Monday, January 20, 2014

French Country Style Design Elements

Today I wanted to share some French Country Design elements.  When building and/or decorating a home, one of the first things to consider is color palette.  In French Country design the colors are softer. Choose colors that are found in nature, think Provence.  For example, you can use soft blues and greens  like the fields, sea and sky.  There's also the yellow, red and gold palette taken from the colors of french flowers or soft lavenders/blues, inspired by the lavender fields.  I have chosen to go with the bluish/green tones - which will be soft aqua shades, combined with whites/creams/neutrals and brown shades.


I found this really cool tool by Sherwin Williams called...
Let's Chip It

You can add it to your toolbar and whenever you see an image that inspires you, just click on the chip it icon and scroll over the picture.  It will create a paint chipcard for you from that image like I'm showing here below.  You can see the color names which makes it easy to take to their store and select those colors.   
So for my color scheme - I would select colors more on the left.








Another element to consider, for French Country Style, is pattern.  Some of the more common patterns in French Country design are toile, landscapes, birds, animals and flowers.  Other pattern elements might be gingham, ticking, checked, the French Fleur, and damask.  

As far as furniture pieces go - think Rustic Formal.  Those two contrasting words go together so well in French Country Style.  You can aquire pieces that are new, but made to look old or you can go to flea markets etc to find great French antiques.  I prefer a mix of old and new pieces.  Anything with fabric must be new for me or at least totally cleaned and recovered.





Today's French Country Cozy:

Today's cozy is a simple loose herbal french floral tea with some French Orange blossom honey to sweeten it.  I found this honey at TJMaxx for 3.99.  Pretty crazy right?  But that's the whole point to a French Country Cozy.  We can all bring a little bit of the Romance of France inexpensively into our homes. So It's tea time- C'est l'heure du thé!


            



Saturday, January 18, 2014

Organize Building Your Dream Home


Today I wanted to show you a simple yet effective way to organize when building your dream home. I always believe in keeping things simple because we are more apt to get it done and more likely to keep it together. As a side note, I just want to point out this video is quite flawed.  You will see me fumbling with trying to watch my iPad screen, while trying to hold it steady and also trying to go through my system with one hand. Nonetheless, I promised myself that I would post as often as possible, even if that meant one take mistakes, etc. I only have short amounts of time to get it all done - I KNOW you know what I mean. 
We all are so busy all the time. 
Anyhoohoo - enjoy the video.  





Today's French Country Cozy -
Yesterday I shared a french inspired bath, and today I wanted to share a simple and natural recipe for a body scrub. Using the same lavender essential oil shown in yesterday's post, combine 
raw organic sugar with fractionated coconut oil (this is more of a liquid form). Mix together and add just a dozen or so drops depending on your preference, and voila - a French lavender body sugar scrub with no chemicals!


Thursday, January 16, 2014

French Country House Plans

So today I wanted to do the "unveiling" and show you the plans for my future French Country home.  We are just in the beginning stages - the foundation is getting finished today as I type this.  I live upstate South Carolina, just at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It's not the French countryside, but it will be my French Country Style.  I believe you can make your dreams come true wherever you are "planted" so to speak.  So here it is...





Every day that I write a post, I would also like to share a...
"French Country Cozy" - It's a made up phrase, but I think it best describes what it is.  It's sharing a French Country moment that anyone, anywhere can have. 
Today's cozy is - Taking a French Country Bath
All you need is a good book on France, French soap and some lavender essential oil.  Just add a few drops to your bath water, light a candle and dream away.  



Detendez-vous et profitez....RELAX AND ENJOY!

Amazon - French by Design book

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Beginning of a dream

I don't know about you, but I have spent most of my life dreaming of living the French Country Style!  The moss covered stones, the sound of rushing water... burlap, linen and lace, a bouquet of dried French lavender.  Just the thought of it gives me the goosies.









Today is the beginning in making my French Country dreams come true. 
 I hope you will take this journey with me and lavish in all things French!
Au revoir...