Steeped in tradition, warm and comfortably casual, French Country remains one of the most enduring interior design styles around the world. Sometimes called French Provencal, this style emerged from villages in the South of France in the mid-18th century and has become a favorite of many American homeowners.
Charming and endearing, French Country is more elegant than American Country, yet less ornate than Italian Country (Tuscan) design.
“French Country is a lifestyle, not just a design style,” said Ronnie Teate, manager of Pierre Deux, a retailer for French Country furniture, textiles and accessories in Tysons Corner and Bethesda. “A lot of our clients are well-traveled. They have studied the language; they have a romance with the culture.”
To create this look, begin with the organic colors found in the French countryside, such as soft purples of lavender fields, grassy greens, and lemony yellows.
“Comfort, color and conviviality,” Teate said of the atmosphere French Country evokes. “It gives you a good feeling. It’s warm, inviting, easy to live with.”
“Think comfy sofas, ottomans,” said David Stralo, a stylist with Cote Jardin Antiques, an antiques dealer and collector with stores in D.C. and Palm Beach, Fla., that focus on French items.
No room in American homes has been more influenced by French Country style than the kitchen. A French Country kitchen often includes large wooden posts and beams, from which bunches of dried lavender hang. Distressed wood adds a rustic feel. Floors made of terra cotta tiles, brick or stone offer texture, while a hearth or fireplace constructed of stone or brick often serves as centerpiece. Nothing says French Country kitchen like a scrolled ironwork baker’s rack with wood or tiled shelves.
The baker’s rack is “a great way to display anduze,” Teate said of the popular pottery style that originated in the French village of Anduze. Urns created in this style can cost as much as $700.
Another signature look in French Country decor is the use of toile, fabric printed in one color of rural French scenes and people from the 18th and 19th centuries. Toile patterns are most often featured in bedroom linens, pillows and draperies, and duplicated in wallpaper.
Celeste Borel loves French Country fabrics and uses them generously in decorating L’Auberge Provencale, a French Country inn in White Post, Va., about an hour and 20 minutes from the District. Fellow innkeeper and Celeste’s husband, Alain Borel, is from Avignon, a village in the South of France. Their inn is a showplace for French Country design.
“We wanted to capture the essence of Provence in the Virginia countryside,” Celeste said.
The couple has been traveling to the South of France for 35 years, and every time, Celeste brings back fabrics and tiles to enhance their French Country inn.
“The inn was built in 1753 and had a Federal look. It was just not us,” Celeste said. “So we started to redo room by room in French Country.”
The rooms include French Country standards such as colorful tiles, carved wooden beds, oversize chairs and grand armoires. Armoires, some with raised panels and intricate carvings, can offer decorative storage.
“Most French Country armoires come in three pieces because they are so large and couldn’t fit through the door. People are removing shelves and using the armoire to store a flat-screen TV,” Stralo said.
Victoria Neale, of Victoria Neale Interiors, incorporated this look in a dining room she designed for the CharityWorks GreenHouse show house in McLean. She used a rug made of hemp that was dyed, resulting in a sage and wheat combination. A banquette cozies up to a round painted white table, creating a quaint eating space.
No French Country room would be complete without wrought iron fixtures, especially chandeliers. “In the South of France, lots of Chandeliers were used,” Stralo said. “You could find one in every room in the house.”
