French Style

French Styled Beret Hats

Vogue - Featuring A French Styled Beret

I once landed a job, and later came to know by my boss is was because she thought the beret I wore to the interview was so chic. Almost everyone associates the beret hat with French style. In fact, the history shows that the beret can be traced back to the people living on both the French and Spanish sides of the Pyrenees Mountains. The beret hat was also banned during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II because it was associated with French nationalism. The modern beret is often associated with the military. The USA Green Berets, Black Berets, UN Blue Berets all wear berets, and who could forget revolutionary leader Che Guevara, who made the beret a worldwide symbol? The original beret was either navy blue or red, but today the beret is available in a wide array of colors, and fabrics. Monica Lewinsky made headlines when her connection with President Clinton became public, the media decided to promote the picture of her wearing a beret hugging the president. Beret hats have always been fashionable through the years, and they can be worn a variety of different ways. Military wear always seems to remain in style as the years pass. Many women turn to beret hats in the winter to cover their ears, as well as being recognized as being uniquely fashionable.

French Style Fashion Berets

Classic Military Beret in Tan with Edging

BLACK KNIT SOFT STRETCH TRADITIONAL TAMI BERET CAP HAT

Women's Throwback Knit Beret with Brim

Angora Wool Blend French Beret with Flower Accent Available in 6 colors

Wool Beret Featured in Candy Red

Louis XV Desks

Louis XV style swept France during the years of 1730-1775 and has remained popular ever since. Louis XV style has been known to have a soft appeal, often generous with its curves and delicate features. In fact, Louis XV furniture is known for its unbroken curves. Everything is curved, even the architecture. Louis XV desks are quite hard to find in any local area, which leads many people online to search them out. In the past, a kitchen table was where everyone gathered to eat, play games and learn. It was the most functional pieces of furniture of the typical family home, today it is the desk. With Internet strapped to everyone's hip, a nice desk is worth the investment.

I remember using plywood boxes as my end tables, leaving my home and living on my own at the age of 18, and as I have gotten older, my taste for furnishings have grown, and I have traded out my furniture along the way for antiques and reproductions.

French Louis XV Desk

Horchows desk features a hand-painted design that has the colors of red, black, and gold, all on a hardwood desk. The desk also has a resin swag detail on sides, as well on the three drawers. The hardware on this desk alone is quite pricy, and hard to find. The measurements of this grand desk are 51.5W x 26D x 32T.

Marie Antoinette Behind the Scences For Vogue Magazine

The famous Annie Leibovitz shoots Marie Antoinette, done for Vogue Magazine. This video is an excerpt from the DVD "Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens"

In her portraits for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz has photographed a generation (and more) of rock stars, politicians, and supermodels.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens, a documentary created by Leibovitz's sister Barbara, suggests that she might be somewhat overqualified for the job. Not that Leibovitz reflects too much on the business of photographing movie stars for a living. Her nomadic life suits her just fine, and might have come from a childhood spent as an Army brat, moving around the world every few years. Home movies give some of the flavor of Leibovitz's youth, and her arrival in San Francisco just as the Sixties counterculture (and Rolling Stone magazine) were getting underway is covered with old footage and new interviews with colleagues, including publisher Jann Wenner. It was a wild time (Wenner speaks of sending Leibovitz on tour with the Rolling Stones as though he were responsible for selling her into slavery), and it took its toll; the movie doesn't go into great detail, but a substance abuse problem and subsequent rehab is acknowledged and quickly forgotten. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards remember her warmly, in any case. Leibovitz's personal life is in the shadows, except for her relationship with writer Susan Sontag. The rest is a series of testimonials from admiring subjects (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Whoopi Goldberg) and some on-location stuff for Vanity Fair, including a shoot with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Her working methods show someone with very specific ideas about what she wants, and a disarmingly blunt way of getting them. Perhaps the most memorable section of this American Masters program is the account of Leibovitz's photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, including a celebrated Rolling Stone cover of a naked Lennon embracing his wife, taken a few hours before Lennon's murder. That kind of work proves that in Leibovitz's world of portraiture, intimacy is everything. --Robert Horton

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens traces the arc of Annie's photographic life, her aspirations to artistry and the trajectory of her career. The film depicts the various phases that shaped her life including childhood, the tumultuous sixties, her transition from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair magazine and later her most significant personal relationships including motherhood. The documentary's highlights center on interviews with her most famous subjects, mentors and colleagues, along with personal insight from Leibovitz herself, to reveal the evolution of inarguably one of today's most influential visual artists.

