Freshen up the look of your home with some new window treatments. By investing time and thought before you buy, you’ll enjoy the results for years to come.

If you are looking for French living accessories to create a mood in your home, it’s a decor that is easy to replicate. You may find the pieces in flea markets, second hand and antique shops almost anywhere in the country. You might use the pieces that are recognized as French country or you might do some creative choices to get the look without the cost. You won’t have to visit France to get the look in your own home.

Some of the characteristics of French accessories with a country flavor include warm colors such as those found in the French countryside. The favorites can be blues, golds and and bold reds. There can also be a reliance on pastel colors. Pottery pieces in such colors can be used as vases, table serving pieces, or kitchen accessories. These pottery items don’t have to hold something, they can stand alone as touches of color in your rooms.

Linens in solid colors such as red, blue, gold and green can make a lunch table sparkle. You may use bands of prints in popular colors on solid backgrounds. Mix and match tablecloths with napkins. You can also make use of place mats for a little less formal look.

In your kitchen, you can add accessories with a French look easily. The French are renowned for foods and cooking styles. Bringing the look of France into your kitchen can be as simple as adding a wall ornament or candle sconce. Use a bright spoon rest or a antique wooden rack with coffee mugs in your chosen colors. Kitchen curtains, borders or decorative valances are another possibility to add ambiance to your kitchen.

French living decor can be elegant as well as country. You can select lamps with decorative shapes and colors in brass or wood. Remember that a major characteristic in French decor is its calming effect. Choose pieces with flowing rather than geometric lines. Designs from nature are appropriate, particularly if the colors match the palette. You can find screens for decorative accents and to create privacy in a room or area.

Wall accessories in the French style can consist of candle sconces, ceramic or pottery pieces. Lamps can be wall style or can be placed on a mantel. You can keep the countryside theme in paintings. Add vases of fresh or dried flowers to bring nature indoors.

Place settings of china can be a great way to add a hint of France to your dinner table. You can go with the elegance of classic china and formal flatware and glassware. Alternatively, you can lighten the mood with chunkier dinnerware in the French influenced colors and patterns.

French living accessories allow you to combine basic furniture pieces and use the accent pieces for color, whimsy or contrast. You should not be too rigid in your placement of items. Let imagination rule and try accessories in various places for best effect. Because this decor style is generally economical, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a unique yet themed look.

By J. A. Youth
The pattern can be achieved at home in many ways. But work with French inspirations to make the decoration is simply dripping with style and class that the signing of French. House said with a French province, or country French style and decor consists of a wide variety of nuances and distinctive charm – but the French know how. The following text provides suggestions for the integration of the beautiful French Provincial touches around your home.

The main elements of the French provincial style attention to detail. Beaucoup items on the small side leads to look great. I think small buttons, beads, and small windows, and vintage postcards, and work the tape and baskets. This is not a formal French design with brilliant chandeliers – this is the style that is evident in the countryside and the charming provincial French cities. Fine jewelry in a beautiful collection of colors and props that can naturally be found in the farm equal Decor French are not only beautiful, but fun to produce in your own house.

The color is a great way to approach a new design. For the French provinces, and choose silent shades that look as if they have been through seasons of sun and rain – not so much washed, and pale. Sage green, blue, Cornflower pale pink, and ivory to make good choices. Panel bolder, and consider the chocolate brown and red brick. Due to the great credit in the French countryside, and strict adherence to a single color or a certain color scheme is not necessary, and not typical for this type of decoration. All these colors work well together and their appearance together is reminiscent of French country houses.

Color is important because it is decorated with everything from walls to furniture. The hardwood floor is a feature of the French provinces, but the addition of rugs in soft muted shades will add a touch of comfortable decor. Tissue may display these colors in a wide range of styles from flowers at the scene of the French ideal. Consideration of these patterns for curtains, furniture slipcovers. And pillows in such fabrics also add a touch of French is required – do not shy away from the decorations of beads, pearls, Fu, ribbon and lace for these items. May hang even a piece of cloth decorated with wall art – a committee of birds and flowers or lovers to enjoy a picnic of the country, for example.

