8 Ideas from French Decorators You Should Note Down

We always love looking at photos of French interiors: luxurious, stylish, modern, and airy. Take a look at these decorator tricks and find the golden mean between the atmosphere of Parisian luxury and comfort in your own home.

PinterestCombine Vintage and Modern Interior Items

Parisian luxury in modern settings is created when you successfully combine something old with something new. The secret lies in proper pairing: select vintage restored items and match them with modern pieces that look best when new. For example, you can buy a modern table and mix it with old restored chairs. Read more about how to restore a chair yourself here.

PinterestTransform Everyday Things into Luxury

The dining table can look simple and minimalist during the day, but when guests arrive, it can transform into a luxurious interior element thanks to textiles, candles, candelabras, vases, and fine china. Remember the simple base that you can transform with luxurious elements.

PinterestPlay with Details

Two different interior styles that seem to have nothing in common can look amazing together in one room if combined tastefully. It's all about harmony in color, lines, and proportions. Combine velvet drapes with mosaic floors, Scandinavian furniture with vintage items, classic elements with Provence touches.

PinterestChoose Restoration Over New Purchase

If you manage to find antique furniture that could potentially be restored, use this opportunity even if restoration costs the same as buying a new piece. Reupholstering with interesting expensive fabric and polishing wood creates miracles, and an old chair in its new life can become the central element of your new French interior.

PinterestFearlessly Mix Styles

Parisian apartments look unconventional because the furniture items are not bound to a single style and coexist harmoniously. Think about which interior style is closest to you and what you like just as much. Scandinavian style with boho, classic interiors with modern elements, minimalism with countryside notes — the secret of the French is in combinations and proper proportions. Place a bright chair in a white Scandinavian interior, hang reproductions of expressionist paintings, stack old books on a table made from unfinished wood. Do you feel how stylish and unconventional your interior has become?

PinterestChoose a Central Item in the Room

And build your composition around it. Study interior magazines and stop on one thing that you like so much that it stays in your head. Make this discovery the central point of composition (not necessarily placing it literally in the center!). Select items according to your taste based on the compositional rule set by the central item. And you won't go wrong!

PinterestDon't Ignore Worn Furniture

In Parisian apartments, there is a relaxed atmosphere unlike what we usually see in interior magazines. The difference is that the French don't ignore wear and imperfections on wooden furniture. Imperfections are unique, and there's something very personal and valuable in them.

Scars on your grandmother's buffet date back to pre-revolutionary times, and a groove in the wooden table tells you that it has a story: you didn’t just buy a new one, but kept this one, so the room becomes warmer. Therefore, instead of throwing away your grandfather's rocking chair, think about how you could transform it.

PinterestDon't Limit Yourself to One Color

A monochromatic interior in one style is not typical for the French. Add a vibrant detail, play with contrasts in textures, color accents, and patterns — and Paris will settle into your home.

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