Innholdsfortegnelse for French Home 2019 i The Cottage Journal

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to French Home, a special issue of The Cottage Journal, featuring homes with panache, charm, and style selected to entice your French muse. You will find homes and gardens in this issue with the sunny warmth of Provence as well as the sophisticated, urban interiors frequently found in modern design. Each of our selected homes features French characteristics—some subtle and others over-the-top—all the while reflecting the homeowners’ own regional location and history in addition to their appreciation and unique interpretation of Gallic style. French homes traditionally enjoy the use of natural woods, stone, chandeliers, wrought iron, and pottery, with collected treasures and linens adding interest to the visual conversation. The range of color is often based on those natural materials intermingled…

Once the French bug bites, the romance of hunting your own treasures and collectibles may lure you to the streets of Paris or the French countryside. While spontaneity can be part of the fun, your search will likely go better with a little planning when it comes to shopping and, more importantly, getting your goods back stateside. A 19th-century chest, a lava lamp, apothecary jars, leather suitcases—what you find will depend on where and how you shop. There are options galore when shopping for antiques or slightly worn goods, and one of the easiest is booking an antiques tour so you can shop on the arm of a local who knows the area. An added bonus is that a tour guide typically has relationships with the vendors, allowing you to…

Nestled into the graceful curve of a winding front drive, Mary Finch’s beautiful mountaintop home bears the facade of a Loire Valley château—a fitting residence for a woman with an abiding affinity for French style. Once inside, the décor affirms the initial impression, with a magnificent assemblage of antiques and art that completely captures the attention of anyone who enters. With an eye for detail and an innate talent for arranging eclectic curios into enchanting vignettes, Mary has spent years refining her sense of style. She lived in a stately Georgian home prior to purchasing and renovating this diamond in the rough that lay hidden under years of inattention—and a massive tangle of wisteria. Undaunted, she’s spent nearly a dozen years polishing the interior spaces to their present shine. The…

Frances Stanford still remembers her first trip to France. She studied French in high school and college and finally traveled to the country with her husband years later to buy equipment for his business. On that trip in the early 1990s, an opportunity arose that she couldn’t pass up. “We actually went to buy a printing press—my husband is in the publishing business. I thought if anything, I’d just be buying things to sell at my antiques booth, but the chance to share a warehouse with another woman came up, and that’s where it began.” Now Frances and one of her daughters, Ginny Smith, own Maison de France Antiques, a shop they fill through numerous shopping trips abroad each year. On that initial visit, Frances could never have predicted it…

Behold the elusive charm of the South, where resplendent homes dignified with rich architectural embellishments cry for interiors exuding a certain European sophistication—one that can only be achieved with a well-trained eye and a cache of exceptional antiques. This lavish home, built with grand-scale proportions, soaring ceilings, expansive windows, inviting French doors, regal paneled walls, and elaborate crown molding, seemed to lend itself to a refined sense of style—and preferably, one that spoke in fluent French. The walls, washed in quiet hues of cream, putty, and pale taupe, are offset by crisp trim in both ivory and white, setting the stage for a superb interplay of color and pattern in nearly every space. Bathed in opulence, the living area takes color cues from an exquisite rug that anchors the room…

“We walk everywhere—to the grocery store, the zoo, walking trails at the park. The businesses even have dog biscuits so the dogs want to stop at every shop,” says Helen Walker. In addition to adjusting to a new area of town, the Walkers also had to adapt to a smaller abode, a transition made much easier with the help of friend and designer Clarence Brooks. Downsizing meant selectively choosing what furnishings to take and, perhaps more importantly, what to leave behind. Clarence and Helen spent quite a bit of time over the years combing through antiques shops and discovering pieces that spoke to Helen’s heart, much of it French, like the silk-covered sofas in the living room. “The glass-top tray table is an example of something that is always trendy…

The French have always been style icons. Whether it be fashion, food, or design in general, the world consistently turns to the French to be inspired for the elegant and refined. This coffee-table book from 83 Press, French Style with Vintage Finds, showcases homes in France as well as the United States that have cultivated the art of French charm. Neutral palettes highlighting exposed stone, timeworn furnishings, and wrought iron reign within the book’s 220 pages. But what sets this tome apart are the pages that share the ins and outs of antiques shopping for the uninitiated tourist. This book is every Francophile and antiques lover’s dream.…

When Tiffany and Bill Accousti were in the market for a home, they set their sights on an 1885 cottage in New Orleans, Louisiana, just three blocks off Magazine Street and nestled in the heart of an eclectic neighborhood. For Tiffany, it was love at first sight. “I was happy the minute I walked through the door,” she recalls, noting it wasn’t just the house she fell in love with but the neighborhood itself. “We have a lovely neighborhood. It was important to us to be [in a community] with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds; I really wanted my kids to live in an eclectic neighborhood and be around interesting people.” While the surrounding area has a wide variety of home styles in all manor of repair, the Accoustis’ home…