Meet Cottage Hardcore – Cottagecore’s Dark, Chaotic Cousin

Cottagecore is so 2020.

Well it isn't, necessarily. But as with every trend, the moment you finally know what everyone on TikTok is talking about, a new trend emerges to pique your interest and send your fantasy home decorating in a whole new direction.

That new direction, my friends, is cottage hardcore. The term was first used by the moody home decor brand House of Hackney to describe their upcoming spring/summer collection. They explained the idea over email: "Since lockdown first began last spring, we’ve all been desiring more time outdoors – and the idea of escaping to a rural idyll feels more alluring than ever. That’s what we feel lies at the heart of cottagecore: it’s about our collective desire to reconnect with nature."

Cottage hardcore lends an edge to cottagecore's soft colour palette and romanticised view of rural life. Where cottagecore is light and airy, all pastel accents and natural woods, cottage hardcore is crowds of colour, toughened with a slash of black.

It's cottagecore in all caps and bolded to within an inch of its life. It's the rural aesthetic for people who go hard, with the edge of chaos inherent to untamed nature. It's for those who feel drawn to parts of dark academia but want none of the studying and a more riotous colour palette. It is, in the words of House of Hackney, "a garden gone feral, with flowers drawn from nature then given a fantastical spin."

House of Hackney may have called the trend but there is a world of ways to incorporate it into your space. We can't go outdoors, we can't even create more light in our lives, but we can fill every nook and cranny of our homes with this eclectic, over-the-top trend...