Bookshelf: French Style at Home

I've got French style on my mind because our latest container full of antique furniture just left Europe to travel to the USA! It's due to arrive around Thanksgiving so we'll have a lot of new inventory of French antiques and vintage home decor soon in our online gallery at EuroLuxHome.com.  I'm so looking forward to the arrival of the pieces we are bringing across the Atlantic for you, I've found some new books that are all about French style at home.

Private Houses of France

If you're in the mood for some serious opulence, take a tour of the grand homes in Private Houses of France: Living with History. The houses and castles featured in the book all illustrate important periods in the history of French decor. The fashion designer Givenchy's Parisian townhouse is designed in the style of Napoleon III. The fabulous Château de Champchevrier pulls out the stops with the regal French Hunting style. Our customers who love Renaissance style will enjoy the allure of Château d’Anet, where King Henry II and Diane de Poitiers had their romantic trysts. Other readers will be swept away by the beauty of a Parisian manor house... sigh!

At Home with Madame Chic

This lively book is written by Jennifer Scott, a Californian who first went to Paris as a foreign exchange student, then returned to live in Paris with her family years later. (This is a bit like my own story of falling in love with Europe, except I first went on a Study Abroad program to Florence, Italy, and then 11 years later launched a European Antiques import business with Greg!)

At Home with Madame Chic: Becoming a Connoisseur of Daily Life talks about the effortless style and small comfortable details that make home a wonderful place to be every day.

Home Style by City

The full title of this book is quite a mouthful. It's: Home Style by City: Ideas and Inspiration from Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, and Copenhagen. So it's not JUST about French style, but it does include an evocative section on what author Ida Magntorn describes as the "nonchalant elegance" of Paris. She takes readers into the homes of her vintage-loving friends in Paris to share their home decor tips. This book has a philosophy that, "Decorating is about telling a story in order to create ambience."  The French style story is of course chic, romantic, and artfully spontaneous. It's gently imperfect and tousled, making it look as though nobody has tried hard at all. (A casual French shrug of the shoulders!)

I hope you enjoy reading and taking some French style inspiration. If you have a tip on how to create French style at home, please do tell us in the comments!