Архитектура

The enduring appeal of French-country style spans the centuries, a gracious mingling of elegance and ease. After years of largely echoing the furniture, fabrics, and accessories linked with the region of Provence, these days French country is often far removed from the primitive images that hearken back to the early seventeenth century. Room by room, FRENCH BY DESIGN reveals the secrets to creating a contemporary French-country look, including textiles, furniture, floor coverings, window treatments, color palettes, wall treatments and lighting, thus allowing anyone to bring the look home

The French have a legendary sense of style that is synonymous with a joyous, sophisticated way of life, joie de vivre. Elegant and witty, French chic — a clever mix of classic and contemporary—sums up de Dampierre’s design sensibility. Using Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses as a model, she provides advice on how to achieve this distinctive look. The fascinating French decorative history of such architectural elements as windows, fireplaces, and doors, along with basic design principles, is given to provide the origins of the essence of chic. Stunning photography of her home—from the striking entrance hallway with its leopard-pattern carpeted staircase to the sensual master bedroom enlivened with charming toile wallpaper and the resplendent gardens dotted with topiaries — captures the designer’s personal invocations of the best of French chic and empowers the reader to duplicate the experience at home. French Chic is the perfect guide for creating vibrant living spaces with flair.

This is a beautiful book that distils the natural comfort and easy charm found in all aspects of French rural life. The first part of the book, The Elements, explores the ingredients that make up the whole, including the sutble colour palette of soft warm greys, cloudy pinks and misty greens, the traditional materials, the furniture and the textiles. The second part, The Spaces, looks at the overall style, beginning in the heart of the French home, the kitchen and dining area, before moving on to explore living rooms, halls and corridors, bedrooms and bathrooms, and outdoor rooms.

The writer and photographer Sébastien Siraudeau has already uncovered home inspiration from Frances guest- houses, antique shops, and flea markets in his previous books Vintage French Interiors and French Style at Home. Now he turns his experienced eye to the hidden gems of interior design in the French countryside and unveils the wealth of decorative inspiration they have to offer. The vibrancy of these hidden retreats is demon-strated beautifully and, as the pages unfold, the reader is struck by a wealth of inspiration from the colors, seasons, and personal stories that combine to form these subtly elegant creations. Siraudeau has a rare talent for finding homes that combine gently-aged vintage pieces in a contemporary and relaxed atmosphere. True style can be discovered in the most unexpected and varied destinations, as Siraudeau masterfully shows in chapters ranging from seemingly humble hamlets or farmyards to châteaux in flickering candlelight. This invitation over the threshold of such inherently picturesque households is a temptation no design enthusiast could resist.

This rich, oversized resource is a treasure trove of ideas for incorporating traditional designs and timeless antique embellishments into a modern home.

While modern design often neglects cultural and artistic heritage in favor of minimalism, Siraudeau demonstrates that it isnt necessary to forgo tradition to create a fashionable home. With his eye for idiosyncratic details, Siraudeau has an exceptional flair for finding homes characterized with vintage style, where antique objects invoke nostalgia and time-tested quality. French writer and musician Boris Vian declared, Any object can be an objet dart once put in a frame, and this innovative spirit shines through in the one hundred properties featured here. From 1960s mannequins to antique books to a salvaged Parisian streetlamp, any kind of paraphernalia can define and enrich the personality of a home by giving it a history. Styles and periods dont need to match, because French design is about integrating the unexpected alongside unconventional details to make a modern home unique. Organized thematically, this volume reveals how an extraordinarily diverse range of ambiences can be achieved by integrating the simplest of decorative touches, from authentic, tradional, and romantic, to eclectic and contemporary. Siraudeau guides the reader through some of the most remarkable locations in France, from delightful rural guesthouses, exquisite town homes, and charming seaside retreats, to the best of Frances antique shops, each abounding with features that characterize the unique French flair for home decorating. His ideas and advice are astute to contemporary comforts and the practicalities of modern living, and his exquisite photos, flooded with the soft light of a French summer, make this an invaluable volume for admirers of French style.

From the classic elegance of Haussmann's Parisian boulevards and the glorious excesses of Versailles, to the bohemian charms of Toulouse Lautrec's Montmartre and the artist's garret, France has a legendary style. This beautifully illustrated book explores the elements that combine to create spaces with an identifiably French feel: the architectural details that enhance the framework of a room, the textures and colours that flatter various styles of furniture, options for lighting, mirrors and paintings.

Looking at real homes, antiques dealer and stylist Josephine Ryan demonstrates a keen eye for objects both ordinary and extraordinary, and examines the alchemy of a style that can be either lush and complex or pared-down and rigorous. French Home will help you reinvent your surroundings and gain a touch of French style.

