Maybe you might be lucky enough to have expert the sprawling French countryside your self. Maybe you might have solely seen the picturesque French panorama in movies. Each methodology, you probably can probably picture a French-style home, a stately cottage-like property that’s normally set behind a courtyard and surrounded by foliage.
What Is a French-Style Residence?
A French-style home, moreover often called a French provincial home, is a stone, brick, or stucco residence with a steep rooftop and massive residence home windows. Normally that features courtyard gardens, iron gates, and gravel pathways, French-style homes are recognized for his or her rustic attraction.
The truth is, not all French-style homes are the an identical, given the variety of homes current in France. The French-style home you almost certainly picture is known as a French provincial home, which normally has some key exterior and inside choices—all of which contribute to the style. That is what you need to discover out about French-style homes, their historic previous, and their foremost traits, based mostly on an architect and inside designer.
What Makes a Dwelling French Style?
Getty
Given the variety of homes current in France, there’s no single definitive French-style residence. In accordance with Susan Spath, an architect and inside designer, the time interval “French-style home” usually refers again to the attribute French countryside home, moreover often called a French provincial home, a property that balances grand dimension with laid-back, rustic choices.
Meet the Educated
Susan Spath is an architect and inside designer and principal at Kern & Agency in San Diego, CA.
Conventional French-style homes are sometimes constructed of sturdy provides equal to stone, brick, or stucco, and they also normally embrace steep rooftops and massive, arched residence home windows with shutters. These homes, says Spath, normally attribute courtyard entries and exterior gardens. As an example, a French-style home may embrace an enormous iron gate that opens as a lot as a courtyard yard with stone pavers that end in an outsized arched entry made absolutely of stone. These homes are moreover normally surrounded by distinctive greenery, equal to rose bushes, hydrangea, lavender, and even topiaries and creeping ivy.
The interiors of French-style homes normally complement the surface design, with distressed hardwood flooring, normally specified by a chevron pattern. Tall ceilings with dramatic wooden beams and skylights along with floor-to-ceiling residence home windows drench the homes in pure mild, whereas arched doorways speak in confidence to courtyard gardens. “French-style homes moreover normally have a correct consuming room and lounge, breakfast nook, and family room moderately than one huge good room,” says Spath.
Whereas French provincial homes can fluctuate in dimension, trend, and choices, these properties are prone to share some key exterior and inside traits:
Exterior:
- Stone, brick, or stucco growth
- Two or further tales
- Symmetrical design
- Large, arched residence home windows with shutters in contrasting colors
- Porches with balustrades (rows of small columns)
- Steep rooftops
- Courtyard gardens
- Gravel pathways
- Large iron gates
- Balconies
Inside:
- Tall ceilings and wooden beams
- Skylights
- Stone or hardwood flooring
- Flooring-to-ceiling residence home windows
- Arched doorways
- Formal consuming room and lounge
- Breakfast nook
- Family room
For those who occur to’re drawn to rustic farmhouse-style inside design moderately than a up to date, minimal actually really feel, a French-style home might very effectively be an ideal backdrop in your aesthetic.
Historic previous of French-Style Properties
French provincial homes originated in France inside the 1600s, in the middle of the reign of King Louis XIV, when French aristocrats began to assemble manor and chateaux homes inside the countryside for his or her summer season season getaways. Whereas the time interval “provincial” may counsel “unsophisticated,” these homes normally embody an understated, rustic actually really feel. It’s talked about that the first French provincial homes have been modeled after the Versaille Palace (although, in reality, they’re much smaller and additional a lot much less ornate).
These days, you would not have to enterprise all through the Atlantic to see (and even reside in) French-style homes to your self. French-style homes began displaying up in america after World Battle I, when American troopers impressed by European nation manors constructed associated homes after their navy service. Whereas the distinctive homes have been situated inside the countryside, many French-provincial trend homes popped up inside the American suburbs that developed between the two world wars. Now, French-style homes—which might be considered revivals of French homes constructed inside the seventeenth century—shall be seen all by way of the nation, normally with stylish upgrades.