Swedish Cottages in the Woods That Melt Your Heart

Many of you know that I grew up in Geneva, Illinois, due west of Chicago on the outskirts of the suburbs. The town has a Swedish history and features Good Templar Park where members of the International Organization of Good Templars would come to celebrate Midsummer, which is Swedish Day, or “Svenskarnas Dag” in Sweden. Campground tents were eventually replaced with Swedish cottages, known as stugas (Swedish for little houses).

Good Templar Park recently held their “Cottages in the Woods” event so the public could tour the grounds and go inside some of the privately-owned Swedish cottages. My family and I had the pleasure of attending this event last weekend. Each open cottage had a local crafter selling items. But what I loved most was seeing the Swedish cottages throughout the grounds.

 

One cottage is as cute as the next and each has their unique embellishments like the white trip at the peak of this dark gray house. To signify which homes were open to the public, signs were created with the iconic Swedish Dala horse on them.

 

This white tiny house has plenty of details despite its lack of color. Shamrock shutters pair with board and batten siding topped off with a collection of circles at the peak.

 

A colorful outdoor dining table is situated in front of the house above.

 

Good Templar Park doesn’t have streets or sidewalks running through it. Think of it as a campsite where cottages stand in lieu of RV campers or tents.

 

The houses don’t have heat or bathrooms. There’s a community bathroom in the middle of the park for showering. Owners can stay in their Swedish cottages whenever they’d like, but most visit in the summer.

 

It was challenging to get interior photos due to people walking in and out of the cottages, but I did manage to get a few from the home above. You can see the space heater on the kitchen counter that was used to help heat the home during the tour.

 

The cottages at Good Templar Park do have running water and electricity so you can make meals. I love the Swedish sink skirt. And of course, there’s plenty of Scandinavian knick-knacks.

 

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Here’s the living room/bedroom at the back of the house. The Christmas pillows were for sale, but unfortunately, the rug was not.

 

Here’s a cheery house that immediately caught my eye in the midst of all the Swedish cottages.

 

So cute with the flower and dragonfly embellishments.

 

The colors remind me of my home’s exterior color scheme, except we used navy instead of coral. But we do have those same chairs!

 

At the entrance to the Cottage in the Woods tour were these charming pieces of fairy art lining the trail.

 

 

These painted banners are about four feet tall. Aren’t they sweet? The kiddos loved them.

 

And speaking of kids, there was a craft table for them to decorate wooden peg dolls with felt leaves and flower cut outs. I made this one (funny how the craft table had just as many adults as children making peg people).

 

Our trip to Cottages in the Woods was the perfect day. It was crisp, fall weather in the sun and it wasn’t too crowded, which gave me the opportunity to get photos without people in the them blocking the view.

 

Here’s the back porch of the house above.

 

And a little further back is this charming bridge that leads to the other side of the park.

 

I have more photos to share, but I’ll save them for another day. So many Swedish cottages to see!

 

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