French Provincial Sofa’s and Settees
Achieving the authentic feel of a period-styled room is usually accomplished by staging the right period furniture. With authentic or reproduction pieces your room can be transformed to a French cottage or a luxurious French chateau.
Upholstery is usually the easiest ways of creating the mood in the room, and does push the envelope from a decorated room to a professionally designed room.
French sofas are generally something you can find easily since many reproductions were made in the 1960’s. There are so many designs, so pick one you absolutely love.
French provincial sofas from the 1960’s often featured satin fabrics, and a mix of baroque fabric, which are generally out of date, which means you will have to factor in upholstery costs.
Your fabric alone can make your room signal an antique feel, or formal style, or relaxed family home, so your fabric consideration is very important when you want to make a statement.
When considering fabric, limit your selections to upholstery fabric than curtain fabrics and so forth. Upholstering a chair or a couch alone can be a large job all on its own if you are doing it by yourself, and can be pretty costly, so be sure to pick a fabric that lasts long, and wears slowly over time.
Natural fabrics are the way to go. Velvets, and heavier fabrics will age well with the slight coffee spills over time.
French Settees can be the easiest to upholster because often they have a back and a seat and no complications compared to the modern sofas.
Some of the prettiest settees are found with the cane backs which can be left alone, or sprayed gold, or painted white or cream and antiqued with brown glaze.
A settee is a couch that is a double or triple seater bench with a wooden back and wooden arms. Along with sofas, accent chairs are often underestimated, but can do wonders in creating a well designed room.
19th Century French Louis XV Style Sofa
French Settee From JED
Vivacious French Settee in Burnt Orange Silk
Drew Barrymore’s French Inspired LA Office
Interior designer Ruthie Sommers designed this one of a kind office for super maga star Drew Barrymore seen in Domino Magazine. “I’m not a paper pusher,” Barrymore says. “My goal is to be creative, which is why my work space is playful and full of images that are thought-provoking and inspire me.”
“Drew decorates intuitively. She falls in love with individual pieces—and somehow they always end up working together,” says designer Ruthie Sommers.
A linen-covered corkboard serves as a map of the actor-producer-director’s mind and inherently collage-y aesthetic. Drew’s office is a mixture of her favorite things she says, and when it is all combined together, it just works!
Questions for Drew Barrymore – How did you connect with Ruthie?
From the first issue of domino. She was on the cover, holding her dog—she looked like a cool chick. I saw what she had done with her own home, and it was the exact same aesthetic I was drawn to, so we met and I realized we really did see eye to eye. That started the renovation process and a wonderful, inspiring friendship.
Ruthie says that all of you could open an interior-design company together.
Fun is always the first order of business. We get so much pleasure from having a vision and then seeing it through. To have something in your mind and then watch it come alive is so thrilling.
Your office incorporates a variety of styles. What’s your favorite piece?
I believe you can combine anything. I love my globe, record player and horseshoe, and I’m crazy for my antique gold scissors and my Lucite stepladder that has two bronze deer bookends on it.
Primitive & Proper’s Perfect French Provincial Painted Furniture
Cassie Bustamante and Theresa Carver now owners of Primitive and Proper, a successful restoration business,met by chance through a Craigslist transaction a number of years ago and wouldn’t consider anything else they would rather do than paint furniture.
One email lead to the next and the two were exchanging ideas and eventually teamed up together refinishing wood furniture, that had once seen better days.
Located in Virginia where antiques surface often, Theresa brings a unique edge growing up in North Yorkshire, England which is known for their antique gems and painted furniture. Both are busy mothers find time to paint after their children go to bed, get their inspiration from their children’s playfulness, and hope to pass on their treasures to moms looking for a creative piece for their growing children’s rooms.
Their selection of painted furniture range from cottage styles, to old world black polished pieces, to French painted furniture.
Primitive and Proper search all over Virginia, DC, and Maryland for their unique furniture finds, but they also work on commission if you want a custom painted piece of furniture. Having a large gallery of pictures, a person can certainly get ideas from their wide selection of sold pieces.
This gorgeous curvy French Provincial dresser was painted by Primitive and Proper. The beautiful blue and distressing really gives an attractive look to this mid size french chest.
Q: How can amateur painters accomplish this beautiful professional finish you achieved with these two nightstands? Do you have any tips for first time painters wanting a unique look for their furniture using paint?
Cassie- “I would not consider myself a professional painter as in some sense I use the good ol’ fashioned method. I do not have a sprayer, as many furniture painters do, and do everything by hand. With that being said, it is very important to invest in good quality brushes for a smooth look as well as good primer.
I use zinnser, which smells awful, but works beautifully. I have found with zinnser I only need to lightly sand the piece to be painted. Once it has been sanded, the primer is brushed on by hand and it is very important to follow the direction of the wood and go in nice straight lines. You can “feather” as you brush on so that you won’t see where you lifted the brush off of the piece.
Once the primer has dried, you can use another coat of primer, which I do in the case of white pieces. After the second coat of primer, I begin painting and use just latex paint.
I prefer to use Sherwin and Williams harmony paint which is low voc, cost efficient, and good quality.
I personally prefer the eggshell finish, which was used on these tables. Again, follow the same brush strokes as your primer for a smooth and even look. After the piece has been painted with 2-4 coats of paint, the edges are distressed by hand with 80-120 grit sandpaper.
Some sites will recommend higher grit, but i prefer the lower grit and just move my hands very rapidly as I distress to avoid getting scratchy marks (if you do get these marks, you can touch them up).
Once it has been distressed and wiped clean with a damp paper towel, I sometimes choose to antique it, as was the case with these nightstands, to give it a more old world look.
There are specialty glazes you can purchase, but I use my trusty minwax stain and brush it on, and then wipe off with a rag, again following the lines of the paint. You can use as many coats of stain as you need to achieve the desired look.”