I needed a break from the laundering and preparing of all the Vintage French Linens that I am about to put in my shop and this was a nice excuse. The shoot was done in our village up here in the French mountains, so if you like the look of the place why not consider coming to stay in our luxury holiday accommodation, Ancienne Ecole (old school) when it opens next year.

I shot the video on our ratty old camera and then post processed the video to look like old film adding Grain and a Technicolour filter, what do you think?

Hop on over to vintage farmhouse and have a go a winning some of these vintage wine labels. It is simple quick and fun!! Then you will have no excuse not to try your own decoupage project like my old tea/coffee tray that I covered with these very labels. Anyhow go and share in all the fun and say hi to Nicole and the nice people at the vintage farmhouse.

Having looked through my box of art and craft supplies, this old cardboard box has glues and papers and old books, some old wooden boxes for covering etc. Every time I come across something that I think would be handy for a project I throw it in this box, it even has lace and vintage materials, all waiting patiently for the creative urge to materialise into action.

So I rummaged through and the things that took my eye are in the photo below, nothing spectacular or even that old. The Road Atlas of Europe is one my husband and I used years ago to tour Europe on a motorcycle. Well it is a bit out of date now, and superseded by our GPS, and our desire to stay in our lovely home!!!

I always have need of packing materials for my various web shops, here , here and here, as I try to package each item up with love and care, as though each were a gift. The plan was therefore simple make some envelopes for sending out flattish items, vintage lace, small linen panels or even some of the vintage ads that I have for sale; Oh and by the way I had better own up straight away, I got the idea from this seller on Etsy, I bought some of her envelopes, absolutely fantastic so if you do not want to make this your self pop on over and buy some from her, she is really nice as well.

As you can see from the photos the making of the envelopes is easy and fun, and once you have made a couple quite quick. I have some old music sheets and I think that they could be put to the same purpose. The little pockets could even be used as table decoration. Use one for each place setting to hold a napkin/serviette, obviously the paper would need to be sturdy enough and of a design that compliments the table décor, or check out the French Vintage napkin pockets I have for sale.

Pull the page from the book, these are quite large, bigger than A3.

The map pages with creases pulled from the book, are then…

Cut out the shape of an envelope.

Cut into an envelope shape, I used scissors …

Folded and tabs glued

Fold the map, creasing the tabs and then glue. I left a large opening so that I could …

Finished map pocket with vintage linen napkin.

Slip in a lovely French vintage linen napkin.

It was really that easy and fun to do, and I like the result, so if you buy from me in the near future you may well be getting your order sent in one of these. Have a lovely start to the week. Gail

On the right the colour palette for the Billiard area

A colour palette is useful for a number of projects from interior design to deciding what accessories go with your favourite outfit. There are rules that govern what colours go with each other – everybody is familiar with the colour wheel and how to use it - if not check out these pages for a quick but thorough introduction to colour theory.

Our vintage colour palette.

For the old village school (Ancienne Ecole – Our luxury vacation rental in the French mountains) we needed to have a colour palette that was both warm and light. The old school was one large room, we have added a mezzanine and two bedrooms and two bathrooms under the mezzanine. This has not lessened the impact in the main space with its 21ft high ceiling at its highest point and with a floor surface of 1126 square fee. We needed something neutral as a base that would look good in the billiard area, the library, the kitchen, the salon the bedrooms etc. This, as you can imagine, was quite a challenge to get a colour scheme that would unify the whole, but also allow a different accent colour to be used in each area. Luckily for us technology and particularly the Internet came to our rescue!!

Choosing the colours with the help of the Internet.

The two major colour influences on the interior are the light coming in from the three huge South facing windows and the wood – wooden beams in the ceiling, wooden beams that support the mezzanine, and two different wooden floors – one the original antique French Oak parquet on the lower floor and the other the newer pine floor on the mezzanine. All in all a lot of wood!! It varies in colour from warm honey tones to a dark syrup in colour. We believe that the wood adds the warmth that we were looking for and that we could therefore paint the walls an off white without the effect being cold. To test how ‘off white’ the white should be, we took photographs of the wooden beams in the ceiling, imported the photos into Kuler (http://kuler.adobe.com) and then got the site to produce a colour palette from the photographs.

The old school colour palette

Here we can see the colour palette - the browns are all hues that are found in the wood, the off-white on the left is an approximation of the colour of the paint we bought for the walls and ceiling – it is a white with a little brown added to it. If we adjust the colour palette to be representative of the surface area covered in that colour we see the chart below.

Colour Palette showing colours relative to the area covered.

One, not vintage, not French, tea tray.

