French furniture continues to set the standard for elegance in properties, from ornate wooden tables and chairs, perfect for hosting classy dinner parties, to bedroom furniture fit for a Parisian king. You no longer have to be royal to benefit from beautiful furnishings, with French furniture in the classic style available to give exquisite flair to every room in your house – from the lounge to the conservatory.
With a rich cultural heritage underlying the various types of furniture produced by the nation, the term ‘French furniture’ can be misleadingly broad – there is no single style of French furniture, but rather an assortment of distinctive regional varieties. The Parisian style is perhaps the best known,expanding beyond the capital in the late 17th century to become a standard in many other European countries before reaching British shores. While the mechanics of the Industrial Revolution diminished its popularity in favour of furniture that was cheaper and more convenient to produce, the ornate stylings and durable materials of Parisian furniture have seen the style remain a top choice for luxury furnishings.
More decadent still is the tradition of French royal furniture, popularised in the beautiful Palace of Versailles where silver smiths fashioned such eye-catching furnishings as those in the Galerie desGlaces. That’s not to ignore the achievements of provincial master craftsmen in towns such as Lyonand Liège, however, whose efforts helped to bring artistic French furniture out of the domain of therich and privileged to the masses.
La Rochelle Furniture
Still a hallmark of elegance, you can find French furniture suitable for all rooms in your home – from public areas such as the lounge, which canbe transformed with fashionable cabinets and coffee tables, to the private abode of the bedroom,where a French four poster bed could bring all the luxury of a high-class suite into your daily life. Your garden can even benefit from a fancy French makeover, replacing cheap or unfashionable garden chairs and tables with something classier to show the neighbours your impressive sense of style. Another area you might wish to explore to enhance your property is French mirrors, which can add depth and light to your home and make eye-catching additions to any hallway. From convenient table mirrors to larger cast iron mirrors to bring true Venetian style to your rooms, French mirrors can beused to great effect to complement your other stylish furniture, cast in the inimitable French mould.
