn’t think the height of it would clear the ceiling, but it did…and the scale of it almost makes the room look taller/bigger as a result. I also had no idea the deeper shades would energize the room so much because WOWWOW…it was amazing stepping back and seeing how it just fit into place. And then everything on the cabinet needed to shift a bit, too...

I have a serious weakness for vintage portraits (case in point below, one corner of our Brooklyn apartment). If you do, too, linking to a few below that I found on a recent search that were pretty special…

From left: Vintage portrait of woman on leopard chair, vintage seated woman in skirt, vintage woman who kind of looks like Martha Stewart.

The OMG pink mohair/wool blanket.

I didn’t ask Hallie to bring over anything in particular, just some design things she might have had in storage so we could start to see what might work where. And I have to admit, if she’d said she wanted to bring over a pale pink blanket, I would have said, “No thank you.”

BUT…this is why playing in your space is always such an eye-opener. Because you can’t make a decision simply in theory…we always have to be actively in the space moving shit around, seeing something look terrible or incredible, and then build on the feeling in the room from there. Because we’re all sort of amateurs and we’re all just figuring it out:).

And that’s kind of what this pink wool blanket was/is—that and the new painting—the new flavor or feeling I had no idea was missing. I loved the blanket so much once it was on the sofa I asked her if I could buy it from her. What do you all think…do we love it??

Since our sofa was a hand-me-down from a friend, covering it with textiles was always the plan to avoid a costly reupholstering (that might happen at some point, we shall see). I love this Quince persimmon cashmere blanket below, too, as well as the one on the right, which is vintage and almost identical to mine…a steal!

Candles and tea. Candles and tea.

One of my other favorite things to grab at thrift stores is candlesticks. For small space dwellers, and, really, people who just enjoy the nourishment of warm, glowy light at various times of day on command, I know you understand this affection deeply. Plus—and this is a BIG plus—they take up almost no space. (And even without designated storage, they look wonderful grouped together all mixed up in varying heights/styles, like our own little oddball family:). I loved the vintage candlesticks made from old bike reflectors that Hallie brought over, and it felt like a treat to light them with her during the day when we really didn’t need to.

But the ceremony candles bring to home isn’t something you can always explain. You just sort of have to move with it where it takes you. ❤️

---

Coming next week on A TINY APT: Why we all need a (CHIC!!) navy sweat suit this winter 🔥 AND a Tiny Guide to GREAT lamps…see you there/here…xxCb

From top: Sweats by SPRWMN, a (perfect) vintage floor lamp spotted in The Room Next Door, sweatsuit by Quince, pleated table lamp by HAY/Design Within Reach.

---

---

**Remember if you click on or buy anything using a link from this newsletter, there’s a chance we might earn a tiny commission at no cost to you. ✨