Of course, can be transmitted by the wall of French art scene, who will really the spirit of the French provinces. Considering the nature of eye-popping above the mantle: Farm French, French Garden, scene of the French city which shows the different coffee shops and boulangerie. France also noted for its natural beauty, printing will not be difficult to find. However, do not limit your art to landscapes. Consideration in the formulation of old postcards or the old ads. Posters and Art Nouveau will of the theater and advertising French charm a great addition for the kitchen or family room.

Apart from the images, you may also want to consider lamps outstanding romance with beaded or fringed lampshades and sporting homemade pewter candlesticks and candles, bouquets of dried flowers tied with scraps of ribbon, baskets of all shapes and sizes and lots of shelves to podge, Hodge items carrying highly selective French.

Whenever possible, items that display the labels in French. This is subtle accents – candy box and a bottle of perfume, a bottle of wine – that go a long way in the presentation of refined details. You may even need to consider making or stenciling labels of your own. May be labeled a row of glass containers with the names of French candy sweets, chocolate and mint. Can a tin of sweets shops French kitchen table adorned with a painting of Anjou pear and sweet chocolate bar French. Other touches such as this jars with burlap fabric and cover and tied with tape.

Can be added small touches in every room – Panel featuring French sports a marriage bouquet of lavender, prints antique plant for the bedroom or living, curtains tied with bows water bottles, shoots one, and tablecloths canvas of flowers, French, pottery, animals such as birds and objects found in flea markets and other rural, and the end of the Council of Ministers of age with some of the new French shelf paper makes for a magical support. Look for old books from France to find the details of this appeal because you can easily include in your decor.

Like the French and broad enough to accommodate your own way as well. Careful attention to detail, and will be a lot of pretty decorations, and love of beauty go a long way to help you create your very special corner of rural France.

French doors, also named French windows can be used for different purposes – they are very popular as patio doors, as dividers between large living spaces, and as doors to a balcony. There are modern and traditional French doors and both of them create an inviting and a relaxing atmosphere in a room.

Usually French doors look wonderful even without any additional dressing, but if you wish to cover them, you have plenty of choices. To decide what kind of French door window treatments is a best one just for your interior, determine first your needs and wishes: do you want to get more privacy and light blockage, or are you just looking for a beautiful dressing for your French door? And don’t forget about your existing interior style.

Variations of French door window treatments:

Horizontal mini blinds

You can choose wooden, aluminum, or vinyl mini blinds. It depends on your budget, taste and on your entire room appearance. With wood blinds you will get a classic informal look in the room, while aluminum blinds better match modern interiors.  Vinyl mini blinds are a very practical choice, especially for high humidity areas, like bathroom or kitchen, but they may look not very attractive in such living spaces as living/dining room, patio, or a bedroom with a balcony, especially if you want your interior to look stylish.

If you decided about this kind of French door window treatments, keep in mind, that horizontal blinds need enough space when they are completely opened. Look for an appropriate slat size. Wooden mini blinds usually come in 1” slat size, while vinyl and aluminum mini blinds can be 1/2” or 1”. Some manufacturers provide special shapes for their blinds. You may consider so called “cut-outs” option, if you order custom made window blinds and need space for door knobs.

Fabric French door window treatments

Draperies – most traditional type of window treatments for French doors. There are endless of variations. With a wide range of fabrics and drapery styles, you can not only make your French doors more stylish, but also give a finished look to the entire room. If the space of the room allows – hang your draperies wide and high enough above the doors. It provides an additional elegance to the room and makes a door movement easier.

Sheers – you can hang them on your French doors using drapery rods on the top and the bottom of the doors. However, many people don’t like sheers because of their outdated look. You may consider screen shades or solar roller shades instead, which still provide outside view, protect furniture from sun rays and also reduce glare. You can install these shades in addition to draperies, or without them.