Here was my starting point, one tatty and very old but not vintage English tea tray. As you can see it has served us many cups of tea faithfully over the years, and it is looking horrible!  After quickly, (I mean very quickly) rubbing the tray down to key the surface for the paint and remove some of the imperfections, paint was added.

The paint I used was one I had in the cellar. A little-used metallic paint by the French manufacturer Liberon. Excellent paint that will stick to any surface, well any surface I have yet to try it on. I applied three coats – this paint dries rapidly and I left it next to the wood-burning stove as well so that helped.

Apply the Vintage French Wine Labels.

Easy-peasy!!  I selected the labels I wanted, arranged them on the tray, took a photo of the arrangement so I would not forget it, then took the labels off the tray. Then I proceeded to stick the labels on in place one at a time with normal PVA glue, patting the labels down to remove air bubbles and excess glue with a paper towel.

This I then left to dry, had a cup of tea by the wood burning stove, and then sealed the whole painted surface of the tray and the labels with normal wood varnish. This last stage was done to protect the labels from wine stains etc.

So earlier I was talking about a lesson I’d learnt. It is to keep it simple. Use what materials you have to hand, and get on with something else during the drying stages. This information is hardly going to be new to experienced crafters, but I thought it was worthwhile. If you have any crafting advice to pass on, let us all know in the comments.

A bientôt

Gail

A quick and dirty look at the earliest French Decorative Styles. Speed through 1100 years of Art, History and hard work without even getting out of breath. If only History lessons at school had been this quick and pain-free.

Poitier Cathedral

Romanesque. 476-1150 – “It’s Roman Jim but not as we know it”.

Formative period. Art and learning in the hands of the ecclesiastics. Rome and the Catholic Church the dominating influences. The rounded Roman arch, pillow capitals and incised decoration the leading features. During this period after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe still followed certainly in building the Roman lead, being unable to better and some times not even master the techniques of the Romans. This period often referred to historically as the Dark Ages.

Key Works: Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of churches and cathedrals all over Europe in each country a slightly different interpretation of the style flourished.

Well known work: Poitier Cathedral, Bayeux Tapestry.

Gothic – No black eye liner and sulky attitude in sight.

Notre-Dame Paris

Early Gothic 1180-1281.

Gothic style originated in France, the pointed arch supposed to have been introduced by crusaders returning from Saracenic countries. Early Gothic was heavy in construction, and become lighter as the style developed over the next three centuries. Gothic is considered the only true European style, all the others that we will consider drew their inspiration from classical Greek or Roman forms. Gothic is loud and brash, towers are tall, the stained glass windows cover vast acres of space and every where one looks there is geometry and decorated stone work. Whilst Gothic attained a lightness of touch when used for Churches and Cathedrals, as these were sacrosanct and not usually sacked in battle, Castles were solid and uncomfortable to live in. It was in fact this level of discomfort that would lead the French to adopt the stylings and comforts found when they invaded Italy and saw the splendid Renaissance interiors.

Decorated Gothic 1285-1380-.

The Gothic style becomes more ornate and less heavy. France improves in all the arts.

Flamboyant Gothic 1380-1483.

The tracery of windows, becomes very ornate, taking flame-like undulations and interweavings. The Gothic reaches the utmost limit of lightness and extravagant ornamentation.

Key Works: As in the Romanesque period, churches and cathedrals predominate. Such as Notre Dame in Paris.

Interior Design: In fabrics, the Gothic drew its inspiration from geometric shapes, not dissimilar to the tracery of the walls and windows. Where floral or other natural forms were introduced they were conventionalised and used in connection with geometrical figures. Embroidery was far more common than at present and formed a large share of the labours of women of all classes, from peasant to Queen.

Gothic Windows showing the fine stone tracery.

Renaissance or Re-birth No epidural necessary!

Finally a comfortable chair is made, and the French can sit down.

Early French Renaissance 1483-1589.

Charles VIII invades Italy and his nobles return discontented with the coarse French methods of living. Louis XII also invades Italy and induces Fra Giacondo and other Italian masters to visit France. François I, the real founder of the Renaissance in France, also invades Italy, and returns accompanied by numbers of Italian architects, decorators and craftsmen. Gobelins tapestries become famous and other tapestry manufactories are established. Italian influence increases. Henri II marries Catharine de Medici, who dominates art during the period. French art closely follows the Italian, and the Gothic is finally discarded.

“The Renaissance, which had its inception in Italy was a return to the art of the Greeks and Romans, and was brought about by a renewed interest in the writings of the old Greek and Roman philosophers and poets. In Literature the Renaissance was a revolt against the purely ecclesiastic literature that had come to lose all originality, and in Art the Renaissance was a protest against the further development of a churchly architecture (the Gothic) which had already passed its best day.The masters of the Italian Renaissance began with an almost servile imitation of the ancient Greek and Roman models, but soon passed on to original conceptions of their own in which the classic remains served merely as a firm foundation for their genius to expand upon.”

