Design is personal – even a wonderfully designed room won’t appeal to everyone.  Today we’re examining three French Country rooms created by well know designer Charles Faudree.  By sharing our likes and dislikes with you we hope to encourage your evaluation.   Let us know what you think about these rooms too – do you give them a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down?”

Charles Faudree’s French Country Rooms

Faudree once said, “Every room should have a touch of red, and every house should have a red room.”  These rooms he designed illustrate this statement. 

Charles Faudree designs a French Country dining room.

French Country sitting room and bedroom by Faudree.

Thumbs Up From Terrie

Well, thumbs up may be a bit of an overstatement.  I subscribe to the philosophy that we can learn from any room even if we don’t love the overall look.  French Country is definitely not my style, but these rooms are good represenations of the look.  French Country is typified by floral patterns, mixing patterns, decorative finishes like antiquing, gilding and metals with an aged patina, furniture with curves and beautiful antiques.

The dining room offers a couple of lessons:  1)  great use of pattern scale on the dining chairs – the front of the chairs is overscale and bold but balanced by the much smaller plaid on the backs;  2)  a dramatic representation of symmetry in the wall decor placement (I talked about symmetry in this post too) - look at that collection of plates and how perfectly balanced it is;  3) the spark of just a touch of blue as an accent color is carried throughout the room.

Unfortunately I don’t find much inspiration in the sitting room – the patterns are too similar in scale and color (actually seem to fight each other), the little art pieces by the armoire are too small, the reds don’t seem to work with the tile color.  As for the bedroom, it’s much more appealing.  A great mix of pattern with the toile, the oversize plaid and the wide, soft stripes.  Again, the symmetry is spot on and the antique chests add a special charm.

While these rooms are a little TOO red for me (who absolutely loves red)and a little too froofy (is that how you would spell this made up word?), I did find them intriguing.   I wonder if you’ll be able to find an idea or two in them that you can apply to your own home.

Thumbs Down From Cindy

In my opinion the dining room perfectly illustrates Faudree’s favorite principal that “too much is never enough.”  Well, I can tell you it’s too much for me!  I agree he’s a master at layering prints, patterns, color and texture – but this room is on overload.

When I first looked at the dining room photo my eyes careened all around, bouncing from print to print, accessory to accessory, and feeling rather hyper without a place to stop and rest.  I don’t know how the woman in the painting can look so serene with the kaleidoscope of visual activity spinning around her.

The dining room furniture selections are lovely as are the many pieces of wall art but nothing stands out to me in the sea of print.  Imagine if Faudree had decided “enough is enough” before getting to the print wall paper and instead painted the wall a solid color.  I think that would help my nerves and better showcase the art and furniture too.  I feel the same way about the photo of the sitting area too – with print everywhere and a vast number of small items including rows of books, small hanging art and accessories even sitting on the floor.

His bedroom design is much more comfortable to me.  I think the biggest difference is the wall covering.  The stripe is so soft it’s almost not there – very different from the wall coverings in the other rooms.  It seems he decided “enough!”  I also like the large scale gingham on the two chairs flanking the bed because the large amount of white helps – if it were smaller scale gingham it would appear busier and I would like it less.  The mostly white lampshades also provide a break in the pattern and add some restfulness.

Knowing when to stop decorating a room is important.  Even if every individual selection is beautiful and works well with al lthe other pieces, at some point the line is crossed from exceptional to excess.  For me too much is too much!

Could You Live In These Rooms?

What do you think?  Do you like or dislike these rooms and could you live in them or not?  You’ve heard our opinions – now let us hear yours.  Send us your comments!