Window Shades

Fabric roman shades – look nice for many interior styles – contemporary, country, classic, and so on. The level of privacy and light blockage depends on the type of fabric you select for your shades. As for your roman shades styles, you can choose one that you like the best and that match best your room interior.

Bamboo roman shades or bamboo roller shades go well with several interior styles – modern, orient, exotic, even classic. Depending on their texture, these shades may gently diffuse light, or block it completely.

If you choose blinds or shades for your French doors, consider to get something that holds them on the bottom and prevents from flopping when you open and close the door. For horizontal blinds you can install hold-down brackets, and for roman shades some people use Velcro. You may also find your own solution.

It’s about 450kms from Paris to Lyon (or Lyons if your prefer in English) but forget about the four-and-a-half hour drive and instead save money, time and the environment by taking the high-speed TGV train service. After all, the journey time is just under two hours.

Added to which there’s a regular service, although you’ll need to reserve your seat in advance – a requirement when buying a ticket on a TGV – as even though ours was one of those double-decker jobs, it was packed. Clearly proof that plenty of people regularly commute between the two cities.

This was my first trip to Lyon – primarily to see a production of Porgy and Bess at the opera house. But it was also a chance for a glimpse at what’s reputed to be one of the most beautiful of France’s cities (the country’s third largest) and something of a gastronomic paradise. Although I knew a late arrival and an early departure the following day wouldn’t really give me the chance for any fine dining.

As fate would have it our arrival at Lyon’s Part Dieu station was heralded by the opening of the skies as the heavens fair chucked it down. This was a case of “April showers bringing forth more showers in May.”

No it doesn’t scan properly and it deviates from the original, but sadly it was the case and arriving umbrella-less meant standing in line for a taxi to take us to the hotel.

After checking in and freshening up it was time to jump into another taxi – yes it was still pouring – to make the short hop to the Opera house.

Now Lyon’s Opera house is a grand old building, dating back to 1831 although it had a bit of a facelift in 1993 as part of a “modernisation” drive.

Unfortunately that seems to have resulted in a pretty dated look in the bits that have been updated with the interior of both the downstairs bar and the main auditorium boasting a wonderful black-red colour scheme – very much of its time.

Then there are the tiled shiny floors of glossy marble that turn into a veritable skating rink for those wearing leather-soled shoes the moment a spot of rain hits the surface.

No prizes for guessing who had squeezed himself into a brand new pair that turned into skates once his feet hit the ground.

On to the performance – which was sold out – and our third row black (plastic-backed of course) seats gave us a splendid view of the stage, a definite plus given the rather special nature of the production, because it wasn’t just all about singing – as fabulous as the voices were.

The directors of this particular version were the choreographers José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, whose contemporary dance company would add an extra element to the opera.

That proved to be vital factot especially as George Gershwin’s opera is long – very long – very far too long even for my opera-intolerant companion for the evening who insisted on trying to listen with eyes (and presumably ears) wide shut.

Mind you, I had to have some sympathy as apart from the frequently reprised “Summertime” and “Ain’t necessarily so” there aren’t a great deal of instantly familiar and hummable-alongable tunes.

The music was as brooding as ever and the vocal performances marvellous but what really sold this production – to me and most of the rest of the audience – were the dance and visual effects.

Both were spectacular. There were some exhausting yet evocatively hip-hop moves to reflect mood changes and interpret both the music and lyrics. A sort of double effect, complementary rather than repetitive.

The performances were electrifying and although sometimes they appeared perhaps a little clichéd they kept (most of) us on the edge of our seats mesmerised by not just the power and strength but also the grace and beauty.

An extra visual effect was the video backdrop – something of a Montalvo- Hervieu speciality.

It was sometimes a little disturbing particularly when showing recordings of the dancers doing exactly the same routines they were performing live, but purposefully just a little out of synchronisation.

