French Country Style for Your Kitchen
French country kitchens create a feeling of nostalgia and romance from their wonderful aesthetic appeal.
Elements Found in French Country Kitchens
There are several elements that you are sure to find in any French country design, especially for a kitchen. As you begin to create your kitchen, you want to include some of these design elements and features to lend an air of authenticity to your design. Most of these qualities are borrowed from the southern region of France and give the best representation of French country design style.
Color Is Important
The first color that comes to mind whenever a French country kitchen design is mentioned is lavender. The other colors in the French kitchen palette include bright yellows and vibrant greens, which accurately reflect the countryside. Red and brilliant blue are reminiscent of a field of poppies against a clear blue sky. Gold and orange hues are also excellent choices for a warm and inviting design. Soft butter-colored walls creates a perfect canvas for other colors. The main thing you want to focus on is the prominent color for your walls.
Wall Textures
Your kitchen wall design needs to transcend cultures and time. Rough plaster walls provide texture and give true ambiance to your kitchen. Paint techniques such as rag wall, washes or glazes can add depth and warmth to any paint color choice.
Floors
While you may wish to use wood flooring, the more authentic look for your kitchen floor is flagstone, terra cotta tile, brick, and other stone flooring.
Fabrics
Linens and cottons are authentic fabric choices in Jacquard or damask patterns. For a more formal style of contrast, you may choose a toile pattern. The traditional blue is no longer the only color available in this popular French pattern. Red, pink, green, yellow, and black are also available colors. Ginghams, checks and plaids make great curtains, pillows and other accent pieces.
Cabinetry
Your choice of cabinets can be more of the dark distressed look, or the opposite end of the design scale with washed out paint in blue, green, yellow, or white. The most popular choices of wood are pine or walnut, which offer the two extremes in pricing. Wood countertops would have been the popular choice in an authentic country home, but modern materials give you quite a few choices that blend contemporary design with period-style design.
Patterns and Designs
Florals range from small tiny prints to large bolds ones of lilies, roses, poppies, and sunflowers. Olive leaves and grapevines are great motifs. The farm animal closely associated with French kitchen design is the rooster. Herbs such as lavender and rosemary also feature. Other motifs include the Myrtle leaf, corn, fruits, vegetables and in modern time, the fleur de lis (originally the sign for royalty and noblemen).
Architectural Features
A country French kitchen isn't complete unless it has two main architectural features. The first one is exposed beams. This should be hand-hewn or at least appear to be hand-hewn. A distressed look is preferable over a finished look. The beams should be a dark stain to contrast sharply with a white or buff colored ceiling and walls.
The second architectural feature, if budget and space allow is a cooking fireplace. This type of fireplace has a flush hearth. The original farm houses would have utilized the hot coals from the fireplace. Pots would be set in the bed of red coals. Cast iron lids were made with lips so hot coals could be scooped on top of the pots for consistent heat for even cooking.
Accessorizing and Special Effects
Gathering baskets, dried flowers and herbs, especially lavender and braided garlic are just a few of the accessories you want to add to your kitchen. Copper is a popular French kitchen metal. You can use a pot rack over your range and display your copper pots and pans. If you don't like the look of the pot rack, you might prefer a patina copper range hood. If copper isn't your choice of metal, then opt for a customized ceramic range hood. Don't forget to include a farmer's sink to complete the overall look.
Weathered Look
The weathered look goes hand in hand with French farmhouse designs. White washed furniture or weathered blue or yellow painted chairs are a classic look. The kitchen table is usually rustic. You can have a very rustic looking kitchen table that is thick with distressed marking. If you are a skilled carpenter, you may be tempted into making your own kitchen table that will often double was a food preparation area. Most farm tables are roughly hewn wood that is very thick and uneven. You can opt to stain the table a dark hue or put a simple sealer on it.
Chairs can be painted or stained and always have colorful thick cushions to make them more comfortable. Benches on either side of the table with arm chairs at each end will give your kitchen that homey lived-in look.
Window Treatments
Curtains are a natural choice for this style of kitchen. Café curtains are informal enough yet are offered in a variety of ready-made colors and patterns. Shutters are a nice touch, especially if you opted for stucco interior walls.
Tying It All Together
You have many choices of fabrics, textures, colors, and furniture for your French country kitchen that should work together to create a cohesive and authentic design.
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