Imagine, this morning, you just woke up in the sun-kissed Provence in the centuries-old stone farmhouse, and you saw those slow movements of the lace curtains through the breeze outside. Walking on the timeworn, warm-wooden flooring, you reach the rustic kitchen, anchored by a weathered timber table laden with bread loaves, sausages, olives, and hearty red wine, while enjoying the view of far-out lavender fields. With rose vines framing the doorways and red-painted old-fashioned barges drifting peacefully past bucolic vineyards, the vision is so seductive that you are immediately drawn to the rural lifestyle, escaping from your daily routine. In the wake of a wholesome breakfast, you went for a walk around vibrant outdoor markets, strolled down side streets, and chatted with the owners of family-run inns as much as possible, taking in the surroundings from your bottom of the heart as if the joy was yearned for a long time. No vacation could be as perfect as these momentary and dreamy days. Vacationing in such surroundings seems thrilling to me, and our materialistic minds deserve it every now and then. In honor of all those who agree with me, here are some tips on making your vacation house into a perfect bounty French country home so you can actually feel more than all of this craziness. Now, I know that you can not convert any home into the exact French country home due to its gradations in architecture and design, but you can at least add some clever tips to your interiors to experience this blessing of French country decor every day.
For those who don’t know about French-style decor, let me give you a brief. A sense of natural comfort and elegance without any clutter, encompassing the visual feast, is the sole motive for French country home. With the tranquil environment, surrounded by natural things and soft tones, subdued shades while adding depth to the interiors, the rural style of French is a connoisseur to mind and body.
Elements of the French Country Decor.
1. Paint Like No Other!
There are common colors associated with the French country interior design, for instance, blue, green, pink, or cream. There might be simplicity in these colors, but French have their ways of conveying things. These colors are particularly mixed with subtlety and depth. Even though these colors soothe and evoke interest, they also have character and depth, designed to change the lighting and enhance and complement various space features.
If you are moved away with so many choices, then the best you can do is use modern acrylic white or soft whites, which are subtle and sophisticated. Now, the white is not the ordinary white. It is sometimes creamy, sometimes touched with grey, or has a soft and granular texture, which really fills the space with excellent lighting. Over these whites, you can range colors, patterns, and textures through furnishings or statement pieces, which we will learn later in the article. Now, I am adding a few pictures for the colors and patterns purposes, which might give you a good idea.
A few other choices can be using a chalk grey, which is much lighter and reflective than the commercial and boring colors, combined with a deeper, dove-wing grey in panels and woodwork with touches of creamy white. Then, the next color of French’s choice is green, whether pale or strong, the best could be cheerful emeralds or mown-grass greens. While choosing colors, you can always have exceptional choices, but subtlety is the goal, and so is the prize. Also, keep in mind that you don’t overdo things, instead keep them in balance. For living, you can go for cream, off-white, and palest grey with tints of corn yellow, wood green, and spring-sky blue.
2. Choose the Materials That Defines Landscape.
A little Story...
In earlier centuries or the Middle Ages, homes were furnished directly with boards for tables and slats for beds, attached to the supports of humble one-room dwellings. It was only after the 1700s when a few people in small villages and the countryside had a few basic freestanding pieces – maybe a bed, a table, and some chairs. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until after the French Revolution that farmers, merchants, and others became wealthy enough to start collecting fine things. Sooner, in around the 1600s, King Louis XIV demanded furniture for each of his palaces. As a result of his efforts, Paris became a center for excellence in design. His own experiences regarding everything from waistcoats to writing desks prompted him to hire an arbiter of taste and to insist on strict guidelines for artisans and craftsmen.
Typically, the French country style emphasizes natural materials, which means that the combination of textures plays a crucial role in its decor. The first material, which is evident in the rural interiors, is wood. Now, the French use fruit woods like walnut and cherry or traditional hardwoods such as oak and elm. Either you use wood for flooring or furnishings. Built-in furniture is from wood, sometimes stained or polished, but usually colored in sympathetic tones and hues. So, using proper wood, instead of plywood and then giving it proper color is the key to the furnishings. Wood paneling is also a crucial factor in French country decor, whether painted or polished, which can correct any faults in a room and give subtle importance to the space. It is actually called trompe l’oeil. I will add a few pictures to get an idea of the French-style furnishings. One tip is to use two rush-seat ladder back chairs, which is a classic French country home essential, near the sun-splashed windows to offer the perches to the residents or guests or have an amazing coffee sip. Make sure you use terracotta-tile flooring with rough-hewn beams and a vintage metal birdcage to add charm to your French farmhouse or country house.