Maybe it’s just an age thing but there seemed to be a few too many assaults on the senses at the same time – very much an “MTV generation comes of age” sort of thing with the ethos seeming to be “let’s sling everything at them (the audience) at once and see how they manage.”

Mostly though the video worked magnificently, especially when it complemented something that was happening slightly off stage such as a bloody murder or a torrid love scene.

The bottom line was that the production wasn’t one that could be listened to with eyes closed and fully deserved the rapturous applause it received at the end.

Ravenous after the performance it was up to the seventh floor for a late night, two-course meal. The set menu at €30 was all right but nothing special. There again at almost midnight there wasn’t really any other alternative, so a return trip to Lyon will have to be made just to confirm that it lives up to its gastronomic reputation.

Fed and watered, strolled back to the hotel – hallelujah it had stopped raining.

If the Opera house left me questioning the tastes of Lyon’s interior designers and architects, then our hotel – Beaux Arts – left me flummoxed.

It’s officially now the Mercure Beaux Arts – part of the Accor group and therefore second only in the category of hotel to the chain’s Sofitels. Maybe the price – €99 for a double room – should have signalled what to expect – nothing special.

While it describes itself as an Art Deco hotel, unfortunately it manages only offer a very poor copy of what could be the real thing. The sad fact is that the heart and soul of the place have been ripped out with no real thought of aesthetics.

Our room should have been a delightful tribute to the past. Instead it had been stripped of all its original features to the point where it was almost devoid of character. True it was vast in volume with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides opening out on to small balconies. But a stale, musty smell hung around even with the windows flung wide open and the room wasn’t made any more appealing by the mustard coloured, plastic lined full-length curtains.

The functional, durable, dull blue carpet only inspired a desire to tear it up to check whether it was hiding some glorious old parquet and the bathroom – well it really isn’t worth mentioning. So I won’t.

And it wasn’t just our room that had been thoughtlessly “made-under.” There were signs everywhere in the hotel of what “might have been” if only a little more TLC had been spread in renovating.

The winding staircase could have been creakingly magnificent but instead it had been thoughtlessly painted over. There was rendering on the indoor walls, which had then been daubed in a nondescript colour and even the tiny old-fashioned lift seemed sadly neglected although it should have been full of charm. There was just the occasional glimpse of what was missing in some of the original giant wooden frames.

But overall the impression was a miserable one. Shame on Accor hotels!

The group could and should take another look at what could be done to a fabulous old building to bring it up to the promise of the blurb.

On the plus side, and thankfully there is one, is its location. The hotel is bang in the heart of the peninsular between the cities two rivers (the Rhône and the Saone) and a few minutes walk from many of the tourist sites and some fabulous shopping.

The service was a bit hit and miss. Front desk had only one person on duty when we arrived and the poor guy, while friendly and efficient, had to split his time between answering guests’ queries (such as booking us a taxi) and serving behind the bar.

Breakfast the following morning was rather a “unique” experience, which can best be described as offering “service with a grimace”. The two ladies greeting the guests certainly seemed to be full of attitude – which from an onlooker’s perspective was mildly amusing -although simultaneously they appeared totally overwhelmed by the number of people stumbling in to eat. Almost as though this was their first morning on the job. Perhaps it was.

They bustled about quite determinedly marching in and out of the kitchen with lists. But apart from taking down our room numbers (breakfast is never included in the price of a room in France and is always charged separately) seemed to do very little else.

Apart that is from scolding one guest, presumably still half asleep, for taking a cup from a pile next to the coffee machine.

“There are cups already on the table to use,” was the information given by one “waitress” as she almost ripped the cup from the poor guy’s hands.

Yikes. I guess nobody DARED question why there was a pile next to the coffee in the first place.

The food was passable. But for €14 a pop, I had been expecting something a little more wholesome than rubbery lukewarm omelette and manky sausages. Two words spring to mind RIP and OFF.

There was just time for a quick coffee outside the hotel and a spot of window shopping – on the whole stores open up for business at 10 o’clock – before taking a taxi to the station to catch our train back to Paris

And here’s a word of warning when looking for a taxi in Lyon. Don’t. It can be a real hassle for the visitor.

