The Cottage Journal French Home 2017

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” –Marcel Proust “I must have flowers, always, and always.” –Claude Monet It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to The Cottage Journal’s special issue, French Home, featuring homes with panache, charm, and style selected to entice your French muse. You will find homes and gardens in this issue with the sunny warmth of Provence as well as the sophisticated, urban interiors frequently found in modern design. Each of our selected homes feature French characteristics—some subtle and others over the top—all the while reflecting the homeowners’ own regional location and history in addition to their appreciation and unique interpretation of Gallic style. French homes traditionally enjoy the…

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Antique Aubusson tapestry cartoons, now a rare and precious find, are the original stencils used to create the beautiful tapestries from centuries ago. The woven works covered furniture or hung as artwork, primarily in churches or the homes of nobility and royalty. Dating back as early as the 17th century, Aubusson tapestry cartoons were painted with oil on canvas or gouache on paper by local artists. Then weavers would dye threads to match the paint colors and use the cartoon as a guide behind the warp threads of the loom to create the designs. In the mid-1700s, a school was erected in the central France town of Aubusson for the sole purpose of teaching painters who specialized in tapestry work, ensuring these cartoons would always be called “Aubusson” tapestry cartoons.…

The French have always been style icons. Whether it be fashion, food, or design in general, the world consistently turns to the French to be inspired for the elegant and refined. The latest book from Hoffman Media, French Style with Vintage Finds, showcases homes in France as well as the United States that have cultivated the art of French charm. Neutral palettes highlighting exposed stone, timeworn furnishings, and wrought iron reign within the book’s 220 pages. But what sets this tome apart are the pages that share the ins and outs of antique shopping for the uninitiated tourist. This book is every Francophile and antique lover’s dream. French Style with Vintage Finds (2017) is published by 83 Press, an imprint of Hoffman Media, LLC.…

 Once the French bug bites, the romance of hunting your own treasures and collectibles may lure you to the streets of Paris or the French countryside. While spontaneity can be part of the fun, your search will likely go better with a little planning when it comes to shopping and, more importantly, getting your goods back Stateside. A 19th-century chest, a lava lamp, apothecary jars, leather suitcases—what you find will depend on where and how you shop. There are options galore when shopping for antiques or slightly worn goods, and one of the easiest is booking an antiques tour so you can shop on the arm of a local who knows the area. An added bonus is that a tour guide typically has relationships with the vendors, allowing you…

 Frances Stanford still remembers her first trip to France. In high school and college, she studied the language and finally traveled to the country with her husband years later to buy equipment for his business. On that trip in the early 1990s, an opportunity arose that she couldn’t pass up. “We actually went to buy a printing press—my husband is in the publishing business. I thought if anything, I’d just be buying things to sell at my booth at Peck & Hill Antiques, but the chance to share a warehouse with another woman came up, and that’s where it began.” Now Frances and one of her daughters, Ginny Smith, own Maison de France Antiques, a shop they fill through numerous shopping trips abroad each year. On that…