How Do I Get The French Farmhouse Look?

Whether you are building a new home or live in an existing home you can create the look of French Farmhouse. Elegant and rustic a mix of the beautiful french countryside with some of the popular farmhouse elements and you have a charming, cozy look that you can design yourself using these decorating ideas.

• A few pieces of curved furniture sprinkled throughout the rooms in your home.
• Some flea market items that inspire the French Farmhouse look.
• Weathered and distressed wood furniture either beams or get creative with weathered wood placed strategically in your home.
• Decorate with old books, and all types of interesting baskets in various rooms.
• Add a few accents of gold with a mirror, picture frames, water faucets, and drawer pulls.
• Create a topiary either faux or real using boxwood.
• Hang a linen apron with cross back straps on a wall.
• A variety of chandeliers simple and dramatic.
• An armoire or wooden hutch with a curved top adds a lot of charm.
• Add some fancy molding.
• Vintage Accents.
• A splash of white paint.
• Hang a basket of flowers on a door either indoors or on your front or back door.
• Farm or French Provincial table.
• Ornate outlet and light fixture covers.
• Decorate with some white ceramic pitchers or french urns.
• Wood flooring or terra cotta tile.
• Plaster range hood in the kitchen.
• Tile kitchen backsplash.
• French style graphics on chairs, pillows, curtains, or napkins
• Large art pieces on the wall.
• Slipcovers and ruffled chair seat covers
• Choose knobs and drawer pulls with a french design flair.
• Fancy corbels make a beautiful french statement.

I guess I just gravitate to all things beautiful and European considering my list above. I spent six months in college studying abroad while attending Brigham Young University. I studied in Austria. And yes it was every bit like the Sound of Music! I loved traveling throughout Europe and experiencing other cultures. Paris was an enchanting place to visit. I loved the simple architecture of Austrian chalets. Perhaps that is why I like the French Farmhouse style so much.

I find it charming and cozy and irresistible. Love the combination of the old with the new. The vintage decor with wood accents. You can get as decorative or as simple as you would like to with this style. I’ve given you plenty of design choices for creating a french farmhouse look. So let’s get started.

Curved Furniture

You can easily identify french furniture by the curved back on chairs and the legs of tables. Sometimes there is a shell design engraved in the table or chairs I have both. Dining room chairs with a shell engraved at the top of the curve of the chair and a coffee table with a shell design sitting on four curved legs and curved side panels under the top of the table.

Wingback chairs stately and comfy at the same time boast a french design that never goes out of style! I put a french styled dresser in my entryway mudroom. It sits on dainty curved legs. Creamy colored with accents of gilded gold paint around the edges.

If you don’t want to buy brand new furniture you can always shop antique stores or thrift shops for chairs, tables, and other pieces of french furniture and decor. A chaise lounge placed in the right spot with a lamp and a throw would make the perfect spot to relax and read a la french styled.

For the french farmhouse style you will want a little chunkier type look. Or add some farmhouse decor to your french provincial furniture so it looks french farmhouse.

Flea Market Inspired

“You know how they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? This is so true! At least for me. I like to visit my local thrift store often because I find all kinds of decor and furniture that can be remodeled to fit the farmhouse french theme. In decorating your room, you can put items that complete your french farmhouse look. Garage sales are a great place to look too. Vases, mirrors, art, planters, corbels, farmhouse accents can help to give you the french farmhouse look. Don’t go overboard though using these things because farmhouse has a clean uncluttered feel to it. Find a few vintage items that you absolutely love at a flea market, garage sale, or even a place like Hobby Lobby. Then put them strategically in your space to accent the furniture. Hang them on the wall or place on a table.

If you don’t have shops such as mentioned above available to you, you can always distress some items to make them look vintage. Even something like a silver platter can be distressed and look beautiful sitting on a table or hanging on a wall. Just paint the silver tarnished tray with white chalk paint. Then take a baby wipe and rub gently on the edges of your tray. This will give a beautiful distressed look to your piece.

Weathered Or Distressed Wood

When we looked through our current home before we bought it, I was sold once I saw the beams in our family room. Wood beams are in keeping with the french farmhouse style. Old wood and raw wood can be used throughout your home to blend farmhouse with the French aspect. Vintage wood pieces like an armoire as I mentioned earlier brings a French statement. Wood mantel, wood beams, wood on your range hood, wood in doorways can add to the ambience that French farmhouse brings to home decor. Think about putting distressed wood around your indoor doorways. Add some old wooden breadboards to your kitchen decorating too.

Books and Baskets

Both books and baskets are easy to use in your decorating to achieve a french farmhouse style. You can find new or used items to upgrade the decorating in your room. For example: it is possible to purchase old paperback books at second hand stores. Remove the book covers so you just have the white pages of the book still bound together. Tie a silk, burlap ribbon, or twine around them and display them in a room.

Fill a basket with faux lavender and perch it by your front door in your entry way or on a table in your home. Very french farmhouse looking! Baskets used throughout your home will give a comfy fill if you display them right. Fill them with french looking linens or perhaps put a small blue ticking striped pillow in a basket, a covered canvas pillow with home embroidered on it or stenciled on canvas and glued or hand sewn to the pillow front. Woven baskets come in handy for organization in your bathroom and kitchen as well.

