IMO those pieces would work in that space I think bring them with you and then make up your mind It usually takes 3months for sure to kind tweak a new place to suit you and those pieces can be incorporated IMO for sure. The interior of that house does not say cottage to me and IMO the interior can be very different than the exterior style .

The kitchen is not too cottagey and the space is very open, so I think it would be fine to use all of your furniture from your old house. Especially if it would be difficult for you to part with it, there's no reason to. But if you're looking for a reason to do something entirely different then go ahead and do something different. :-)

Beautiful house. I would start over with furniture and furnishings.

1. The furniture style does’t go with the house at all. In particular, the style is heavy, and your new home is light and airy.

2. More important. You seem to have gone through a difficult period. Don’t take your old life into the new, except memories and friends. Thrive in your new space. Re-imagine.

Man, I love your house. What a treat!

Here’s where I elaborate #2. Please undestand this is personal experience.

It came a time when I got older than I used to be. I also had landed a brand new, very small, house.

I considered my life. It had been a mess for a while. I had planned to home my possessions with me, but when it came to that…. My stuff was stored at the other side of the country.

I decided to take a trip there, and ”Marie Kondo” it all. I got there, and 2 days into my ”Does this give you joy” task, I ran aground with exhaustion. So, I ”Marie Kondo-ed” the storage spot as a whole. Did it give me joy? Hell, no. And it was going to cost thousands to move across country or to Goodwill.

FWIW I had very nice stuff.

So, I asked the storage facility if I could pay them to let me abandon it ALL. I retrieved 5 boxes of stuff, and paid them $300. Bye!

Of those 5 boxes, I have since got rid of 4.

Using all the money I had now saved, I was able to buy enough things for my new house.

My house looks fresh and easy. I had re-thought what I truly loved in this stage of my life, and what I wanted going forward.

My furnishings are Scandinavian style: I’d never imagined myself with this before! It matters not a bit that they were manufactured and not hand made. The pieces are multi-purpose, and can be easily moved around to adapt to different guest configurations and new friends. There are no features to challenge an older person, like knobs, low drawers, and cupboards with doors that often don’t fit the way they used to.

I would never have thought to do this before, and have never met anyone who's done it, but it’s been fantastic. I’m not having (literally) to trip over my old life in the new.

So, I really advocate getting rid of the old stuff. I believe some of your pieces might give you hardship in later years. And look how airy your new house is: it’s a living testimony to lighten up. In many ways, you’ve already made the decision to move on from heavy and historic, just in your home choice.

Really, really, really, listen to your fresh, beautiful, house for what it needs. It will take care of you if you listen!

With a few obvious exceptions, typical furniture of many periods can go in typical houses of many periods. Obviously if you were coming from a house with a Gothic Revival banquet table, it would not work in this house. But the periods don't have to be consistent especially if you mix in pieces of various periods. My great aunt lived in a log house built in 1810. It was not a cabin, it was plastered on the inside. But she didn't sit on upright rush back chairs at a plank table and sleep in a rope bed. She had some antiques and she had the furniture she bought in the 1920s when she got married and some newer stuff and it was fine. And lots of oriental rugs that I have now. She didn't have to pretend she lived on the Ponderosa just because the house was made of logs.

Heywood Wakefield furniture is a nice, small scaled furniture and should fit in the house nicely, just mix other things in.

Of course if you want to start over, sell this and start over. But dollar for dollar you won't end up with new furniture of H-W quality, not by a longshot. That may or may not be that important.

If you like the pieces, they will definitely work. Patricia and Palimpset gave you great advice. Also, I think bringing old stuff and mixing in new give a home character and personalize it.

I think as previously stated, the scale of the furniture would work well in a smaller home. It looks very modernized to me-more of a contemporary style.

IMO I'm reading many comments that are decisions from the "head": quality, expense, value, brand, scale, style match....Sometimes folks making these kinds of decisions over furnishings also go, "My great aunt left it to me, so I have to keep it" Those matter ZILCH in the scheme of things. What matters in creating a home that is yours is "heart".

You have chosen to take a different path in life, and you are clearly ambivalent about the MCM thing, likely for a variety of reasons. Indeed, you wouldn't be asking "stay or go" questions if your heart felt you just had to have the MCM furniture.

