“One should never be the oldest thing in one’s house” – Patsy Stone. 

French-style is an elegant blend of traditional, vintage, and modern style decor. It is about finding the right spot of being effortlessly perfect. The French-style decor is chic, modern yet conventional. It’s a mixture of old and new. It is a bit difficult to pull off and result in many mistakes that can move the edge of direction towards some other dimension or style. Some common mistakes to look out for are as follows: 

Related article – “Guide to decorate your home in a French home décor style“

Choosing the wrong colors

In French style decor mostly white is the prominent color but it is about finding the right kind of white. Light, beige, and creamy white work in a French style. It is not all, it’s about creating a proper balance between other splashes of colors too. You can get it wrong by going all too white or not enough white. This can create a potential problem. The rule of thumb according to me, is to go one-third of other colors and two parts of the dominant color. 

Getting confused while choosing Furniture style

In French-style decor, provincial furniture is used. The provincial term is used for the furniture that was used to be made in smaller French cities around the 18th century. It has a traditional style and is finely detailed with intricate patterns and an extravagant look. It is important to choose the right item of furniture to fit the profile. One can get easily confused between different styles of traditional furniture and only French origin would be appropriate here. 

Overdoing it with the decorations

French country is elegant and extravagant but it’s also fashionable and unique. It’s about the right amount of decor in specific limits. One thing that many of us can get wrong is the use of too much decoration. French Country style has warmer and happier additions to the original French-style décor and the two styles can be confused. The French-style decor is more serious and selective when it comes to decorative accessories, so it is very important to be precise and selective.

Recommended article to read – “Super unique and useful ideas to decorate your living room French Country style“

French Country Style Décor

French Style Décor

Wrong fabric choices

French-style decor accompanies materials with delicate fabrics. While more thick and heavy fabrics are used in French Country decor. French Country is like a happier, snuggly version of French decor which is more serious and muted. French decor is all about delicacy and fashion with elegance while French Country is rustic and raw hence the fabric choices are different. These are sometimes confused in between.

Winding up with fake vintage décor

Vintage style decoration items and furniture are a huge part of French decor and finding the original and right kind of vintage items are important. If you are doing this for the first time you might end up buying fake vintage and wasting your money. The right way to find original vintage pieces is to follow some tips and tricks:

1.    Look for irregularities in furniture or any decorative piece you are buying. True vintage items are made in older times with hands or old machines. So, if your alleged vintage is perfect from every angle, it’s probably fake. 

2.    Look for structural integrity. The wood or metal used in older times were stronger and sturdy and the piece would also be strong and able to bear enough weight and stress. While a knockout would have a brittle quality of material trying to copy the original.

3.    Check for original, slow signs of wear and tear. You need to use analytical skills and should know the difference of distress in the furniture caused by artificial and natural ways. The original distressed piece would have more humble patterns of distressing. You can use steel wool to see what kind of pattern it makes on an item as a comparison.

4.    Gather as much information as you can about the origin of a piece. The year of its manufacturing and the country where it was made, and you can use the internet to match and check the facts about the kind of furniture that was made during a specific time in a specific country. The more you know the more it would be easy to tell fake from the original. 

Related Article “Small mistakes can ruin your french decor. Add these items to get the perfect french decor space.”

Not having a proper picture in your mind

French-style is an eclectic style of decor which means that the whole setting contains items from different sources. It can be traditional, vintage, and modern. So, you can get confused as to what to keep and where to keep it. It’s good to create a sketch, a mental picture, a balanced layout before jumping into the decoration part to get a clear perspective.

Wall patterns gone wrong

Moldings are lines and patterns of plaster and cement painted over that are a part of French decor. These moldings are easy to get wrong. There is a basic molding guide that you should be familiar with. 

There are three types of moldings

●        There is Primary trim. The basic molding connects the two corners or unrelated colors of walls. It is a necessity more than a style. 

●        Design enhancing trim to enhance the already basic primary trim to make it better. 

●        Then there is the decorative trim. It is the real deal, and its only purpose is to make the place more attractive with its designs and patterns. 

The places to use molding while going French 

●        The molding is used on the walls and ceilings. This includes chair rail, crown kind of molding, and then panel molding.

●        Molding in floors, doors, and windows is the secondary kind of molding which includes the casings and architraves.

●        The molding for general purposes includes corner molding, screen molding, and lattice. These are used for general decorations like updating the style of home office or shelves etc. 

These are some of the common pointers regarding molding in French decor which should not be overdone to make a mess. The most common molding out of all is the wall molding in French decor.

Recommended article – “10 Interiors Styles That Are Going Trendy In Upcoming Year“