Key Works: So many great houses, Fontainbleau, Versailles, Chenonce etc etc.

It is always nice to come across someone that shares your passions. I would like to introduce Jo Farmer an Interior Designer who shares my passion for the beauty, quality and durability of French Linen.

I have always loved the casual and time worn elegance of the French.  Their homes lend an air of comfort and sanctuary that over the years has filtered through into my own home and design aesthetic.  But it’s their linens that have captured my heart…
As a frequent visitor to France, I am always looking for beautiful textiles and linens and will travel miles out of the way to attend a Brocante or market that may have a positive treasure trove of linens for me to sort through.  I look for antique and vintage pieces, namely bridal trousseau pieces that incorporate the huge beautiful white on white hand embroidered monograms and florals and, if one is really lucky, a magnificent coat of arms.   I try to find out as much as I can about each piece; it is important to me to offer a client even a basic provenance so they too may share in its history.

I recently noted in one of my linen bibles that the Bourgeois European society used to set up ‘trousseau funds’ to enable even the poorest girls to have a few pieces of household linens before they married.  This would include several sets of sheets, pillow shams, table cloths, napkins, hand towels and handkerchiefs. Whether humble or extravagant, the trousseau was always bought by the bride and generally remained her property in case of widow-hood or remarriage.   How sad that today – even in most parts of France – this wonderful custom no longer exists.  Personally, I would have been singing from the treetops if I had received a bridal trousseau on my wedding day…

Indulging my passion for these linens has culminated in my personal collection which is housed in a walk-in closet at my design studio.  I hang most of my pieces and cover the tops with acid proof tissue paper to protect them from dust.  If you were to take a peek you would be transported back to the late 1800’s all the way through to the 1930’s.  The monograms come in a variety of styles, my favourite being Belle Epoch (extremely ornate), to the art nouveau and art deco.  The floral designs are spectacular as are the pieces of cutwork and hand tinted linens.  Unfortunately, I have not come across a piece bearing a coat of arms that I could afford but I live in hope…

Part of my collection has been around for over a century and some for fifty odd years and all are as beautiful today as they were way back when.  Now and again, I will disappear for an hour or so into my closet and look through the racks at the monogrammed and embroidered sheets, table cloths, tray cloths, pillow shams and table runners and leave filled to bursting with inspiration.  Aside from their beauty, these linens are an investment too… they retain their value and, over the years, the value continues to rise.  The quality is better than anything you will find in the stores today and the workmanship is magnificent.

Eliza Interiors and Design is where I am truly free to indulge my passion for French fine linens; a place where I design and create beautiful soft furnishings for the home.  Our aesthetic is simple elegance; an abundance of crisp white, oatmeal linens and beige linens, some tinted in soft grey’s pale blues and soft lavenders which emulate the skies of Northern France.  We offer an abundance of monogrammed and embroidered white on white pillows, crisp white table runners; simple oatmeal linen drapes that puddle on the floor as well as gifts and accessories.  Following a trend in its entirety will result in a soulless interior, instead aim for the essence of a trend that appeals to your senses.

Jo Farmer

We have already built the bookcases, or should I say our friend Steve did, but we now think they look a bit utilitarian and need embellishing, we are looking to make them look a little more grand, but still in keeping with the vintage French interior that is the old school.  Well as luck would have it I stumbled upon these bookcases on the web some are a bit modern for what we are looking for and some are too grand, but ALL are fantastic to a book-worm like me, and I think I could use some of the ideas here.

Oh and almost forgot on Saturday I bought a Larousse French Language Dictionary or  Encyclopaedia of the French Language in two large volumes, bound in red faux leather with black and gold detailing . Cost 4€, that will do nicely thank you!!

Here is a gallery of lovely bookcases.

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Here you can see the festival getting going around the church.

A wider view of the village. You can just make out that the village sits on a promontory from this view.

Coming a little more round to the South.

And this one is looking at the village from the East

This is quite lovely

I have a vintage birdcage that I picked up from one of our village brocantes here in France. At the moment it forms a part of a display on top of a mantelpiece as you can see below.

My Vintage Birdcage Display

Now I think I will see what I can do to make this into a birdcage lantern, perhaps with some LED fairy lights. What do you think, should I paint it or let the natural material show? I am in two minds, I like the reedy material it is made from and it has a nice warm tone, and maybe painted it might recede a bit too much into the background. I will want to hang it in our old school holiday rental over the seating area around the wood burning stove, So it will be in a large space. I can see that I will have to play around with this idea. If you have any then please help me out in the comments.