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French Country Kitchen Design
"Here are a few things you'll want to know before you decide on a French country kitchen design for your home."
You can buy ready-made (or customized) kitchens with names like "Provence" or "Arles" or "Avignon".
Will that give you an authentic French kitchen? Not necessarily.
Here are some French country kitchen design elements to consider before you go ahead and decide to spend a lot of money.
(Clicking on the links will take you to the relevant sections on this page)
If you’re looking for some shortcuts that can help you create the look, rather than launching into a complete kitchen makeover, check out the page on French Country Kitchens for ideas and pictures.
Cupboards & Shelving
 The style of French country kitchen cabinetry isn’t as important as many people think - your French country kitchen needn’t ever have heard of Louis XIV, XV or XVI.
Outside France, 'French country' kitchens are sometimes designed to look ornate and curvy (and sometimes downright frilly).
But inside France, country kitchen cupboards are usually quite simple, with minimal decoration or even completely plain fronts.
The most rustic kitchens of the past had brick-built, rendered and whitewashed open cupboards under a tiled worktop, with fixed shelving inside, and a curtain running along the front.
Sometimes wooden doors were used instead of the curtains.
Overhead cupboards are very rare in traditional French country kitchen design. There is usually an open shelf above the splashback for storing crockery.
 Pots and pans are hung directly on the wall, within reach of the hob.
Wooden cupboards are often painted. Occasionally, the wood is left bare and waxed, oiled or varnished.
In contemporary French country kitchen design, you can also see brushed and limed cupboard doors.
The handles, for the most part, are simple wooden, porcelain or metal knobs.
Contemporary French country kitchens often combine open shelving with curtains and some closed cupboards under the worktop (when you look at the first three illustrations on this page, you’ll see what I mean).
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Appliances
Gas cookers have long replaced the wood-burning stoves of old. Contemporary French country kitchen design uses mostly range cookers with a matte black or stainless steel front, sometimes with (antiqued) brass details.
Generally, brushed stainless steel is the surface of choice for fridges, freezers, and other appliances – if you’re going to keep them on view at all. They’re often conveniently hidden behind the curtain, underneath the worktop.
There really are no hard-and-fast rules for kitchen faucets, sinks, and hardware, as long as you stay away from obvious 'space-age' shapes and industrial hi-gloss products.
But even those can work if you’re creating a hip, ‘cement-and-linen’ French country kitchen, as in the picture above right.
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Flooring
If you want authentic French country kitchen design, flagstones or tiles are top candidates for your kitchen floor.
Choose among:
Terracotta tiling - if you want a Provençal look, see if you can get tomettes.
Colored cement tiles, which are extremely hardwearing and look great. (You’ll find pictures of both cement tiles and tomettes on the page about Provence Interiors).
A black-and-white checkerboard tile floor is another good option (see above right).
Alternatively, you could go for ...
... poured concrete (above left). There are specialist companies that create wonderful stained concrete flooring – this is a rather modern (but also quite rustic) version of French country kitchen flooring, and a good choice if you have underfloor heating.
If neither tiles nor flagstones are an option, you could try linoleum, vinyl, or tile-effect flooring. You’ll still be able to produce a great look for your French country kitchen.
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Curtains & Colors
A curtain, hung from a metal rail along the worktop, can be a very easy and convenient way to create instant French country kitchen design.
Even if you change nothing else about your current kitchen, these curtains will add a generous dose of ‘French Country’ flavor to it.
For fabrics, focus on - antique or unbleached linen
- heavy cottons in muted solids or stripes
- ticking, or
- Provençal fabrics (for a few swatches, please refer to the Provence Interiors) chapter).
Toile de Jouy can work, too, as long as you go with the more abstract, Indian-style floral patterns and stay away from the pastoral imagery.
There is one drawback to curtains, and that is the dust they help spread around. If you’re prepared to deal with that, below-countertop curtains can be an easy and elegant feature of your French country kitchen design.
If you need ideas for color schemes, there’s a list on the French Country Kitchens page. In addition, check out the illustrations above for some more kitchen color ideas.
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Worktop & Splashback
Splashbacks in French country kitchens are usually tiled; slightly irregular, glazed earthenware with a ‘handmade’ look, as well as stone or terracotta tiles, are all good options. If you want to spend a lot of money, you could have your splashback set with a large slab of marble (but that’s rather posh for French country kitchen design)
For countertops, you’ll find a wide range of materials in use: - Stone (anything from limestone or slate to marble – mind you, marble is quite sensitive to staining, acids and cuts, but it does look lovely)
- Hardwearing tiles (reclaimed or new, glazed or cut from stone)
- Timber (oak is the most forgiving)
- A slab of polished and sealed (and maybe colored) concrete
- Brushed stainless steel. This may sound surprising, but when you surround brushed steel with handcrafted splashback tiles, fabrics and rustic flooring, it looks a lot less “industrial” than you might think. I've come across it quite a lot in French country kitchens.
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Kitchen Island?
Not really – at least not if you’re aiming for original French country kitchen design.
 Traditionally, a country kitchen in France is not just for preparing the meal, it’s also the place for eating it. Dining rooms are practically unheard of in rustic French dwellings.
If you want to follow that tradition, have a kitchen table instead of a kitchen island (unless, of course, your kitchen has space for both!)
Collect friends and family round the table, and serve them food that’s absolutely loaded with the flavors of sun-kissed ingredients.
Or better yet, get them to come early and prepare the meal together with you!
Pour them a glass of Chablis or Beaujolais whilst they’re sitting at your kitchen table, peeling the garlic and chopping the courgettes!
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Seating
 Old wooden benches, wooden chairs with straw seats (the one in this picture here is painted blue, but you get the idea), and wooden stools are some obvious candidates.
Putting wrought-iron garden chairs around the kitchen table is also a widespread practice in French country kitchens, but that wouldn’t be a good idea on a high-maintenance floor.
You can integrate any run-of-the-mill chair into your French country kitchen design by slipcovering it (either just the back, or just the seat, or the complete chair).
To create a unified look, and for added comfort, kit the chairs out with comfy cushions that are covered in the same fabric as the curtain along the countertop.
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Accessorize!
 There are loads of things you can do to add rustic detail to your kitchen.
Whatever you keep on view can enhance the originality, or the ‘wow’ factor, or the authenticity of your French country kitchen design.
For more ideas and pictures, have a look at the French Country Kitchens page.
Good Luck – and do send me a picture of your brand new French country style kitchen when you’re done!
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