If you turn up at the nearest rank there’s no guarantee you’ll find a taxi. Even if there are a couple waiting with “available” lights illuminated, the drivers might simply not be around.

As there seems to be nothing to hail down on the streets of course, your best bet is to ask your hotel reception to book one for you.

French country decor is very liveable. It’s more comfortable than your average plasticky pieces offered by the modern furniture makers. Because French furniture is eclectic, it looks and feel elegant in almost any company, in your bedroom or loungeroom. Add an original armoire, hung French-styled chandelier, and your living spcae feels not only upmarket; it feels comfortable and inviting.

One of the most important elements in any French Country home is its kitchen and dining area furniture. A large rectangular or round wooden table that seats the whole family is a must. Choose wooden chairs with gracefully carved backs that complement one another but aren’t identical—there’s nothing fussy or formal about French Country furniture; the casual mix-and-match attitude is part of its charm. A simple iron baker’s rack or wood sideboard completes the look and gives you plenty of storage and display space for tableware, decorative accessories, and, of course, bottles of good French wine.

French Country walls are usually covered in wallpaper, particularly toiles. Traditional toile wallpapers feature repeating patterns in a single color, usually blue, red, green, or black, on an off-white background. The fleur-de-lis, a stylized iris flower often used to represent royalty, is especially popular. It’s essential to keep your French furniture simple and unassuming if you choose to hang patterned wallpaper. If you prefer to paint your walls, use nature as your palette. A bright, sunny yellow or Mediterranean blue will bring the outdoors in, complement rustic furniture, and keep your home feeling warm and cheerful all year long.

To decorate the windows in your French Country home, stay away from dark, heavy drapes that block out the light. Opt instead for cotton or linen sheers or simple lace curtains hanging from a wrought iron rod with a graceful finial. Your furniture will look warm and inviting, when exposed to the sun light entering through semi-shaded windows. In your kitchen, leave the windows bare, if you can, or compromise by hanging short café curtains that block any unwanted views but still allow light in. If you’ve chosen painted walls over wallpaper, you could use toile for your café curtains, to keep that vintage French Country feel.

Try to fit hardwood floors in your French country home. If your wall-to-wall carpeting is covering up wood flooring, rip out the carpet, no matter what condition the wood is in. Do some simple sanding and ageing for that extra touch of class. If it’s simply not possible to do away with the carpeting, or if you have vinyl flooring, choose faded Oriental-style area rugs or textured cotton throw rugs to disguise the flooring without detracting from the natural beauty of your French Country furniture.

Don’t forget the outside of your home when you’re creating your French Country getaway. Feel free to explore your creativity when arranging plants around your home; use topiary trees and hanging baskets as the most “French” in their character. French lavender loves sunny positions in your garden. Also, get rustic patio furniturea bent willow armchair, an old wooden rocker with a distressed finish, and some tile-topped patio tables. This will help you create a unique living area, that you can also use for entertainig.

If you are looking at French Country Decorating for your bedroom then there are few things that need to be considered to ensure that the finished look is right.

Firstly you need to look at style and colour. Most French Country Decorating designs are set against a background of whitewashed woodwork and are able to co-ordinate with a wide palette of colours. For a bedroom flowers and toile patterns can be used effectively. Where ever possible you should use materials that are luxurious to the touch, look at adding some traditional French lace if at all possible to the design or even some brocade may be included within the design as well.

If you like a bit of color, you could consider some light blue or light green walls or even a golden color. The key is to make it look faded or white washed as if it is antique. Match the colors in your patterns to the walls, curtains, rugs and accessories. Adding some antique accessories around the room with “chippy paint” will help to give it an authentic look for the French Countryside. Although these type of accessories are in demand today, you can still buy them at fairly reasonable prices in local antique markets and even some thrift or consignment stores.