If you can’t go all out with french furniture, you can definitely make a statement with the small touches you decorate in your nooks and crannies throughout your home. Here are a few more ideas for instance:

• Attach a basket to a bike and add some fresh flowers. Fill a short glass vase with fresh water and set in the basket so no one notices the vase but sees the flowers in the basket. This makes a great outdoor display in your yard.
• Set a basket on the floor by your backdoor and put hand garden tools, gloves, and some packets of seeds in it. Fill with fun home decor or quilting magazines. You could also hang a french kitchen linen or doily over the side.
• Display some antique books like “Little Women”, “Pride and Prejudice” , ” A Tale of Two Cities”, or “Les Miserables’ standing up together or lay on top of each other. and tie a ribbon around them. Add dried or faux flowers slipped through the ribbon. Tres chic! Place them on your fireplace mantel or coffee table. If classic books don’t suit your fancy you can find floral books or books about Europe to display instead.
• Fill a wooden bowl or basket with fresh fruit. This creates a lovely look to your decor.

Accent With Gold

Antique gold looking mirrors would be a great addition to your french farmhouse interior design. Hang them in the bathroom or the front entryway even in a bedroom. You could even take a mirror with a fancy frame and paint it gold and distress it a bit. Second hand or thrift stores often carry vintage mirrors but if you can’t find one, you can definitely get creative and make your own look vintage.

In French Farmhouse decor you can add a touch of gold to your drawer pulls, or door knobs. Add some frames painted gold and distressed like the mirror frames to look vintage. One way to make a frame or mirror look old, is to paint your mirror gold and sprinkle some cinnamon on it to look like rust. Play with the color and make it beautiful, meaning beautiful but old looking.

Add Topiary

A topiary or two can add such a cozy look to a space. There are many ways to make faux topiary or you can buy topiary shaped plants. Which kind you choose whether fresh or faux is up to you and your taste. Put the topiary in a terra cotta pot or cement plant holder. Both terra cotta and cement you will find in French Farmhouse. I love the look of both of these elements. You can even distress the terra cotta with white paint if you like that finish on your pot.

Decorate your kitchen with a couple of topiaries. Put one on each side of your kitchen sink. Liven up your fireplace by setting a topiary on the mantel or next to your fireplace opening. Put a fresh topiary on your porch next to your front door to welcome all of your guests.

If you would like to try your hand at making a topiary, take a look here. Faux is pretty easy and fresh not too hard either.

Apron Appeal

I know this sounds super easy and the fact of the matter it is! Add a fun rustic block of wood with a chunky clothespin holder (take a chunk of wood and stain it. Glue the chunky clothespin at the top. Or add a decorative hook of your own.) Once it is dry hang a cute linen apron with cross back straps on your wall. It is not only functional and where you can always find it when you need it, but it adds a cute display of French Farmhouse.

I love my rustic cute apron. It is very comfy and adorable! Bought it off of Amazon for a pioneer trek my husband and I just finished. It is so handy with its large roomy pockets and can be used for gardening, kitchen work, or yes even an authentic pioneer trek.

Chandelier Beauty

Who doesn’t love a chandelier simple or more elegant hanging in their home. I recently redid my entryway chandelier. I took off the small pleated lamp shades and painted it with white chalk paint and distressed it just a bit. I was going to paint the black wrought iron gold but wrought iron is French decor so I decided to leave the iron work black. I painted each candlestick white. I added hot glue candle wax drops that look like the wax from the candle has melted. I found some overgrowth in my garden that formed a wreath so I placed it on my chandelier. Then I added some crystal looking beads that I found at Hobby Lobby and just strung a variety of sizes on a wire and hung them from my chandelier. Love it! So unique and French farmhouse looking!

You can upgrade your chandeliers with creativity to bring some French farmhouse to your digs. Or buy a crystal chandelier to hang in your entryway, over the kitchen sink, or in your dining room.

Armoire Says French

There is no question if you are lucky enough to have an armoire you already own a French piece of furniture. Definitely a sign of French farmhouse. Depending on the look it should have a curve to the top and some glass doors are nice too. You can find creative ways to add an armoire to your kitchen, living room, or bedroom.

Fancy Crown Molding

I love fancy looking crown molding. It comes in both wood and a faux wood. It adds such beauty to a room. Lowes and Home Depot carry a variety but there are online stores as well. Research and look around for the molding that sings to you. One more thought. I love a piece of fancy molding across a plaster kitchen hood too!

Do Vintage

A sure sign of French farmhouse is a variety vintage accents. Vintage can be old silver trays, ceramic vases, ornate picture frames, vintage linens, terra cotta containers, a curved dining room chair etc… If you shop carefully enough you will find some vintage accents that will sing to you and you can find the perfect place to add them into your french farmhouse decor. Make sure you purchase items that you love!