French Style Home Decor From Paris Couture Antiques

Stunning Antique 1800s American Portrait Painting Frame

Every once in a while we come across one of those stores which specialize in a specific style. Paris Couture Antiques is one of those finds! This is the store for anyone who loves french pieces with a rustic aged finishes that become the spot light of your home that everyone wants to hear the story behind. Paris Couture primarily deals with antiques and home decor. After looking through their gallery, you will see they hand pick their selection to only feature the best. They offering a variety of European designer antiques with new upholstery, or aged old finishes which are entirely uniquely elegant. You will agree with me, it is one site to bookmark.

Pair French Antique Wall Coat Hooks Gorgeous Details

Pair Brass Tiebacks Victorian Mid 19th Century

French Artist Model Hand Carved Wood Lovely Patina 19th

FRENCH ANTIQUE Cream wGilt Hightlight Marble SideTable

French Style Baroque Rococo Beds

Baroque styled furniture is for the person who loves pompous detail, and awe-inspiring first-class luxury. Baroque beds are not commonly found in your local furniture store, as they are a very specialized rare bed that can only be found online. These stately looks feature grand carvings, and incredibly ornate detail. It seems as though within the last few years this bed as been featured most painted black or in white. Ideally, when overly ornate beds are painted, they look best when they are slightly worn or distressed which breaks up the paint finish allowing the natural wood to show through. Gloss Black also allows the intense details to shine attracting light to its surface. Baroque furniture became in fashion with the reign of the French King Louis XIV who introduced a style of excess grandeur and luxury. Baroque furniture encouraged the privileged person of that time a chance to show off their money, wealth and status. If you decide to decorate using Baroque elements, we can show you how to pull this look together without it feeling overwhelmed. We discuss step-by-step how you can decorate around this magnificent style giving your home a luxurious balanced feel.

One way of toning down very ornate furniture is to pair it with natural elements which takes the edge off of the flamboyant and flashy nature of the excessive details of thisfurniture. By approaching it with fabric or natural details that are rather dull and organic, it allows the eye not to be overwhelmed, and in essence creates a balance between the simple, and the ornate.

For example- Instead of painting the frame of a baroque chair a traditional gold, one can go for a cream which can be paired with a linen upholstery. When picking colors for your frame, stay away from bright whites, and opt for the greenish grays or creamed whites which have beige or green undertones. Creamy white washes over these colors can also create a depth compared to a simple painted chair.

Although white has been projected as the typical color for baroque styles, it tends to give a modern feel which is cold. The warmth of the creams, along with distressing will give more of an authentic 17th - 18th century feel than stark whites. In addition, if black is the color choice, again, distress the details of the frame which will give it more depth, showing the natural wood details.

Upholster your baroque chairs with natural linens, hemp or a natural ticking. The natural fabrics will allow a person to take in and appreciate the extravagance of the carvings without feeling overwhelmed.

There are no set rules to decorating, so pair your furniture up with what ever works in your home. I always suggest to find furniture you love and adore and utilize accessories to tie things together.

Remember less is more. More is often overwhelming and messy.

Ornate furniture is almost better with like pieces that tend to pull together the entire look. Opt for additional furniture with details, and cherry pick only the best furniture for your home, and get rid of the excess that just doesn't measure up or work with the stately furniture of your home.

Again, less is more in many cases. Showcase your best furniture, and accessorize with details that will highlight your style. If you truly are after an 18th century look, put your money into reproduction or authentic furniture, and accessorize with paintings which showcase that period in history such as portraits. You will not need as much furniture as the normal person, as less will be more with embellished furniture.

Don't be afraid of using gold in your home to pull things together. Gold works beautifully with brighter colors, as well as muted natural looks. If you love silver, work with silver leaf, and pair it with grays. Grey linens, gray throws, and natural linen gray toned pillows. Gold tends to work yellows, and creams, creamy greens with gray tones. Gold and silver serve as neutrals, so when you cannot find a color to work on your chair frame, guaranteed, either of these metallic colors will work well.

French Style Baroque Rococo Beds

Lets talk about the other way of decorating with this style:

Incorporating highly ornamented furniture calls for a balance of details around the room. One way you can do this is to faux finish the walls using a sponge to give a simulation of parchment walls.