One perfect tip to use wood in the French country style other than furnishings is the wooden floors, making it wood-stained, sealed and polished, waxed, limed, or colored with a painted finish or tinted stain, making it look natural and balancing the wood remains.
The next material is hand-cut stone. Use them, as paving stones, which are old, subdued, warm, and glimmering. You can also use it for basins with terracotta walls for bathroom finish, giving it a spectacular view. Also, one intelligent idea is to make a small part of the wall from local stone, combining it with different textures like a simple wooden buffet, chair, and logs of the fireplace. Another kind of material that is vastly popular in French country decor is terracotta, which you can use with its close companion, brick. The warm colors of the terracotta make the place more friendly, comforting, and elemental. Either use them in the form of a paver-style rectangle to form walls or surface tiles or covering floors, they look mesmerizing in any form. And of course, you can pair stone, terracotta, and wood to give the perfect view of a French country home.
3. The Fabric Is Key to French Country Homes.
A little back story…
Color and pattern have been a favorite of the French countryside since the mid-seventeenth century, when ships from India brought brightly printed cotton fabrics, among other exotic goods. It was the first time the French had seen such lively colors and designs. A bonus of the new imports was that they could be washed without fading. These products, which majorly got the terminology, Indieness, became a phenomenon across the country. The cheap, hardwearing textile was soon draped over beds, chairs, and even walls by everyone from the Parisian court to the peasantry. This Indieness became so significant in the French style, that the newfound fabrics literally brought the factories of eclipsed silk, linen, hemp, and wool to the brink of ruin. So, King Louis XIV got an idea, the idea to ban the import and domestic manufacture of indieness in 1686. But the plan backfired, as the cloth fetched the black market, and it wasn’t until 1759 that the French lifted the ban. And by the late eighteenth century, this indieness became the national symbol of the French. I am telling this story for historical relevance, a little history of France’s color obsession, and for the option to buy textiles from India, which have distinct designs and colors at a much cheaper cost.
By the small story, you know that the fabric is the most significant part of dominating the French rural interiors. Using different textile designs and colors is the key to changing the look of your home while using them in a profusion of curtains, blinds, chairs, benches, cushions, beds, and tables. Since the expressions show both color and design, the fabrics actually lift every single element in the room. Now, the designs range from small, precise to geometrically governed patterns or romantic florals, which makes it puzzling to pick the fabrics. One tip is to go for the Toiles de Jouy, the classics of French interiors, just like the croissants and coffee at French breakfast. The Toiles are artlessly simple, but their limited palette and mesmerizing combinations with designs are deeply sophisticated. Their blues are not just any blue- they are ink and grey-touched blue. The designs can range from historical wars to floral or the ever-popular Tree of Life.
Another tip is to use at least the slightest piece of the antique textile, like an old scalloped pelmet or vintage long curtains, giving a lift to your room while balancing the simple scheme.
You can always choose elegant country chairs, which are upholstered in designs and colors, or you can always choose the throw blankets with absorbing and decorative designs over the chairs or benches.
A good fabric choice for beds, couches, and chairs is Boutis, which has soft colors and a very effective look. Even though they are fewer and fewer in number, old linen sheets are highly prized, particularly those that are monogrammed and embroidered. In addition to serving as sheets, they also serve as bed covers. In addition to being used as tablecloths, starched, unlined, lightweight curtains, whereas damaged sheets can still be used for cushion covers.
4. Accessorize Your French Country Interiors With Usefulness.
Now, before you dive into the world of the commercial market to pick the accessories, let me tell you that there must be elegance of use instead of elegance of ornamentation. If you are going for ceramics, glass, or metalware, then choose which are not fragile or mean of spirit, but those that are easy to grasp with definite shapes and purposeful. When it comes to the kitchen, go for glass storage jars, china jugs filled with flowers or baskets, and earthenware cooking pots, which are useful, and add a different tinge of decoration to your place.
