A Look at Some Real French Bedrooms

Having been a Francophile for as long as I can remember (at least the third grade) and having grown up with a real Frenchwoman living next door, I knew a bit about French style before I had ever been to France.  I loved French style before it was really popular.  I loved it in the '70s, the '80s, the '90s, and yes, I still love it today.  What I suppose bugs me a bit is what is popularly being called French style today - burlap bags, rough pillows with stenciling on them, every room completely white.   The French generally use colour in their homes, and quite a bit of it.  The images you see here were taken from French magazines on decorating and real French homes.

  Above, the French like peach and pink. They do use grey and have for many years (grey paneling is especially beautiful). Touches of gold are common, even in rustic looking rooms.The bedroom room above is about as simply as it gets, yet you can see that the bed is comfortable and the room is pleasant.

Below is a girl's room done in a pink.  The wonderful corona is very French as is the use of toile, of course.

 Above,  what! An all-white room (almost).  I chuckled when I read this because the magazine mentioned that this bedroom had been decorated "in the English manner" - note the florals on the armoire and pillow.  Below, these magnificent curtains made from a fairly heavy formal damask are quite French. You see rustic and some whimsical touches, but no burlap. There is a sense of faded grandeur that is typical of many French rooms and houses.
 
Oooo, the kind of bedroom that made me originally fall in love with all things French when I was just a little girl. As romantic as can be, and yes, I would be happy with this room today!  
Simplicity in the bedroom. But comfort is oh so important.  Look at the whimisical antique lamps (I believe that they used to be oil or kerosene).   Underneath the pillows, you can just see the bolster that is often on French beds.
  Toile reigns in the deep, deep pink bedroom below.

Below, while there are some rustic touches, such as the chair we see to the right here, there are almost always formal elements.  Note the pretty headboard, that amazing parquet floor, the elegant curtain holdbacks, and the crystal and ormulu candlelabras.

Bedrooms, Offices, and a Little Help

I am still working on our bedroom. I finally found a pair of lamps that I like. They are a gold leaf tole that picks up the gold of the chandy with beige oval shades that match the colour of the privacy shades we have beneath the curtains.  The table on the left is actually an outdoor metal table that I had on our balcony here, but used since most of our tables are at the house in Arkansas.  To the right is a malachite-topped chest in burled wood and ormolu that I like though not necessarily as a bedside table.  Instead of a mirror over the bed, I put a Renoir canvas that I have had since I was in my early twenties.  It is not a print but an actual canvas hand-painted by an artist (not Renoir) that is really very beautiful.  It was a gift from my son's grandfather and has always been somewhere in my home wherever I've lived.  I may move it, but for now, this is its home.  I find that I have far more paintings, lithographs, and prints than I am going to have room for in the townhouse.

Here is a view of the larger windows in our bedroom with the curtains I am using.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough rings for them, so they are casually clipped right now, but will be put up properly when the rest of the special order rings arrive.

Below is the guest room with the curtains almost finished.  The silk undershade is too sheer, I think and needs to be lined to look really good.

I had to take this picture of a home office from one of my favorite design blogs, Stacy's Conspicuous Style. I love her style choices.

Below, Cluny helps me all the time. He thinks since I work on the computer, he is helping by taking a nap on it or lying on part of and purring loudly. I love it, even though he probably going to wreak havoc on all my files someday! Below, uncharacteristically, Cluny looks to be the aggressor although he is the pussycat, and Cuervo is the alpha cat. Cuervo helps, too, by mewing loudly, and walking up to me dragging a long ribbon in his mouth that he likes to play with. How can I refuse?

More on Bedrooms

I am finally back from Africa where I had a wonderful time visiting my family. We spent Christmas at a wonderful resort in Swaziland after spending some time at their home in Mozambique and touring some beautiful countryside in South Africa. We went swimming on Christmas Day; it was hot and fairly humid. I am glad to be back in a colder climate however; I don't want to miss the snow for anything! I've made New Year's Resolutions which include getting the townhouse very clean and very together!

Our guest bedroom, a work in progress. The curtains are a faux silk moire; the walls are pale yellow and the curtains have pale yellow checks. Scalamandre fringe trim in blue and yellow will go on the edges. These are simple rod-pockets from Country Curtains. I had originally planned to let them hang straight, but decided against that once that were hung. There is a shade that matches the beige in the curtains that will totally black out the room.