So, heart is where it's at already for you, not designer-y matching skills. And, if you need permission to go all out "heart", you have mine!

Courage!

If you have doubts, keep it for now, unless it is costing a lot to move and store it. Then take your time deciding each item to replace. You might decide to refinish some pieces.

I recently moved to a cottage in the woods, and I brought my MCM furniture (sofa and chair) because it fit in the pod storage. It is not comfortable, but it reminds me of home, so I am keeping it until I fix up the house and have room to put it in an office. Then I might get a high end comfortable sofa. It actually does not look bad in here. The ”cottage” has clean lines in the architecture. There are other things I wish I had brought, but didn’t because I was SURE I wouldn’t want them. WRONG! I still try to find stuff I gave to the ”got junk” people at the last minute, because I forgot what I ditched.

It is a lot of work to find the right items to refurnish a home with things you love. Take your time and when you have determined that something absolutely does not fit, take the time to find new pieces that you love more.

If you have not moved yet, remember cabinets can be filled with other belongings so they don’t take up extra space. This is great if you are packing yourself and using a pod, because you can put the cabinet in the pod and fill it while it is in there. You can take as many days as you want. Then when the pod is delivered, you can unpack the inside of the cabinet before you move it out of the pod. Cabinets make great moving boxes (unless someone else is trying to lift them when full). They are also easier to stack in some cases.

You never know what is going to fit until you get it inside the house.

One more thing: If you have a bedroom that you can use as a dressing room, you might love to have all that cabinetry for your clothing and accessories. I now have a 13x16 bedroom whose walls I have lined with matching cabinetry I bought decades ago. It looks great.

If you love your MCM pieces, bring them with you -- the pieces you've shown are super cool. I agree with others that a mix gives a home more personality, and leaning too much into cottage might look theme-y. I think Whitney McGregor does cottage beautifully, maybe you'll get some inspiration here: https://www.instagram.com/whitneymcgregor/

I would let someone else love your MCM pieces and select charming NEW/OLD pieces for the cottage. A new collection of unique items.

There looks to be some confusion here in terminology....

@earthamama's house is really not a stereotypical "cottage" we're talking about, judging from the photos. My home, which my builder also calls a "cottage", is not "cottage style", either. Like at all. It's modern and airy.

So, I think we need to distinguish between a designing style and the dimensions of a house. A cottage size is not necessarily a "cottage-y" house.

I don't believe "cottage-y" decor or style or furniture or wallpaper or fussiness or materials or or or would be AT ALL suited to the home in the Zillow photos.

Just sayin'.

there is no rule that says the decor inside the house has to match the exterior.

How can we tell you what to keep?

Do you like the mcm style pieces? Do they make you happy? If starting new, would it make you happier to have all fresh, new pieces?

if so, then use them inside in a mid century decor. or, utilize a few pieces here and there for an eclectic vibe.

the pieces you really don't like, sell.

But it's up to you. None of us can tell you what you should do.

Keep what you love and sell or give away what you don't want or won't fit. Advice from someone that moved to the beach last year and brought my favorite antiques and European etchings with me.

And your two houses, @Allison0704--three houses--could not have been more different.

True, @palimpsest, and I still have things I purchased in the early 80s and my parents bought in the late 50s.

@Allison0704

I owned pieces from the 18th century, but I don’t believe the OP’s conflict is exactly about dates, except maybe on the surface. The context is about a major life transition, not just a new home and whether existing pieces would work.

@earthamama can correct me on this, but as I understood it, that is a very important element in the furniture decision.

I believe those pieces will be associated with your memories, and it is strongly suggested that you include them.

I don't know, I see "I am downsizing and moving into a house where my furniture will no longer 'match', is that okay ," not " I just got spared execution when my conviction was overturned and I need to forget my previous existence".

Same. (too funny, Pal.)

@Allison0704 and @palimpsest

I was going with the introductory sentence:

I have had a major life change and am downsizing from a large mid century house to a small cottage style house.

Tangerinedoor, major life changes can be positive things too you know. Retirement, moved to the ocean, kids off and married, etc, etc. Sorry for what you've been thru but maybe try not to project your own negative filter on to the OP without more info.

I honestly do not think we need to know what the change in life was only the issue of the pieces working in thta home and we have all had our say.