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French Country Decor
on a Shoestring
French country decor needn’t be expensive (unless you choose to collect fine antique furniture and accessories).
Here are 9 ideas for French country interior decorating that won’t break the bank.
The links will take you
to the relevant sections
on this page.
There's French country home decorating ...
… in color
… for the kitchen
… in words
… for walls
… for the table
… for the living-room
… in a frame
… for the bathroom
… in the bedroom
1. French Country Decor in Color
 Nothing can set a mood the way color does.
And thankfully, a tub of paint is easy to finance. Sometimes painting just one wall is enough to change the atmosphere of an entire room.
So which mood would you like to create?
If you're drawn to the Southern regions of France, create a Provençal feel (1) with yellow, mustard, light blue, lavender, green, gray and white.
Or if you feel daring, go ahead and surround yourself with French country decor in deep pinks, cornflower blue, ivory - even gold!
If you have French seaside living in mind, decide whether you want to evoke the Atlantic and North Sea (2) coasts (blue, white, cream, straw, and a dash of red) …
… or the blazing sun and clear waters of the Mediterranean (go for turquoise, yellow ochre, burnt orange, white).
Or maybe you love winter sports and hiking and want to create a French mountain home (3) feel with lots of dark wood, simple white walls and red-and-white embroidered textiles.
The color swatches above are just a few of many options for French country decor in color.
You’ll find more examples if you follow this link to color schemes for French country interior decorating - or read on and you’ll find the link again at the bottom of this page!)
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2. French Country Decor for the Kitchen
 French country kitchens reflect a profound love and respect for “honest” cooking with fresh, locally produced, high-quality ingredients.
You'll find the most delicious food in some out-of-the-way villages in France, and it'll probably come out of a kitchen with a seriously low-tech look.
To get that look for your French country style kitchen, show some fresh food:- herbs in pots or jugs
- fruit in a basket or bowl
- vegetables that don’t like a fridge anyway, like tomatoes, onions, or garlic.
Store and display them in - earthenware bowls
- wicker or straw baskets
- (old) wooden containers, or
- simple porcelain jugs/bowls/pots.
Both the fruit & veg and the containers will contribute to the "I-love-my-food-and-I-can-cook-like-the-French" look, while retaining the rustic feel of French country decor.
(I mean, you can always sneak a can of gourmet sauce out of the cupboard when no one’s looking!)
There’s more ...
Check out the following links with pictures, tips and ideas for French country kitchen decorating or a serious kitchen remodel using French country decor.
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3. French Country Decor in Words
 Some food containers don’t just have French writing on them, they come with cool design as well (this little tin of toffees is a bit on the whacky side).
If you can find nice-looking tin boxes, glasses, or cans with labels in French, keep the prettiest ones on view.
Once the content is used up, re-purpose the container: fill a water glass with herbs or flowers and stand it inside an old can, for example.
If you have easy access to (old) French (cookery) books or country magazines, you could keep a few around the house.
Should you live in a part of the world where French country decor in the form of original products & packaging isn’t easy to come by, why not take matters into your own hands:
Label a few items in French -- fruit preserves
- drawers
- hooks for kitchen tools or tea towels
- doors
- a notebook or two ...
- … or how about a large earthenware pot that says ’herbes de provence’ on the kitchen counter?
You could take this even further and add some writing to the walls:
Stencil, print or write a line from your favorite song or poem - around a mirror, or
- beneath the crown molding on the wall, or
- on a drawer or a door.
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4. French Country Decor for Walls
 If you’re looking for color schemes and wall treatments to add some ‘Frenchness’ to your home, the chapter on French country home decorating in color will take you through typical color schemes that are used in many parts of France.
The picture to the left shows an interior wall in a Provençal home.
The lower part has several layers of paint, and every layer was rubbed down before the next one was applied. The line of gold paint goes all around the room, adding a bit of splendor to the simple rustic walls.
It’s an easy, inexpensive way to create country style with a distinctly French accent!
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5. French Country Decor for the Table
 What’s true for French cooking is also true for eating in France: it’s done in style, slowly, and with relish.
You don’t need a dining room for that. There isn’t even space for a dining room in the humbler types of French country home design.
But every French country kitchen has a large kitchen table. And that is usually covered with a good-sized, white linen tablecloth at mealtimes.
The crockery is generally either simple porcelain or glazed earthenware.
If you like café au lait, you could have it in a bol as they do in France (there are a few on the table in this picture).
If you prefer crockery, napkins and table linen with more rustic patterns …
… the picture below left shows a lovely old-fashioned French country home decorating design that is prevalent in the mountainous regions of France.
Cups like these make excellent French country decor, either on a kitchen shelf or displayed in a dining area.
