Get their look: French Country rustic interior

French country rustic interiorcredit

Sometimes it’s quite easy to do one of our Get their look features. Often the furniture and accessories in our highlighted homes are brand new and available from the likes of IKEA, Dunelm and John Lewis. With this stunning French country rustic interior, everything is vintage, antique or one-of-a-kind.

There are a range of natural materials in evidence; bamboo chairs, linen curtains, raffia lampshades and terracotta tiles. I particularly love the collection of rattan mirrors, helping to bounce even more light around the dual-aspect sitting room.

The colour scheme that owner, Nathalie Rives has chosen for her country home in Centre is neutral and calm and the furniture is placed in such a way as to (rightly) make the open fire the focal point of the room.

Get their look

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Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Woven storage basket
Woven storage basket
Low stool with woven seat
Low stool with woven seat
Vintage cane chair
Vintage cane chair
Raffia lampshade
Raffia lampshade
Linen curtain
Linen curtain
Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Woven storage basket
Woven storage basket
Low stool with woven seat
Low stool with woven seat
Vintage cane chair
Vintage cane chair
Raffia lampshade
Raffia lampshade
Linen curtain
Linen curtain
Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Reclaimed French terracotta floor tiles
Woven storage basket
Woven storage basket
Low stool with woven seat
Low stool with woven seat
Vintage cane chair
Vintage cane chair
Raffia lampshade
Raffia lampshade
Linen curtain
Linen curtain

Designer Desire: Marcel Gromaire

Montage of Marcel Gromaire paintings | H is for Home

Marcel Gromaire (1892-1971) was a French fine artist and painter of buildings landscapes, portraits and nudes.

When dentist and art collector, Dr Maurice Girardin discovered Gromaire, he purchased his entire back catalogue. Unsurprisingly, Dr Girardin was also a supporter and patron of another of our favourite artists, Bernard Buffet. On his death,  Girardin had 110 Gromaires in his collection.

In 2011, Gromaire’s L’après-midi d’été (1930), sold at Sotheby’s in Paris for $295,477 USD.

If you can’t afford one of his originals, there are prints available on Etsy and eBay. In addition, there is a brilliant looking book – Marcel Gromaire: L’élégance de la force – available on Amazon.

Portrait of Marcel Gromairecredit

Additional image credits:

Christies | Invaluable

Designer Desire: Fernand Nathan

Montage of vintage children's educational games and books

At first, we thought that Fernand Nathan was an individual… but we could find no information about, or image of, the man. Then we realised that Fernand Nathan is actually the publisher. Perhaps a bit like the Ladybird books, the authors and illustrators were often of secondary consideration.

Lise Marin was one of the few book illustrators that was named; she was responsible for the imagery for the ‘Ploum and Ploumette’, early ‘Daniel and Valérie’ characters and ‘Je joue…’ series.

As well as books, Fernand Nathan produced other educational toys and games such as dominoes, rubber stamp kits, jigsaws, crosswords, card games and posters. We have one of their games, Loto du Marché for sale in our shop at the moment.

Some of the works remind us of another French illustration duo of the era that we love, Lefor Openo.

Image credits:

eBay | Etsy

Designer Desire: André Hellé

Montage of André Hellé illustrations | H is for Home

André Hellé (1871-1945), real name d’André Laclôtre, was a French cartoonist, lithographer, author & book illustrator and toy maker.

Most of all, I love his illustrations of animals from children’s book,  Noah’s Ark (L’arche de Noé) originally published in 1911. In the same year, he also made toy figures of the ark and animals for which he won the la médaille d’or et le diplôme d’honneur from la Société d’encouragement à l’art et à l’industrie (The Society for the Encouragement of Art and Industry).

He illustrated and did the libretto for the original score of La Boîte à Joujoux, a children’s opera by Claude Debussy.

Many 1st editions and reprints of the books André Hellé wrote and illustrated are available from AbeBooks and Amazon.

Portrait of André Hellécredit

Additional image credits:

Amis de Hellé | Ma Galerie à Paris | Pinterest