Next we need to look at windows and lighting. For a more authentic French Country style the windows should look lovely with the use of soft sheers and tailored curtains and drapes preferably ones that will softly fold on to the floor to add that extra hint of luxury (so don’t go for short curtains). It is important to include decorative tiebacks, valances and swags in your French Country Decoration design. The lighting to the room should be ornate with the lamps (Tiffany style seems to suit this kind of design well) and which also help to accentuate the walls and fabrics in the room as well.

It is important that the furniture used in a French Country Bedroom decoration should be a few pieces which have been either wood stained or colour painted to help ground the room and make everything sit in perfect harmony with each other. Certainly a French Country style bedroom should be decorated using the most luxurious toile or floral bedding that you can afford as well as a ornate and gorgeous bed along with shabby chic furniture. Remember a French Country style bedroom should ensure that you are surrounded by beauty and style as you sleep.

But at the end of the day it does not matter whether you go for the country or contemporary look, what you really want to do is design a room that displays your taste and style.

You don’t have to be a decorator to get a add a bit of French country style home décor to your kitchen. Little changes like adding stencils to the walls and coordinating your tablecloths and dishware can do wonders to make your kitchen seem like an old French country Inn.

You don’t have to go out and buy all new furniture, but for a great French country look, you should have some antique looking painted pieces. Anything with hand painted stenciling or chippy or aged paint will do. If your cabinets are tired, try repainting them with a worn look as this can be much less costly than buying new ones and will do wonders for the room.

Decorative accessories are vital to pulling your French country style home décor design theme together. You can totally change the appearance of your room by simply replacing the accessories! Concentrate on getting tablecloths, dishware and canisters, in colors and patterns that match your French country look. It’s amazing the difference a few alterations can make! You should to add in a variety of wooden bowls in addition to chippy painted items and you can even try some scrolly decorative flea market finds as well as vintage fabrics which you can use as curtains, on the tables or hang from your cabinet and stove handles.

Lighting is key in any kitchen and your French country kitchen is no exception. When considering lighting in a kitchen, you must provide good overhead lighting as well as task lighting. If you are decorating with a French country design style, try installing a painted or crystal chandelier with crystal lamps or scones and be sure to avoid anything that is too modern with straight lines.

How you dress your windows also effects your French country style home décor look. There are multiple window coverings that go with this design, particularly if you match other fabrics or colors in the room, but you should avoid heavy contemporary fabrics. Try using a nice toile print curtain, or sheers with a great distressed paint wooden valance.

Painting your walls can be one of the biggest and least expensive changes in your French country style home d̩cor decorating project. For this look the room colors make a big difference Рyou should think about using either light yellow or pale blue either in your wall color or your accessories. Try using a light colored paint with crown moldings on the walls, or if you want something different go with stenciling.

After you paint the walls – don’t forget to decorate them! Try using country style paintings with a French flair or interesting old kitchen utensils that you can hang on groupings on the wall. Buy interesting old plates and tureen covers at flea markets and yard sales and use fancy hangers or silk ribbon to hang those on the walls for an interesting effect.

Getting a great French country look in your kitchen can be as simple as just buying new decorative accessories or as involved as replacing everything. Either way, working on the details and making sure to match your furniture and decorative accessories will help you pull off a great new French country style home décor look that you can be proud of!

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Parlez-vous Françes? Don’t worry – you don’t need to speak French in order to enjoy the bright, comfortable and classic style of French Country in your home. From weathered walls to wide wooden tables, it is not hard to achieve the French Country look using the following guidelines.

French Country style is all about well-used, worn-in, imperfect but beautiful architectural elements, furniture and accessories. Forget sleek lines, fine china, and black, white and gray color combos. Instead, fill your house with chunky wood tables, dozens of sweet-smelling flowers, and brightly patterned couches, curtains and pillows styled after the look of Provence, the southeast region in France that borders the Mediterranean Sea.

