The French Fetish and the Louvre: My future home

When I begun my journey in interior design I too LOVED 'French Provincial'. In every house I wanted white walls, antique white wood and burnt oak, pretty white plates, wooden floor boards, farm sinks. The answer to everything was french french FRENCH!!

As my journey through design continued I realised how uneducated I was in my taste.
Side note: I have come to see that many people who are not educated in design fall onto the design of French provincial. After all it is the largest selling design concept in most generic stores....

Interior design has taught me a very important lesson - the hard way might I add - that I can also apply to life I guess. Never be limited by what already exists. This was probably the hardest thing for me to get my head around.

The first time I saw this was on Kelly Hoppen's T.V series 'Superior Interior' where she created a loft design bedroom within a space, that at amateur glance, would not have thought to be possible.

The second time was more practical, when I was redesigning the office space EDT Global (for the competition that I didn't enter in the end because of this trip :s...oh well shame for them).
I remember sitting with Rob Meyerson both of us starring in silence at the current floor plan. I was literally thinking inside the box, literally! Studying the walls, all of them, permanent and not, thinking only of furniture movement, wall colours and other smaller detailing.
Rob on the other hand said "this is so stupid, knock that wall down" pointing to wall running through the entire office. It was at that moment my entire view on design changed. Your only as limited as your knowledge and Rob has literally knocked down the walls of the box in which I was inside of. Never again will I be trapped inside of it - thanks Rob!

But it didn't stop there, my 'love' - or what I  thought was love - of French provincial began to change. Thanks to modern manufacturing and globalisation (well at least thanks in this department) almost every material is now within arms reach - :O!! The possibilities are seriously endless.

So before my trip I begun to steer far far away from my former lover of the French Provincial and more towards; concrete, the modern mixed with the ancient, white wooden floors, metal framed dining tables slabbed with a large chunk of raw wood on top and the list is obviously endles. It steams beyond one period or one material. ALL my walls have broken down, all walls of what I didn't see as limitations; the physical and the unembodied.

Now I can create a room with stunning concrete floors, eclectic blood red rugs running across the bottom of the kitchen bench top with that's shiny cupboards and bench tops with white with copper detailing. Seee?? so many mixed materials it makes me so excited!!

But, ho hum, it seems I just may have come full circle and this is where my trip, my mind and my blog come together.

It was during my tour through the louvre I saw my future house. Yes thats right, I plan on my house being a small, small, probably tiny tiny sort of replica to that magnificent place...only with a twist. Unfortunately I was restricted by time...something my mind hasn't figured out how to destroy the limitations of...yet....so my feet did not cover the entire floor space of the Louvre.
Nonetheless it ignited an unknown love of french gothic artwork, high detailed ceilings and dramatic colours, like what you see in the picture below.

Love the colour palate. Both roof and flooring

Hard to see but the red behind this painting covered the entire wall and somehow complimented each and every picture in that room

 

But again my need to go beyond my initial thought kicked in...and this is my new vision for the house in Bondi I will never be able to afford...but will work my ass off trying to get. Well so far its only my entrance hallway.

The entire floor of the hallway is concrete with a long cream wicker carpet running the length of the hall surrounded by a deep blue or red (inspired by the above) boarder and gothic artwork running along the walls!!!! lighting and wall colour TBA :) Obviously it's a ridiculously long hallway (my little shrine to the Louvre) and also incredibly high ceilings (a girl can dream). Sooo, whattchya think??

And that my friends is why this post is titled 'The French Fetish', somehow, no matter the period, they seem to know what they're doing.

Au revior!