To infuse the accents or accessories in the French country decor, you just need to take care that everything is in balance instead of overdoing things or buying costly pieces. One example of using accessories is designing your space or room with shelves, fitted to store earthenware, glass, or pots in the kitchen or eating area to give it a purposeful view. Collections of decorated coffee or tea pots grouped with chest tops, candlesticks, or wineglasses, can also act as further accessories for the French country home.
Another option to accessorize is the fine porcelain made in France or the stoneware or tin-glazed earthenware known as faience to give a much different look to your home. You can always choose to have hand-painted faience from the centers like Moustiers and the earthenware with cream body to decorate your country rooms. And you can’t forget the plants and flowers in every single corner or room. A true French country home has beautiful flowers displayed in buckets, goblets, jugs, and tubs, usually artfully unarranged. Besides, you can always accessorize through chandeliers, mirrors, necklaces of crystal, etc.
Now, I have explained the basics of French country interior design through its elements. Now, it is time to explore the separate spaces with some clever tips.
Having the Exterior View of Our Homes.
From the village markets filled with fresh-cut flowers and ripe vegetables to the canvases of Impressionists Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir, French culture is infused with gardening passion. During his stay at Provenance in the late nineteenth century, Van Gogh was so enthralled by the gardens that he raved about the huge red roses and fig trees, calling them a work of poetry. French gardens do have their way inside the country homes through fabrics and furnishings, adorning fruits and flower motifs. However, I have already described in the element part about these soft furnishings.
The only thing you have to do now is maintain a well-kept and neatly geometric garden as a la française de Versailles and other chateaux. The gardens of more typical provincial dwellings exude a looser, more casual charm. In a boisterous jumble, fruit trees, herbs, flowers, and vegetables coexist. With its subtropical climate, the Riviera is brimming with hibiscus, bougainvillea, and spiky acanthus, scattered in laurel and box hedge gardens. A good example is using rotund containers glazed in mustard yellow and sage green through their potting of hot peppers, begonias, and herbs in your kitchen window. You can always adapt cheerful glazed earthenware cachepots for both interior and exterior spaces to lend a French country flair. It is best to pair small versions with crockery that matches the color scheme or pattern of the picnic table. Like, imagine sitting in a cool spot in your garden with slatted chair with a small picnic table, sheltered by the sun, with backgrounds of pink and white geraniums, lavenders, marigolds, and accent sunflowers, making your day.
For those who live in an apartment, the best idea is to first check the intensity of lights and the amount of humidity at the spots where you are keeping the plants. And then, you can go for a mini herb garden for your kitchen, flowering plants like miniature cyclamen to the heady, pungent perfume of hyacinths and gardenias. You can always choose to have orange blossoms or citrus plants where adequate sunlight exists in your living area. Once you choose your plants, go for glazed ceramic bowls, terracotta pots, garden buckets, distressed stone urns, or antique faience pitchers to pot them, giving a French vibe at your home.
The Communal Kitchen With Fresh Aroma of Herbs.
The essence of any kitchen is its equipment. And only by a good choice of treasured objects and pots, your French country kitchen can sparkle. As of today, utensils and dishes are often stored in the ubiquitous armoire – the large wooden cupboard, originally designed to store linens. It can be found in nearly every French country house in some form or another, with its glass or chicken-wire-covered doors that allow the contents to be displayed at a glance. You can always go for pestles and mortar which are made of wood or stone, oven dishes of terracotta, or stoneware, serving or mixing bowls of earthenware, and chopping boards of wood. The only key is using natural material utensils in moderation so that there is a good contemporary design and reliance on purpose.
Also, this doesn’t mean that you can’t flaunt the stainless steel units as they can simply be hard-pressed to the walls. It is hard to find fitted furniture in the French country interior design, except wooden shelving, which can be arranged as fitted. So, you can store your extra dishes and utensils in even the chest-of-drawers, which are pretty and useful. Also, a large central table is a must for a French country kitchen, which is a pleasure of anticipation, used for eating and even cooking preparations. For sinks, always choose stone or ceramic, like the British butler’s sink, rather than stainless steel or synthetic material.