The French have a legendary sense of style. French Home explores the elements that combine to create spaces with a French feel; showing the architectural details that enhance the framework of each room, the textures and colour palette that flatter various styles of furniture, and options for lighting, mirrors and paintings.

By exploring real homes that deftly synthesize these elements, French Home examines the sophisticated alchemy of a look that can be either lush and complex or simple and pared-down. For example, a Victorian terraced house fuses rustic simplicity with grown-up glamour, while a 17th-century Maison de Maître in the south of France acts as a foil to a mix of decorative and functional pieces.

- Josephine Ryan, who has ‘shopped’ France for twenty years, demonstrates a keen eye for objects both ordinary and extraordinary, which she brings together in a refreshing and original way.
-  Organized room by room to provide you with inspiring style ideas.
-  Will help you to bring a touch of French style to your home.

In this her tenth book, acclaimed interior designer and award-winning author Betty Lou Phillips presents spirit-lifting takes on classic style from a modern point of view. Mingling elegance with ease, in a manner relaxed yet refined, Phillips sumptuously layers texture and color with pleasing, unexpected detail as she creates twenty-first century comfort with Italian panache and French flair. The dazzling beauty of nearly 200 images illustrates the fabled French and Italian ways of melding the past with the present while offering a glimpse of the sweet life-la dolce vita-that is justly inspiring.

Mention the French and most minds overflow with symbols of their panache: sensuous velvets, leopard prints, toile, silk taffeta curtains, deep bullion trim, and eighteenth-century furnishings. The truth is, it is difficult not to fall under the influence of the French, whose uncommon grace is inherent in everything they do.

Following on the heels of Provençal Interiors: French Country Style in America and French by Design, in French Influences, Betty Lou Phillips delves into the world of design français once again, illustrating through lavish color photography how, room by room, French elegance remains the crème de la crème. 

From living rooms to kitchens, bedrooms, dining rooms, media rooms, gardens, and baths, French Influences reveals the means for creating French-style rooms in the home. Furniture, linens, floor coverings, window treatments, accessories, color palettes, lighting fixtures, and antiques inspired by their rich cultural heritage, including rock-crystal chandeliers, Aubusson rugs, exquisite tapestries, feather-filled armchairs, and painstakingly carved armoires are all part of this style. And the resource guide makes it possible for anyone to locate these objets d’art and decorate à la français, creating a gracious mingling of old-world charm and ease.

 Author of Provençal Interiors: French Country Style in America and French by Design, Betty Lou Phillips is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Her design work has appeared in such publications as Southern Accents, Bedroom, Bath & Wall, and Decorating, and has also graced many magazine covers. Additionally, her design talents were featured in an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

The eighteenth century was a period of great inventiveness and originality in French decorative arts and interior decoration.

This book discusses in detail the creation and contents of the interiors of French aristocrats and financiers, including some that have never been photographed before. Using contemporary inventories, letters, and journals it brings to life the tastes and preoccupations of their creators - the Royal family, the aristocracy, the fashionable tourists and the nouveaux riches, as well as the dealers and craftsmen who worked for them, the artists, designers and architects. In addition, it explores the wider context of different styles of decoration, the effect upon them of changes in etiquette and social behaviour and the effect they had in turn upon the function and arrangement of rooms within the French interior.

Contents

Introduction
1. Clientele
2. Designers, Guilds and Dealers
3. Styles and Influences
4. Distribution, Use and Content of Rooms
5. Architectural Decoration
6. Furniture
7. Gilt-Bronze
8. Porcelain
9. Lacquer, Tôle and Wallpapers
10. Textiles
11. Silver
Appendix One
Appendix Two
Citation of Sources
Bibliography
Picture Credits
Index

John Whitehead is a frequent exhibitor at international art and antiques fairs, and serves on the committee of the French Porcelain Society. He is a well-known authority on eighteenth-century decorative arts and interior decoration, and has previously written, with Dr Oliver Impey, on the use of Japanese lacquer on French furniture, and with Sir Francis Watson on the porcelain collection of the Grand Dauphin

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, a specialist in furniture and antiques at Christies and Honelon, invites her readers to enter the elegantly luxurious interiors of some of France's most exclusive abodes. From the classic taste of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the creativity of the nineteenth century, she traces the path to the finesse of the twentieth century, which combines tradition and modernity.

