French Country Decor Living Room

French Country decor is all about evoking the relaxed, sunshine-y feeling of the French Countryside, all sweetly scented lavender fields and bright, warm sunshine. French Country homes are meant to feel old-world, welcoming, and ever-so-slightly rustic. They’re warm and casual, well-designed but still put comfort first. Warmth is key with traditional French Country decorating, especially when it comes to kitchens and living rooms. You’ll see a lot of warm wood tones and neutrals, yellows and fiery reds, burnt rusty oranges and bright grassy greens. Cobalt blues and periwinkle shades are common in French Country bedrooms, and all spaces are punctuated by delicate, curving lines of furniture that looks like it’s been hand sculpted from clay. Natural materials are key in French Country, as are rough stained or painted plaster walls. Beamed ceilings are common, and woven materials like cotton and linen take center stage.

bench | sofa | literary script armchair | chandelier | 

At least, that’s what French Country is, traditionally. But we’ve been seeing French Country trend away from its colorful, warm, traditional roots, and head towards a cooler, softer palette – and we can’t get enough! The room above is the perfect example of what we’re calling the New French Country style. New French Country style rooms leave the bright, warm colors behind, instead favoring the cooler tones of grey and blue, tempered by soft white shades. The natural rustic woods and delicate carved furniture still play beautifully with these cooler shades, and they leave room for pops of glamour, such as mirrored trays or bright pink peonies. The New French Country living room is all about layered textures: a faded Persian rug plays host to a white tufted sofa, while a gorgeously intricate chandelier lights up the space, playing off the mirrored accents in the room. Meanwhile, our favorite literary scripted armchair adds a pop of spice to the space. It’s not the type of piece you’d typically see in a French Country style living room, and that’s why we love it. It shakes things up a little, adding a bit of bohemia to the room. The New French Country isn’t just about following the rules, see – it’s about breaking them every so often. The best spaces, the most layered spaces, are the ones that borrow tips and tricks from different styles, that take the basic tenets of a given design style and do a riff off them. That’s what this room does, and what New French Country aims to do: take the best of the classic French Country style, and then add a bit of boho, a little bit of quirk, a tiny bit of glamour, to make the space one of a kind. Click the links above to shop, and recreate this look in your own home!