Besides all of these, you can always choose textiles that are dramatic and attention-seeking. For instance, the small floral patterns or striped cushions on the chair, and checks and stripes on the window, add a little bit of color to your country kitchen.
Checking for Living Rooms and Dining.
The contemporary living room is the essence of a French country home, and so making it elegant is the most integral part of the whole house decor. A little back story is that in the 18th century, there was no invention of the upholstered chair, leaving most countries without comfort. Then, at the time of Louis XV, a strict distinction was made between recliners and formal chairs- making sieges meublants or sieges courants- portable chairs. These chairs were like portable objects- to a table for a game of cards perhaps or into a circle to join in a conversation. So that’s when the comfortable furniture stepped in.
One imposing trick is to use a Louis XIV bookcase with a tone of warm hues for your living room, with an inviting sofa piled with cushions. The content of the bookcase must be beautifully arranged, with interesting pieces on every shelf, including pots, pictures, and candlesticks. Then, you can always choose the perfect vintage-high-backed sofa and small wooden table with pier mirrors, toile curtains, and terracotta.
One of the good combinations for a French country living home is using a traditional or equipped fireplace. Now, complete the style with the faux mantel by cornice molding, matching pair of eighteenth-century settees, rush seats, pillows and curtains made of Provencial fabrics or Indian cotton designed ones, and a Kashmir shawl covering the coffee table imbuing the room with unusual authenticity. And don’t forget the iconic wooden armoire carved with the designs to form an open wooden bookcase.
Bedrooms and Baths for Retreat.
A country bedroom is always known for its simplicity. In a few cultures of decor, they are almost austere, but the French country bedroom is just simple yet comfortable. The French country bed has bedframes of metal or wood with completely plain and embellished head and foot boards in simple four-poster. The wood frame of many headboards is surrounded by an inset of cane or textile. Ornate, heavy carvings, heavily padded versions, and perhaps covered in dark damask or brocade are styles you might not expect to see in French country bedrooms. You could say that the headboards are just an ornamentation addition, which is either freestanding or attached to the wall rather than a bed. Then comes the bed linen, which is really significant as the French believe in comfort more than anything. The best bed lining sheets in this option can have a thin stripe or two blue perhaps. Then comes shutters, which are significant to provide a subtle statement to the bedroom. Always choose curtain materials like muslin, unbleached linen, fine cotton in white or pale, cool shades with floor-grazing length, tied back with the contrasting material or cord.
One good example of a master bedroom in French country style is a simply dressed bed with decorative treatment of walls with the yellow wash finish with terracotta-band and tiled floor. The bed and windows should be draped with soft and falling white, with the chair covered to match. And lastly, the mirror completes the look of the elegant bedroom.
Conclusion.
French country decor is a simple and intriguing type of decor, that is extremely beautiful, comforting, and tranquil. In this article, I have given a brief idea to at least help you understand what it is about. I tried giving you a few options and examples at each point to make things easy for you. But if you still have questions, please feel free to comment, and I will address your confusion!
Resources.
1. French Country Living by Caroline Clifton-Mogg.
2. Architecture and Design Library: French Country (Arch & Design Library) by Barbara Buchholz, and Lisa Skolnik.
3. French Country at Home by Kathy Passero.
Frequently Asked Questions.
French country decor, which evolved during the rule of Louis XIV, is a rural style that exhibits the use of terracotta tiles, earthenware, stone walls, rustic furniture, and soothing colors like soft whites, mown-grass green, and chalk grey. The purpose of this style is to enjoy natural comfort and elegance without any clutter.
French country consists of colors like blue, green, pink, or cream; however, their tone changes immensely to showcase the subtle character of the decor style and the depth of these colors.
To decorate French country style, you should learn the elements of the decor style, such as rustic furniture, terracotta tiles or paving stones, arranging upholstered chairs and couches, using particular fabrics like Toiles de Jouy and more, and arrange these correctly. You can take the help of this guide that explains every element and shares tips to decorate your home French country way.
French country decor has never dated in trend. With the introduction of newer elements in each era, the style kept on reforming. Further, as the owners had started preferring the rural lifestyle, especially that of France, the popularity of the French country has only surged.
Related Reads.