My bedroom is slowly coming together. Above is a gold leaf candelabra with an icon I bought on the Greek island of Patmos below it.
Below, we will have matching lamps in the bedroom and different bedside tables.  These are a stopgap until I can go "shopping" at our house in Arkansas. Oh, and the "bump" in the bed is Cluny the cat.  He loves to crawl up under the covers and nap, and I didn't have the heart to move him because he is so happy there!

The curtains here are temporary. They are not lined (although because of the shades and because I like the lamplight from outside coming into the room at night, they don't need to be)and were a great bargain at Marshall's. I decided to go ahead and hang them from the special rods I bought (they are keepers) because I was tired of bare windows with only the shades. They do provide a more relaxing ambiance and can be replaced as soon as I find my dream curtains.

A favorite painting by Eleanor Cooperman that looks perfect against the pale peachy-pink walls of the bedroom.

I was out and about today in the November drizzle, going to the post office, dropping by Filene's to see if anything I couldn't resist had suddenly appeared on the racks.  Despite its being November and the rainy day, the temperature is in the 60's, so it's actually quite pleasant.  It's a good day to work!
     I've been trying to make up my mind on curtains - for every room!  Thank goodness the bedrooms and bathrooms have shades or we'd be living our life on a stage (that's what it looked like from outside the breakfast room before I put the simple curtains up there).  I happened to look up one night when walking back from a restaurant after leaving the light on and was shocked - it was just like a stage!  Inexpensive linen-weave curtains went up that week, and I didn't make anymore midnight forays into the kitchen dressed only in my gown or pajamas! Below you can see the trees turning through the breakfast room doors, and the great chandelier that I had rewired ( a better picture is coming).  It was in my husband's grandfather's farmhouse dining room many, many years ago. 

I finally got our electrician over to install the little chandelier in the guest room and the front exterior light. In the guest room, a little Maria Theresa chandelier works well with the French beds and the flower prints I bought in Paris.  I am thinking about using checked blue and yellow silk curtains at the double windows.

Above, Cluny is talking to me. He doesn't really like it when I am up and down around the house. He prefers that I stay in the living room where he can curl up in a chair in the bay window, or on the fourth floor where my studio is and I spend hours on the computer. I have a cat tree for him there and he's very fond of it.

Finally, another decorating problem involves the fourth floor.  To the right is a wall of bookcase and the large flat-screen tv.  At the opposite end of the couch is my studio.  I put some of my favorite paintings here (2 by Val Blackwell, including the large center picture) so that I could look at them often.  The problem here is that the ceiling is slanted.  The wall goes up as far as the blue, then for 3 feet it slants before it hits the ceiling.  I wanted the painter to take the paint all the way up 3 more feet, but he said that the edge would not be straight since there was a slant, but no molding.  Hmmm, maybe I just should have painted the ceiling blue, too?  But the large room is wonderful, full of light with large sets of windows facing both south and east. When I sit on the sofa in the summer evenings working on the computer, I can look to the east and see the full moon rising. Beautiful!

Life in the Townhouse

I am blissful this Fall season as I enjoy the crisp Fall weather and rainy days here in the Washington, D.C. area in my own townhouse.  We can see lovely trees outside almost every window of the townhouse; the leaves have turned yellow, gold, red, and a pretty chestnut colour.  I can hear cars go by constantly, a sound I love, since we live on a major thoroughfare. I never feel alone because of the city sounds and the many buildings surrounding me.
   My two cats are jubilant.  Because the townhouse has four floors, they have stairs galore!  And each flight of stairs twists and turns so that Cluny and Cuervo have a ball chasing each other up and down.  And sometimes, the exuberant Cuervo just runs up and down for fun. 

 You can barely see Cuervo on the landing.  We are having difficulty finding window coverings for the large stair windows since we want to preserve light, yet also have privacy at night; the situation is more complicated because of the position of the stairs.

 No curtains in the bedroom yet, but we do have accordian shades for total privacy.

 I love the mirroured wall, but am having problems with the placing paintings on the left wall.

     Cuervo peeks through the third floor railings watching for people to come up the stairs.   
The townhouse is coming together and I'll be posting pictures.  Trying to get all of our furniture in the smaller space is challenging, and, of course, we'll never get all of it in here; we won't even try.  I still want to keep the grand piano though, and when we finally move it up here, it's going to be an ordeal!

Okay, here I go again!

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

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What's Goin On?

I'm with Cluny Camillo; what's going on around here? Okay, family, send me an e-mail!