Since we started The French House, over 25 year ago, we have made countless trips to France, sourcing the hard to find, restoring the ‘past its best’ and keeping our prices low and stock current with trends.
Here’s a few of our favourite ‘must-haves’ and advice on recreating this French style in your home.
We have lots of mirrors in our home above fireplaces, in the kitchen, bedrooms and hallways of different shapes and sizes. They are like hanging a piece of art in your home, whilst creating additional light and adding space to a room. We have over 100 mirrors in stock, in varying styles, sizes and price. We keep our website up to date with new stock as it arrives and include dimensions, to make it easier for customers to get the right mirror for their home and space.
Our dining table is not only where we have our meals and entertain, but we find ourselves often working from too. We love the rich tone of oak, which just gets better with age. We always have a large stock of tables available and if we don’t have what you are looking for, we can try to source one on a buying trip or alternatively we can make bespoke tables using beautiful old boards. The team can advise on size, but we recommend you allow at least 50cm per person, so a table like this 18th Century oak table with stretcher measuring 150cm, would seat 8 people, three at each side and one at each end.
With upholstery it is important to look at the shape of the piece and not the current covering or condition. We work with a team of crafts people who can bring an old chair back to life, using the best traditional methods to strengthen the frame, re-spring, stuff and finally recover. If a piece is in good condition, we will offer it ‘as is’ but can always quote for the re-upholstery. We have lots of fabrics that customers can choose from, or they can supply their own. With a little bit of vision, beautifully crafted pieces are given a new lease of life.
We have lots of chandeliers and wall lights in our home. Some are essential to provide light, others are for decorative purposes like the wall and candle sconces. We love the pretty details of French lighting like these beaded cherub lights (below) which are hanging in our York home.
We have used reclaimed panelling in our house in France (right) and in our main living room and snug (painted dark green - below) in York.
It can be a little bit like fitting together a jigsaw without all the pieces, but so worth it for the finished result. We have enjoyed experimenting with colour, being bold can have a dramatic effect.
In one bedroom, we needed to create storage, so repurposed these lovely shutters, which look like they were always there.
