< img src= "https://www.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/kerry-moody-cottage-life-inside-a-cottage-matt-russell-7.jpg" alt ="" >< img alt= "kerry moody cottage life inside a cottage matt russell 7" src=" https://www.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/kerry-moody-cottage-life-inside-a-cottage-matt-russell-7-1536x1066.jpg"/ > A home has a soul, a sense of history: So state Nell Card and Rachel Vere in their new book, Life Inside a Home, and it’s a definition that fits this yellow cottage in New Orleans to a tee. In truth, this little, simple home has silently experienced the crucial moments of New Orleans’ history for the much better part of 2 a century.
The cottage in question is a small 19th-century structure in the city’s Bywater area, embeded the shade of 2 leafy Louisiana cypress trees that keep the house cool on even the steamiest summer days. Built in 1836, the Creole home is made from wood recovered from old barges used to ship lumber down the Mississippi, the spaces filled in with durable sail canvas and plaster; today, Kerry Moody is its steward and occupant. Write Nell and Rachel in their book: “It was an unrefined building and construction technique, but one that suited the first owner of Kerry’s home: a Dutch sailor who had wed a Creole woman.” Adds Kerry: “I envision he was away at sea at great deal of the time. This would have been such a lovely location for her to live alone, due to the fact that it feels very secured.”
Fast forward a century and a half, when Kerry entered the cottage for the first time. Your house was then owned by an American Mardi Gras historian, and the interiors were embellished to suit, with purple and green walls, boas and plumes covering every inch. “It was spectacular,” Kerry told Nell and Rachel– though not quite his taste. Now a stylist and antique hunter himself, he approached bring back the interiors with “some Creole sophistication” in mind, “evoking a few of the mystery and sweetness of the Creole past.”
Join us for a look:
Above: The home, with sweet green shutters. It’s tucked behind a tropical garden; the twin Louisiana cypress trees were saplings when Kerry moved in. 
< img src="http://www.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/kerry-moody-cottage-life-inside-a-cottage-matt-russell-6-733x1099.jpg" alt =" kerry left the home & # 8 2 17; s easy design untouched: 4 equivalent sized 18 "width =" 733" height =" 1099"/ > Above: Kerry left the cottage’s simple layout untouched: 4 equal-sized rooms at the front, with two small spaces at the back connected by pass-through space, now the cooking area. “When guests show up, they feel the energy in the cottage, since you can walk it in a circle and you can see that every inch of your home is used,” Kerry informed Nell and Rachel. “I believe that’s what makes it so special. In fact, often I have a hard time trying to get individuals to leave.”