The interiors portrayed in these nine exquisitely illustrated chapters pay tribute to the refinement of French taste, a savoir-faire that has been continually renewed. Classic hotels particuliers in the heart of Paris and romantic chateaux, as well as a surprising isba--a traditional rural log house in the Russian style - are but a few of the examples of the kinds of interiors that will inspire readers as they marvel over the art of French designers, including Madeleine Castaing, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Jacques Grange, Francois Joseph Graff, and Pierre Berge.

Unlike most books on French style on the market, this book is not only a testimony to timeless French elegance, it is an invitation to discover a synthesis of contemporary and classic decor, in some of France's most exclusive residences, firsthand.

About The Author

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery was born in the west of France where she spent her childhood between her family property of Montfort le Rotrou and that of her paternal grandparents at the Château de Lude, one of the jewels of French Renaissance art. As passionate for the "art de vivre" of France's well-heeled families as she is for their history, she has already published several works, including The French Château: Life, Style, Tradition (Thames & Hudson, 2001) and Private Houses of Paris: The "Hôtels Particuliers" Revealed (I.B Tauris & Co.). A specialist in furniture and antiques, de Nicolay-Mazery works at Christie's in Paris.

Photographer Christina Vervitsioti-Missoffe has worked for many Greek, British, and French magazines, including Elle Décoration and Géo.

The fourth title in a successful series, this new book celebrates the enduring popularity of nautically inspired interiors, with a French twist. Azure blue skies and sparkling waves on the horizon are the perfect counterpoints to the bright and cheery interiors inspired by life at the seaside. Sun-drenched terraces are accessorized with nautical details including smooth bits of sea glass, rows of sand dollars, and miniature sailboats on the windowsill. Driftwood centerpieces remind us of the beauty and simplicity of nature. A collection of oars propped in a corner forms a rustic sculpture, and the wide stripes of the lounge chairs beckon, evoking the laid-back allure of warm weather. Stepping inside, the rooms are equally inviting with earth tones and bright touches, accessorized with the classically popular icons - anchors, buoys, lighthouses, seashells - that carry the theme throughout the home. Natural wood finishes set the tone and are the perfect complement to canvas-inspired upholstery and crisp linens in the fresh colors of summertime. Miniature vials of sand, each labeled with the date and location where they were collected, bring back memories of carefree holidays spent by the sea, while frosty gem-colored goblets cool us down even before the first sip of mint julep. The overall sense of these interiors creates a relaxed sense of well-being that feeds the soul. These interiors are brimming with inspiration for how to bring serenity and joy into any home.

French Style exudes that special quality, a rare blend of magic, elegance and sophistication that is the essence of the French 'art de vivre'.

French Style captures the charm, vitality and elegance of contemporary French lifestyle as it is reflected in that country's houses.

Conceived with an artist's eye, Jacques Dirand's photographs present a vision of town and country houses, flats, lofts, ateliers and châteaux – demonstrating the range of French design taste and (translatable) decorating ideas.

Suzanne Slesin describes in detail the functions and histories of the rooms. Design styles range from the refined interpretations of French high-tech to the rusticated simplicity of the French country look. Often, though, it is the intensely personal and characteristically French element - the unique combinations of furniture and objects - that triumphs. The attention to detail reflects a profoundly French genius.

France is the wo rlds style destination, and photographer Sébastien Siraudeau has scoured the country to uncover eighty of its most charming boutique guesthouses, each rich in the design details that epitomize French style. Thirty of these locations are featured in individual chapters with photographs highlighting their particular flair from a trompe loeil wall mu ral, to a damask upholstered chaise longue, or a simple row of ocean-polished stones. Those seeking inspiration for their own home will find this book rich in ideas for a wide variety of styleselegant crystal chandeliers may take center stage in one room, but a simple wooden bench, worn smooth with centuries of use, can be just as captivating in another. Gently faded neutrals create a quiet harmony in one setting, while another is alive with splashes of vivid color. Sleek and modern or cozy and rustic, each of these hand-picked settings is as inviting as a deep leather armchair. Organized thematically, these enticing destinations will inspire the reader to recreate the same atmospheric interiors at h o m e. This handsome volume includes a black book of the best design destinations the country has to offer from châteaux, country manors, and farmhouses, to urban apartments, hotels, and B&Bs. A practical guide grouped by region includes price indicators and online tourist information.

Frequencies is the catalogue that accompanies a new exhibition project by the artist Eugènia Balcells on some perceptive aspects of energy: light and colour.

Frequencies is a book that wants to be faithful to the screens on which the images of the multimedia installations Colour wheel, Labyrinth, Marble and Frequencies are projected. It is a book that allows us to slowly study the flow of the colour spectrum that defines the geometry of everything that exists.

Frequencies is both a visual source of knowledge and a collection of reflections on the communicative capacity of art and sciences.