My daughter Gabriella sipping coffee on the balcony at the
Meurice Hotel during Paris Design Week
Our new weekly column
(LIVING LIKE...)
to enlighten, inform & inspire
our day-to-day living & design (during a crazy, Pandemic)
all photo sources in this post please find in my
gorgeous urns I spotted at the Paris Flea Market (Les Puces de Saint-Ouen)
showcasing quintessential French Style
LIVING LIKE the FRENCH
plus, Five Life-Hacks to Bring
French Style Into Your Home
Many of my clients love to travel then bring that feeling back to their home. It has happened to me as well, and inevitably after a big trip abroad I come home longing to inject the aesthetics and lifestyle of where I was into my own home. Let's face it, travel can be hopeful, collaborative and educational all wrapped into one adventurous package. We like to pick and choose the very best of all our experiences to bring into our lives and into our homes to give us a respite filled with fond memories. Now more than ever, travel is top of mind especially at a time when, well, it is quite limited. So, in an effort to bring us all a little bit of inspiration and pad our "nest" with some remnants of travel, I'm bringing this weekly column to the blog called "LIVING LIKE...." where I'll showcase some of my favorite homes in that particular style and give a few, quick life hacks on how to obtain that in your own home.
Each culture and place I've traveled has their own special nuances of history and they seem to balance that in a unique manner. They bring their cultural influences into their interiors based on their way of living and their history. Today, I'll begin with the French since I love almost every aspect of their daily life- from their pared down yet elegant interiors, to their philosophy and the way they eat and prepare food. The kitchen almost always is key here because our cuisine influences our homes and we cannot separate that aspect from our interior design. Next week I'll capture LIVING LIKE the ITALIANs, then SPANISH then ENGLISH and I'll go from there to ASIA. Eventually, when I've covered all my favorites, I'll end up back in the States with various regions of our own country because as we all know a New York City home looks and feels entirely different from a California abode. My hopes are to inspire us all while living and working and sometimes even vacationing in place during this crazy time and to infuse a bit of love of travel and all the special cultures we yearn to see again and again. Why not make it wonderful while we are home. Let's dive in with LIVING LIKE the FRENCH.
French-style kitchens and entertaining, more inspiration from my
French-style pin board
HISTORY & INFLUENCES: Hard to begin here because the French have a long, lustrous history in the world of decorative arts and interior design/architecture. One thing is for certain, going back to the days of Royalty, ornate architecture has been an important part of their daily living. The fine galleries of Francis 1 and Henry 11 (dating to the mid 1500s) in the royal Palais de Fountainebleu shows how important applied decoration was to the homes (er, palaces) at the time. The ceilings were often gilded wood and floors were hardwood mirroring the coffered ceilings. Wood panelling was elaborate. At the center of luxury in France is the Baroque-inspired architecture and design of the Palace of Versailles built and designed in the mid-17th century which help to make the French renowned for design. This elaborate and luxurious palace showcases Louis XIV's pomp style and at the time France became an important export trader of fine made luxury goods bringing French style and bespoke wares throughout Europe. This explains a lot of Paris' influence in design. Today, one can see this at play in the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre showing some of the same design principles seen at Versailles, examples of incredible decoration using marble, plasterwork, and painted ceilings and giving a feeling of grandeur. That aesthetic has stayed with their homes and interiors and has morphed and grown over time to include modern design into the mix, but what remains and will always remain about the French is their enviable
"je ne sais quoi" and how they make everything they do look effortless.
MY TAKE-AWAY: Whether it's setting a dinner table, cooking up a roast chicken, or fashion, they do it impeccably. I would credit fashion designer Coco Chanel's infamous quote for capturing their importance on proper editing. She uses it for fashion, but it applies for interior design too.
"Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” -Coco Chanel
My other take away, is the French start with quality (not a lot of fillers with inexpensive items in the home). Quality over quantity seems their motto. Then I keep coming back to is that they're great editors. They've also never forgotten their luxurious past and often start with detailing and ornate molding, even if they have to bring that into the architecture. This is their base and they work out from there, infusing a wonderful modernism into everything they do.
FIVE LIFE HACKS for LIVING LIKE THE FRENCH: these are five easy hacks to bring a little French Style into your home. If your home does not come with the historic, architectural detailing no worries there are easy ways (DIY from Home Depot even) to bring a little bit of panelling or crown molding to your ceiling or walls. Some of these hack ideas can simply be to add a touch of "French Blue" or head to your local thrift shop or flea market to pick up some urns with a bit of age to them.
1. French Style loves detailed architecture- and at the heart of that is Classic architecture with lots of detailing. Inevitably the French are often about "good bones" and starting with beautiful, historic architecture that speaks to their roots, and even then sometimes it will be a very modern interior with this ornate architecture, paneling, as the base.
these three examples of French Style emphasis on architecture, crown moldings, panelling and detailing showcase that with these "good bones" you hardly need decoration or even color sources via my French Style Board
2. French Style utilizes symmetry- pairs work wonders to bring a sense of order and French Style to a home. Tall obelisks, a pair of sconces, pairs of lamps in curvy tall size, this symmetrical way of designing feels ordered and very French to us. Even a French garden is different from an English garden for example and known for it's ordered, orb and symmetrical greenery and shrubbery and flower beds.
famous costume jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane's former apartment (although it was in NYC it's quintessentially French in style) showcases this style perfectly. Layered yet finely edited, symmetry everywhere (the lamps the fireplace mantel) rich and historic architecture. This apartment was featured in Habitually Chic back in 2018 and is worth a read to see the entire apartment which was inevitably part of a Christie's auction. He was both a Francophile and Anglophile and his home feels planted squarely in both camps, but it's his French Style that resonates to us.
featured in Elle Decor, the gorgeous French home
showing obelisks and symmetry at play
a very ordered and typical French garden
3. French Style loves the mix of styles and periods: modern furniture with antiques mixed in with curvy lines. The French Style mixes in period pieces from various corners of the world flawlessly. My favorite French-Style mix however, is modern curvy furniture with classic decor as seen below.
designer Klavs Rosenfalck revives a historic Parisian apartment (7th arr) with a modern vision via Elle Decor
as featured in Traditional Home magazine, this gorgeous French-style home shows a nod to the past with modern touches.
although fashion designer Valentino is Italian, his French (outside of Paris) home Château de Wideville was built in the 17th century by Louis XIII's finance minister and celebrates his love for French style intermingling it with all things Chinese featured in AD Home
4. French Style loves urns: and urns that feel ages with a little patina. Whether it's urban or country, the French love their urns, their textured, aged walls and antiques and they're not afraid to show their age, cracks and imperfections, and on the contrary it adds to their interior design sophistication. I like to line all my urns up on a mantel in all one color in varying sizes and shapes, and this gives my home a bit of French-Style!
Kenneth Jay Lane's home
5. French love blue- of course a French Style home wields many colors, but blue comes top of mind when I think of this style. From the beautifully vibrant "French blue" to varying shades of Navy, the French Style showcases blue throughout the home.
I snapped this photo of interior designer Timothy Corrigan's blue and white tented bedroom in his Paris Flat during a lovely Fete I was invited to following the American in Paris party during Design Week 2018.
French Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage’s Parisian Apartment in AD Home
my travel companion snapped a photo of me walking in the rain in Paris to discover all the beautiful architecture- here an infamous French Blue door (left); and, right at the Meurice Hotel where I was about to embark upon a full day of walking through the city.
Happy Nesting
XO TAMARA