When choosing a French Country style home, think along the lines of cracked wood beams, curved panels, hand-carved decorations and raw material flooring and walls, like stone or exposed brick. Raw or distressed wood also can be used to cultivate a French Country atmosphere, as do uneven plaster walls.

Don’t worry about that spider crack in the paint in your kitchen, or the slight discoloration of the paint in your bedroom or living room. In French Country “speak”, these imperfections simply add character.

Other French Country architectural features include shutters for your windows, narrow, deeply cut window sills, and striped fabric awnings over windows to afford the home dweller extra protect from the heat.

But what if you just want to add some French Country flair to the home you already have, without changing its walls, floors and windows? No sweat. Rustic furniture is a key element to the French Country style. Think oversized rectangle or round wooden dining room tables, with a dull waxed or natural finish.

Chairs and occasional tables of the French Country style can be curved or boast carved designs in the woodwork. Dining room chairs can have a ladderback style or vertical slats. Also, large armoires are well-suited to the French Country look, giving the owner a nice cool place to store dishes, linens, or even clothing.

Finally, achieve that French Country style with the perfect fabrics and accessories that have that certain je ne sais quoi. Use toile material, a gauzy linen or cotton, in white, cream or yellow with bright contrasting colors. Choose themes such as monkeys, Chinese patterns, and eighteenth century courting scenes, all of which are predominant in French Country design.

Large, thickly woven baskets, chunky clay or old metal pitchers, Chinoiserie pottery, and iron garden shelving units all fit in nicely with the French Country look. So do ceramic plates, tiles, tablecloths and curtains sporting motifs of roosters, sunflowers, beetles or lavender. Save money by hunting for these and other accessories at flea markets and antique stores.

The final touch needed to makeover your home in the style of French Country is the addition of flowers. Fresh sunflowers, lavender, and geraniums especially all say “French Country”, and the more the better!

Put flowers in old pitchers or copper pots, in window boxes, and glass vases. Use a variety of colors, and make sure the arrangements don’t look too tame or stylized. Natural grasses are another way to bring the French Country look into you home.

Whether you decide to go full out, adding wood beams and stone flooring to your home, or whether you just add a nice chunky wooden dining room table, carved chairs, or a roomy armoire to your existing furniture, the French Country look can be achieved by anyone who wants to bring a little of the Provence countryside into his or her everyday life.

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You don’t have to be an interior designer or French expert to create the French country style to your home. Even if you haven’t visited rural France you can still get the look by doing a bit of research.

It need not cost a fortune either because you can recycle old pieces of furniture to create that French feel.  Or you can find some antique pieces and paint or upholstery to get the look at half the price.  Stencils are a big French country look and you can buy them or make your own.

French country style decorating is based on the casual, yet elegant feeling of the French countryside. The mood that it creates is cosy, warm and rustic. Most of the colours are inspired by natural surroundings including bright yellows, lavender, cobalt blues, gold’s, greens, beige, brown and deep reds.

With a rustic appeal and old-world comfort the French country still is easy to replicate. To emulate the French country look you might find in a cottage in rural France you should have a combination of natural stone floors, rooster motifs, carved wood furniture, wrought iron furnishings, plastered-surface walls painted or washed in butter-yellow paint. A primitive farm table would look good with a Provencal tablecloth. Crockery should be bright and match your overall colour scheme.

You can accessorize your home with baskets, crockery, linen, copper pots and much more. Fabrics come in all kinds of country style colours.  Stripes and checks are popular as are the plainer type of designs.  You can get lovely flowered fabrics with small prints or larger.  Sunflowers are a popular design.

The way you dress your windows will also have a large effect of the whole French country style home decor look. I would recommend Provencal fabrics and colours rather than heavy contemporary fabrics.

You can finish off your look with fresh flowers, which is an essential part of the French Country feel.  They can be fresh, dried or silk; you will get the same effect.  Obviously fresh flowers will give off a lovely fragrant.

With a bit of creativity and imagination you should easily be able to pull off a great new French country style home decor look that you can be proud of!

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