To add to that, you could adopt this design style for a few embroidered or appliquéd seat cushions in similar patterns (just make something up along these lines, or find someone who can do it for you!)
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6. French Country Decor for the Living Room
 An elegant, luxuriously furnished living room is about as rare in traditional rustic French country decor as a dining room is, unless you’re a rich landowner with a mansion, or someone from the city with a large summer residence in the country.
So if you want to give your living room a 'country French' makeover …
… stick to simple slipcovers for sofas and chairs: use coarse linens or cotton duck in naturals or in solid colors.
Accessorize with cushions and quilts, and keep those simple as well. Go for solid colors or striped/checked cottons, and stir the occasional piece of toile de jouy into the mix.
In the picture to the right, the toile that covers the mattress of the wrought-iron daybed looks a bit washed out and antiqued – a perfect look if you’re creating a Provence style living-room.
It’s easy to overdo toile, though, because many people think it’s "the" French fabric. But there’s so much more to French country decor than toile de jouy!
For example, check out the page about French country curtains for some ‘toile-free’ (ahem!) ideas.
Also, have a look at this little rusty garden table here, covered in an eclectic collection of chunky seashells, rustic enamelware, elegant antique crystal and an oversized modern glass vase.
It’s a mad mix and it shouldn’t really work, but it does!
You can achieve the same effect by balancing items that are a bit rough around the edges (like an old, battered table or picture frame) with a few, carefully chosen "fine" pieces – a faïence plate or bowl, an antique mirror or vase, or a small, beautiful drawing.
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7. French Country Decor in a Frame
This is great fun. Anything, as long as it's flat enough, can be framed and hung on the wall or stood on a mantel/table/shelf!
So go ahead and frame - mementoes of past French holidays
- cover jackets of French novels
- French recipes
- French wine labels
- French post cards
- French (restaurant) menus
- French postage stamps (with large mats around them, and possibly even big, fancy frames)
- clippings from French magazines (stick to one subject or color family) ...
- ... anything français you can possibly think of!
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8. French Country Decor in Your Bathroom
If you have a white modern bathroom, that’s good news:
It means you’re free to choose your French country accessories without color limitations.
Here are a few ideas:
Get a skinny white shower curtain and hang a piece of fabric on the outside of it (heavy linen if you can, toile if you must ;-)
If you can buy Marseilles soap where you live, that would be a very ‘French country’ thing to have in your bathroom as well.
 The XXL size cubes (see above) are made from olive oil and other all-natural ingredients. They’re not very practical when you’re just starting a new one (at 8x8x8 cm, they’re a tad chunky), but Marseilles soap would be a nice piece of French country decor in your bathroom.
Another thing you could do to ‘countrify’ your bathroom at minimum expense, is to add a few smallish earthenware bowls or plates.
They’ll hold soap (from Marseilles or elsewhere), jewelry, sponges, toiletries, whatever needs a ‘home’ in your bathroom.
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9. French Country Decor for Your Bedroom
 It's often assumed that French country decor for the bedroom must be a high-maintenance affair with a bed crown, a curtain and antique(-looking) boutis coverlets with scalloped edges.
But when you look at the bedroom here (it’s French, and it’s definitely in the country!) you see that you can actually keep it very simple!
So no, you don’t need an antique quilt.
You don’t even need a bed head (in fact, many modern country bed heads look so decidedly un-French that it’s better not to have one if you’re creating a bedroom with French country decor.)
All you really need is a simple quilt in - white, or
- in natural unbleached linen, or
- in any other solid color (gray, taupe, light blue, sage green, soft pink, deep burgundy…)
And you need pure white or antique-white bed linen. That’s all.
 If it’s vintage bedlinen with embroidered initials, that’s a bonus.
If it’s not, here are some ways you could get the look (if you’re not into needlework, maybe you know someone who is):- Cross-stitch your initials into the cover sheet, in red or white.
- Trace your initials onto the sheet with a pencil, then follow the line with running stitch or stemstitch in white.
- Make a stencil and paint your initials onto the fabric.
- Buy a snippet of embroidered linen or lace (any nice little ornament will do), and appliqué it to a visible part of your bedlinen.
To add more French country decor to your bedroom, you could …
… add a quirky bedside lamp.
… paint a bed head onto the wall (there’s an example of this in the page on bedroom color schemes).
… hang pictures that express your personal dream of French country living (landscape paintings, photos, old post cards).
… hang a simple chandelier – even if it’s not genuinely French, or doesn’t actually function as a light source, it will be a lovely piece of ‘jewelry’ for your room.
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More French Country Decor Ideas
Get inspired by the pictures, illustrations and French country home design ideas in the following pages:
And there’s more French country decor information coming, so …
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