French Country Fall |Why I love to bHOME in the FALL TOUR
Welcome to my French Country Fall Home! Today I'm joining 5 other creative bHome bloggers {there are 30 in total this week} to share ideas and inspiration for Fall decorating.
I am so happy to be part of the Why I love to bHome in the Fall Tour where 30 of the most creative bHome bloggers are sharing ideas and inspiration for Fall decorating!
I'm so excited you are joining me, I love it when you visit FrenchGardenHouse.
Please open the front gate and come in!
Fall, in all its splendor and glory, is my favorite season to decorate for. In southern California, we have cool, crisp mornings, warm sunny afternoons with a breeze, and early colder evenings.
Our local farmer's markets offer up glorious pumpkins in creamy whites, soft greens and the classic orange, they are the perfect natural addition to our garden and home.
For those of you who have never visited before, let's sit in the front garden and get to know each other. Right through our front gate is this enclosed garden, with a Provence feel {maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part} where we can sit and enjoy the morning sun, have a steaming cup of cafe au lait, and one of these petit pumpkin treats.
It doesn't take much to add some fall color to your garden, a wooly throw, mums, and a few leaves can set the scene.
I left the wood table bare, except for this cozy throw. The little tarts are on one of my favorite antique breadboards, it has "welcome" carved on one side.
Cafe au Lait bowls, an antique French enamelware pitcher for cream, and my favorite ruffled linen napkins serve us in simple French Country style.
I lit the candle in the lantern, I love candle light any time of day, not just when it's dark!
Please come in! I love being home in the fall because this is the season that pulls at our heart to cozy things up at home for the colder months.
I usually decorate with all natural elements, just add flowers, feathers and pumpkins to the antiques and call it done until Christmas decorating begins.
All these simple, natural decorating ideas are just as appropriate for Thanksgiving.
Through my front door, you step right into our living room.
The white mantel is decorated simply for the season with dried hydrangeas from our garden filling the antique English transferware tureen.
I bought the pottery pumpkins at a discount store, they are happily displayed with antique Wedgwood candlesticks and a bouquet of pheasant feathers in an ironstone creamer.
Underneath the mantel, my santos is holding a little wreath I made from my favorite faux miniature pumpkin garland I've had forever and adore.
It's just a small, very simple touch of fall.
This is the first year in a long time that I've chosen to decorate our neutral interior with the color pumpkin. Inspired by this woolen blanket with colors of ochre and pumpkin,
I was ready for a "warm up" this season. I love how the pillows and the throw make the living room sofa quite a cozy spot. The autumn pumpkin color plays off the neutrals, and compliments the framed antique French documents in the gold frames.
The black antique display case on the wall holds my collection of antique silver napkin rings.
Here is another shot of the living room. This time I cut some branches from the gingko tree for the table. I also added some more dried hydrangeas to the tureen on the mantel, because they were ready.
This Heirloom Needlepoint Pumpkin is the genius creation of my friend Sharon, she creates these from heirloom antique and vintage needlepoints.
On one side of our sofa, my favorite stack of nesting tables is topped with an Italian Florentine tray, another piece "for sale" that stuck around here. The nesting tables are antique, and the very top one lost it's glass insert. The tray makes it so that guests can easily set a cup of earl grey or a glass of merlot on it without damaging the leather top.
In front of the living room windows, I've thrown an antique paisley over the chair. This is the perfect place to snuggle in with a good book!
Our back garden has quite a large gathering of birds every day, listening to them makes me smile, and reminds me of Europe where we grew up. We don't live in the country, but those birds in our garden give the illusion that we do! {not that I get to spend much time here sitting around}
I love being in the living room, especially in the fall when there is a fire in the fireplace. But most of the time we live in our kitchen - family room.
My darling Mr. Cochon over the stove is wearing a swag of miniature pumpkin garland. {Buying good quality faux garland is an investment, but I've used this for over 8 years already, and still love it!}
My French Country kitchen has a large table right in the middle, surrounded by six antique chairs. We added the two new black chairs as our family grew. My fall display on the table is "at the ready" to serve dessert, I keep it set up like this unless we have guests over for dinner.
I piled pumpkins in different colors in the large antique French bowl. The pie? Well, you may have guessed that's not normally there, as it gets eaten once it's cooled down.
But the plates, the forks in the ironstone pitcher, the bowls and the plates remain at the ready for dessert service, handy for sharing a treat with coffee when a friend drops by.
Here is a close-up of my handsome pig!
I love my farm sink, it's so handy to fill with bunches of flowers from the garden. The high chair is from when our girls were small, now their children like to sit in it at the table for crafts and meals.
It holds our French bottle carrier, which is one of the most hard working antiques you can ever own! I use it to transport bottles from the storage to the kitchen, to tote bottles of Lillet and glasses out to the garden, and as a centerpiece on the table with bottles filled with flowers. It's truly a workhorse!
Here is the other side of the kitchen, the family room part. The large armoire is filled with ironstone right now, and some of the antique French Madonnas I sell in my shop.
I keep this tray set with cups, honey straws and my special Hazelnut Crunch Tea. It makes entertaining so much easier, to have something set up and ready to go for when friends stop in.
The large green tea canisters are from Betjeman & Barton, the French tea shop in Paris. As soon as I can bear to part with them, they'll be in the shop. All I need is to do is boil water, put some tea in the antique tea strainer and I'm ready to share a cup of warm, delicious autumn tea with my guests. Smell that delicious scent of our Current Verte candle? It fills our whole kitchen with the scent of Provence, with the scent of apples, pear and currant berries.
Here is my favorite French Country table setting for fall. I layered these linen runners over our farm table, and filled an antique copper French fish steamer with more dried hydrangeas from the garden and several different sizes of pumpkins.
For the place setting I mixed antique French plates with my favorite {and yours, too!} blue gingham plates, set those on gold chargers to mix in a metallic touch and anchor everything. Antique French flatware, French glasses for wine and water, and our new napkins in black linen complete each setting.
Here it is without the gold chargers, much as I love metallic gold, I almost like it like this better, do you? Those antique French ink pots are perfect to add more French Country charm to the table.
Before you leave, I'll give you a peek into our master bedroom. We bought this antique bed years ago to sell, but decided to keep it, I still love it. My linens are simple, the pure linen duvet, the soft velvet comforter and the linen Bonne Nuit pillow all come from our shop.
The colors are soft muted greys, beiges, white and gold. The restful colors makes it easier to add a seasonal color. I love the linen pillow.
My French antique vanity is right in front of the window. The elegant legs and the hand carved detailing make this a special piece I will never get rid of.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit. Before you leave, let's have a quick peek in the back garden.
Our garden doesn't look amazing in the fall, so I make sure there are small pretty spots to look at. Like this fall vignette on the potting table out back.
The colors of autumn go so well with the antique French zinc body pitcher. One huge bonus of being an antique dealer is that I get to play with the antiques until they sell and get sent to their new homes!
I love to be home in the fall. I am going away on a buying trip in October to Europe for 10 days, and I am so looking forward to that. To walk down the boulevards with the wind blowing {hopefully softly!} and people dressed in their chic fall clothing.
Meeting with some of my good antique dealer friends. And catching up with family. But really? Especially in the fall, my heart is at home.
How about you? Why do you love to be home in the fall?
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Jill Pacho
September 28, 2016
Beautiful home, impeccable taste and fabulous antiques. Makes me want to go directly to your wonderful website and buy something