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SECTION H INSIDE: RESALES – OPEN HOUSES – RENTALS AND MORE
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October 28, 2012
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Distinctive Paras Custom Craftsman sited on oversized lot with city & mountain views! Epicurean kitchen with top shelf appointments. Stunning red birch floors. 4 BR, 3 BA, 3,904 SF. $496,000
Nancy Wynia 509.990.2742 nwynia@windermere.com
That French Country feeling Dan Rafter
French style might evoke a sense of luxury and class for many people, but its more casual cousin, French country, is a style that is easier to embrace and apply to interiors. Carolyn Westbrook, author of “Through the French Door” (CICO Books, 2012) and home accessories retailer, says the style emphasizes simplicity and individual personality – a powerful combination. “Everyone loves the classic timelessness of French style,” Westbrook says. “It also adds a bit of sophistication to any room. The French have a way of creating what appear to be effortless interiors, [with] that sort of comfortable time-worn approach that makes a home.” French country style has won the hearts of non-Frenchmen for decades. Designers appreciate its classic style elements, while homeowners can get behind the fuss-free, mix-and-match look that is easy to put together. Though it’s hard to name iconic furniture pieces or other elements that embody French country, Westbrook says that the aim is to create inviting interiors; the aesthetic should be casual, simple and rustic. French country’s color palette includes the greens, yellows, golds and reds of a garden. Fabric patterns generally feature white or beige backgrounds decorated by repeating images, like a motif of two people sitting under a tree or a country church. Furniture should look rustic and used, including the nicks and scratches; this lines up with the shabby chic trend. But the real key to French country’s popularity? Homeowners can find ways to inject their own style, personality and personal effects. And this aesthetic is best built over time. “With French style, you can do it yourself,” says Karen Morava, owner of CarefulPeach Boutique, Oak Park, Ill. “You can go into any shop and, bit by bit, fill your home.
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You can go in any direction you want. You can have a lamp from a garage sale that cost 99 cents next to a chair that cost thousands of dollars. It all works.” Joan Osburn, who along with her husband Steve owns San Francisco’s Cafe Society shop – which offers Frenchinspired antiques, jewelry and gifts – says that French country style inspires homeowners to mix and match. For example, wood items with wrought iron and stone are a typical Worn-down wonders: Patinated furniture French (above) and metals (right) are key textures in country French country style. Garden colors like red, combination. gold and green (right) form the predominant This traces color palette. back to the actual French overgrown collections. countryside, Sophistication in French style where people often lived in homes is often about paring down décor made of rough plaster. rather than adding more, Morava Despite its historical and says. For example, collections geographical ties, “Don’t think of porcelain figurines, old pop of French country style in a bottles or vintage wall plaques regimental way,” Osburn says. can work, but the look can’t be “You don’t need to have blue-andcrowded. white checkerboard prints. When Morava herself collects clocks. you’re out, go to flea markets and She says that dozens of clocks in estate sales. Juxtapose what you every nook and cranny looks more find there with the antiques that cluttered than soothing. Instead, you already own. Mix old and new she bunches her clocks together, pieces. French country style has and doesn’t allow them to creep always been popular and it always throughout her entire home. will be, largely because it fits in so well with day-to-day living.” “You don’t want 12 collections of 12 different things,” she says. The distinguishing factor “Editing is important when it between farmhouse/country style and French country is the level of comes to French style. It’s not always about what you bring into kitsch. Osburn and Morava both the home. Sometimes, what you agree that French country should don’t bring into the home is just as stray away from the kitschy elements of country style, such as important.”
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Sophisticated yet rustic, French country style is timeless and allows for a personal touch.
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