Brick would also give additional detail into a plain room by painting the brick, and distressing the finish before the paint dries to give it an old world look of wear. Today beautiful faux finishes can be purchased and installed as wallpaper.

If you are wanting to go towards more color than a neutral or natural palette, consider a color that you love and work around it using wallpaper and patterned fabrics. Upholster your chairs in a coordinating fabric and finish the frames in a faux wood finish, or a gold. Again, ornate furniture should be somewhat distressed to give some dimension to the piece, otherwise it can look much like plastic. Showing some depth, really can draw the eye to the amazing detail.

Using a color circle to guide your color choices, pick colors that are either similar in color, or opposite in color. Colors which are similar create a flow of colors, such as green and a combination of lighter greens and blues.

Opposites work mainly in one color and create a splash of difference. For example using green as the home base, slight accents of orange (which is the opposite of green on the color wheel) can be used in throw pillows and gold frames on the wall with colorful art. Working with a busy look, you want to start with 1 pattern such as an upholstery fabric or wallpaper and find other fabrics to complement it. The overall look will be balanced with the furniture.

Wainscoting or Boiserie are most often featured with baroque styled furniture. Both were used to define walls with ornate and intricately carved wood panelling. Many early examples of ornately carved wood panelling were not painted, but later as raised mouldings became popular with baroque finishes they were either painted or gilded. Boiseries were popular in seventeenth and eighteenth century. A perfect example is the Palace of Versailles,in which the panels were not confined just to the walls, but were also used to decorate doors, frames, shelves and cupboards.

Victoria Beckham appeared in the December issue of 2009's Harper's Bazaar posing in front of a showy french mansion featuring a cream washed wood baroque french bed. Looking at the bed itself, the finish is beyond spectacular. It is washed in white, but the wood itself can be seen through the paint. The walls and doors have delicate details themselves, all drawing ones attention to the grand bed.

Due to the stateliness of Baroque furniture it is recommended that you take measurements of the room before purchasing any pieces. We hope we have given you some ideas for decorating your rococo / baroque styled bedroom.

French Baroque Rococo Bed Victoria Beckham Harper's Bazaar December 2009

French Style Guéridon Directoire Tables

What is a guéridon table? Guéridon Tables are often small, circular top tables which are supported by one or more columns. Some times the columns can be metal rods, or the opposite, ornate styled legs. Guéridon Tables originated in France towards the middle of the 17th century, and the design concept was borrowed from the ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures. These tables were often small and would hold a candlestick or vase, or today a coffee cup and some magazines, or a lamp. The style of the table back then was highly decorative, and would be a show piece seen in court furniture. At the time of Louis XIV's deaththere were several hundred of them at Versailles. Within that time period the style of the petite table had been modified and seen in a variety of different ways, such as tables with columned legs, others seen in tripods, while others had mythological figures. While some of these simple tables were made from metal, others were more detailed made of wood carved that were often gilded. Many of our modern companies have reproduced this french table. Global Views Made a Directoire Rectangular and Circular table which sells for around $600. Today they are still really hard to find, but you can purchase these lovely tables on ebay for around the 100- 200 dollar mark.

Rectangle DIRECTOIRE END ACCENT TABLE Bronze Black Iron
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US $147.00

Round DIRECTOIRE END ACCENT TABLE Bronze Black Iron NEW
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US $127.00

BALLARD DIRECTOIRE STYLE DESIGN ROUND METAL END OCCASIONAL TABLE
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US $62.99

The cheaper reproduction tables don't have the marble inset. Although they can be spray painted gold to simulate brass, which would allow you to pick your own style of marble to have custom fit into the top. They are absolutely stunning, and work wonderful in small cramped spaces.

Ralph Lauren Gueridon Table

Luce Gayrard's French Style Home

Back in the November issue of 2009, Canadian House and Home featured a spectacular french styled Montreal home of Luce Gayrard. Gayrard, a Canadian lawyer, has spectucular taste collecting neoclassical styled furniture with an array of bright colors paired with gold accents. The pictures below are of both homes; the loft and the country home. Lovely velvets circulate the room. A pair of 4 Louis XV styled chairs make the dining room feel comfortable, while the living room features off white contemporary sofas. The house features stunning gilt side tables accented with marble. Classic fench patterns such as toile grace the home. Pictures gathered from Canadian House and Home, Habitually Chic . Get some ideas from this upscale french style.