Splash of White Paint

Add some white paint to some of your decor. You can distress your decor just a bit with a baby wipe after painting with some white chalk paint. Basket of Flowers On Your Front Door or Front Gate

Hang A Basket of Flowers

For a beautiful, cozy, welcoming look to your home, hang a basket of brightly colored faux or fresh flowers and greenery. Add a few twigs from your yard and hang it on your front door or on your front gate (if you have one). Tie a wide satin bow through both handles and let it hang down over the side.

Farm or French Provincial Table

Put a farmhouse table or french provincial styled table in your kitchen or. dining area. Add a white ceramic or silver pitcher of flowers to your tabletop and then decorate your table in french linens. Style your table with matching or un matching chairs that have the French curve or ladder-back style to them.

Add French Farmhouse Light and Outlet Covers

I found some beautiful light and outlet covers at Hobby Lobby. I love the style and the white against my brown plastered walls! An easy way to make a French farmhouse statement in any room!

White Ceramic Pitchers and Urns

Go on a treasure hunt at your local thrift store. Or head to Hobby Lobby! Find white ceramic pitchers or urns that can beautify and help create a French farmhouse look. I have several that I have collected. My most prized ceramic vases cost me less than $5.00 and they are beautiful! Very French looking and easy to decorate with. I move them around my house. Sometimes they are in my entryway and sometimes I move them into my dining room just depending on the way I decorate with them.

Urns come in a variety of colors and patinas. They don’t have to be white but they can be a green, dark brown, copper, or black.

French Flooring Choices

You have several options when choosing the right flooring for your home. Check out my article here about the variety of options when it comes to flooring. Limestone, terra cotta tile, and wood flooring can all be considered French farmhouse. I think you can use your imagination here. What do you like? What type of farmhouse look are you going for? Choose what you love and coordinate with the rest of your room. Here is my formula for doing this.

Find a picture of a French farmhouse room that you love. Try to replicate that look. Research your flooring, paint, lights, backsplash, etc… whatever you will be using in that room. Make a design board and then purchase your flooring. Have a firm idea before you start choosing flooring of the look, the comfort, the cost, and the function of what you want that room to be. Then you can’t go wrong. Add your personal French decorative touches to the room and voila!

Plaster Range Hood

Did you know you can make your own kitchen hood? There are lots of tutorials online. The French farmhouse look that I have fallen in love with is the plaster hood. Love the old world look to it. You can even add decorative molding or an aged wooden board to the bottom of your hood. My husband plans to build a kitchen hood for our range out of MDF. He will then put plaster on it to resemble and old European French look. We will add wooden or metal corbels on each side of the hood so it will rest on the counter. Lots of styles out there so find one you are comfortable with and go for it! If you aren’t a diyer, you can have a range hood built.

Kitchen Backsplash

You have a myriad of choices when it comes to this. You can go with a white subway tile smooth, matte, shiny , wavy. Or get really fancy with a herringbone brick pattern or a beautiful ceramic tile with French flair to it. You could even simply add a thicker plaster look to your walls.

French Style Graphics on Furniture, Napkins, Pillows, Curtains

If you have never checked out the Graphics Fairy, well after you finish this post, head on over there! The French decor ideas are endless and so many examples of how you can refinish furniture to look French. I plan to redo my French kitchen chairs and add some French style graphics to them. You can use free graphics to make your pillows, furniture, kitchen linens, and curtains French style in a quick minute!

I recently made this bench by covering a piece of wood I found at my local thrift store. I hot glued quilt batting to the top (or you could staple it.) I then again hot glued burlap to the wood bringing it around the edge to the back. I stenciled a wreath (bought it at Hobby Lobby…yes I love that store!) “gather” on a white piece of scrap fabric and glued it to my bench. Glued on a ruffle from an old skirt and rested my bench top on a couple of French planter holders I have had sitting in my garage for a long time.

French Inspired Art

Look for some French inspired art pieces at your local thrift store. You would be so amazed what you can find in those stores if you go every so often on a treasure hunt there. You could also buy prints online and frame them yourself. Research some of the French artists that you like and then look for a print.

Slipcovers

Buy or make some white or cream slipcovers for furniture. Add a ruffled skirt to your dining room chairs or a couch. Slipcovers will give your furniture an instant lift and add new life to your French farmhouse look. If you research online you can find tutorials that will help you make a slipcover from fabric like drop cloths and they are fairly reasonable that way. You can also find a lot of vendors who sell slipcovers for you to choose from.

Door Knobs And Drawer Pulls

Glass knobs and vintage looking drawer pulls give cabinetry, desks, and other furniture a French farmhouse feel. Hobby Lobby has a nice assortment of vintage looking knobs. They are already distressed and have such a wide variety it will be hard to choose. Lowe’s and Home Depot will also have a few to choose from just depending what your taste is when it comes to those accents.

Cool Corbels

Love, love, love corbels and can’t say enough about them. I think they add such beauty to a space and instantly you think French influence. They can be paired with aged wood for a farmhouse looking shelf or used with your range hood in the kitchen. They can be placed under your countertop or accent a cabinet. Hang them in each corner of your interior doorways. Corbels come in wood or metal and add so much interest in any room you place them.

These are just a few ways to get the French farmhouse look and if you use your creativity you can come up with more subtle decor touches that make your French farmhouse just what you want it to be. Happy French farmhouse making!