Romancing Your Home

Next month's Valentine’s Day is lovely, but why reserve romance for just one day of your year? This year determine to create a different kind of romance by making your daily life more romantic just by adding some special touches to your decorating. Romancing Your Home is important for your soul. Many of us are so preoccupied and busy with daily chores, work, and life, that we don’t really take enough time to do small, special things that make our spaces feel memorable. This year let's create beauty around us for our well being, because we can all lead a more beautiful life!

ROMANCING YOUR HOME

Here are a few ways to inspire you!

DELIGHT IN EVERY MEAL

Daily meals can be a restful special time, whether you share your table with your whole family, or serve up something healthy and nutritious for yourself. Europeans do this so well, they set their table with a cloth, real plates and linen napkins for every meal. It's a way to treat yourself and those who are eating with you to a serene spot in your busy day. If you are in the mood, surprise by using your silver, your best dishes and real napkins.

Antique Linens | New Linens

I learned so much about eating a nice meal from my European grandmama, and copy her style here at FrenchGardenHouse. She would not approve of paper plates, or eating "on the run" standing up or anything else that didn't include all of us sitting down on a cloth covered table, with silver flatware, and time to enjoy the meal and each other. Even though I often cheat {sorry, grandmama!} and use placemats like these or these, the table is still set and pretty. Sometimes I mix it up, serving a hamburger and fries on really great dishes, for example. {And, this is for my children, why YES....take out DOES taste better when you plate it, rather than eating it out of the box!!} Serve water in goblets, drop in a raspberry, or a sprig of rosemary from the garden. It makes it look so good, and adds to the joy of your day. Or for a special meal, make this delicious Delicious Strawberry Smash Cocktail.

CREATE DAILY RITUALS

Whenever you are in a charming B & B or upscale hotel, it makes you feel pampered to be served coffee or tea from a silver pot. You can do the same thing at home, a vintage hotel silver pot or antique silver tea pot is just the thing! Drinking out of a delicate cup at coffee or tea time makes both taste better, just trust me on that. Simple macarons bought at the market look very fancy by presenting them in a large footed glass goblet. By treating yourself and your family like guests, it elevates even the most daily rituals like drinking coffee in the morning.

Antique Silver | Antique Porcelain

THE POWER OF FLOWERS

If you've read me for any length of time, or visited our once a month Monday Morning Blooms, you know that I firmly believe in the power of flowers! Treat yourself to a bouquet of flowers when you are in the grocery store or at your favorite flower stand/shop. It's a very easy and sure fire way for romancing your home! You can go big, like I did in this glorious light blue pitcher. Another way to use an inexpensive bouquet or flowers from your garden is to make several small vases. You can tuck these little vases into unexpected places, like a bedroom nightstand, your bookshelf, or in your guest bathroom. I added some white iceberg roses from our garden to the antique hand vases for a little touch of floral therapy in our master bedroom.

Petite Hand Vase | Antique French Opaline Hand Vase |Antique French Glass Hand Vase

Finally, not all your flowers need to be real, lifelike artificial flowers are a wonderful option for places where real ones are not going to thrive. {Or if you can't take the time to refresh all those bouquets on a weekly basis!} The wreath shown below adds plenty of romance to the French armoire. We have beautiful designer florals for you to place in your decor for floral beauty- no watering required!

French Country Woods Wreath

PAMPER YOU A LITTLE

Do you have a special place to display all your pretty perfumes, or make-up you love? My French antique vanity is the place where I sit and put on my make-up. I have a collection of antique crystal and silver perfume bottles and vanity jars, and they add to the glamor! This makes it so much better to get ready for the day, or for a special evening. It beats hanging over the bathroom mirror and grabbing things out of the drawer. I've found a lovely light scent I can wear that I love too....I am really sensitive to perfumes but this one doesn't give me a headache, so it's one I adore! Since we remodeled our master bathroom, I have moved the vanity to inside of the bathroom, and I love it! It's where I put on my make-up, spritz on my favorite perfume, and whenever I sit there, I feel very special. {I know - it's a little silly!} A silver tray holds my perfume bottles, powders etc. and I delight in this little space every time I use it. That's what it should be like, you should LOVE your own personal pampering space! A few pretty sparkly antique vanity pieces will make you feel like a princess.

Shop Vanity

USE YOUR FAVORITES

You know I am a firm believer in having your antique favorites OUT where you and everyone who lives with your or visits you can enjoy them! Layer them up, like I have for this "mini" bar set up. A few glasses, a bottle of French Lillet, an antique Blue WIllow Platter on top of an antique silver tray, toss on a napkin for spills, and it's fabulous to welcome guests! I know some of our clients use their large platters in their kitchens to hold their salts, olive oils and vinegars by the stove. Others use some of their favorite platters in the bathroom for soaps, a candle and a little bundle of antique guest towels. Don't keep your favorite antiques in the closet because their intended purpose is serving a large turkey once a year!

Blue & White Platters

Romancing Your Home is the time you take to make your home a little bit more of a haven. It's lighting candles, fluffing the pillows, and editing your decor so that you only have the things in it that you really love. It's thoughtfully arranging your collections, adding favorite photos to pretty frames, and making your home as welcoming as you can! It will lift your heart and your spirit!

Do Your Have a tip for Romancing Your Home?

A BIENTOT

Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com