One of the most appealing things about European travel is the glimpse it affords of a gracious, Continental lifestyle that we Americans admire and often seek to emulate, without fully knowing how.
There are the beautifully set tables and elegantly served meals, the simply yet perfectly decorated niches and guest rooms, the effortlessly light conversation.
Conventional wisdom has it that these flourishes come from customs handed down through the generations, from breeding, from style.
Things that, most would say, can’t be taught.
Enter Cheryl MacLachlan. an American who spent a lot of time in Europe and aspired to recreate the charming home life she experienced there back in the States.
The result is a series of books, the first of which, called “Bringing France Home” ($40), is being published this month by Clarkson Potter.
MacLachlan says her aim is to give her readers detailed advice on how the French do everything, from setting a great table to hanging a curtain to creating just the right distance between chairs at a dining table. Along the way, she to these customs so that you learn quite a bit about French culture–how the closeness of the chairs, for instance shows the importance conversation has in the country’s family and social life.
To read this book is to pry into the corners of French homes; it offers a real but rare insight into how things are done. MacLachlan allows the reader to turn over the plates, finger the fabrics and look behind doors in a way no polite guest ever could.
Although French decorators would probably not like to hear it, MacLachlan has actually narrowed down the national style into four characteristics. What makes a French home French, she says, is the way it makes use of texture, light, scale and color.
Texture is achieved through rich, usually patterned fabrics like jacquard or toile de Jouy, which cover everything–including windows, tables and walls. Light is often filtered through diaphanous curtains or low-wattage lamps and candles that give a warm, soft feel to a room.
The use of overscale objects helps give rooms character: A massive oil painting in a gilded frame handed down from ancestors dominates a salon; a pair of giant amphora give elegance to a dining corner. In cities such as Paris, where apartments and rooms tend to be very small, the use of scale has developed out of necessity, MacLachlan explains.
The fourth element, color, is used on every surface, even on floors and moldings. “Nothing is ever left white by default,” she says.
With dozens of color photographs taken by Ivan Terestchenko, a photographer and illustrator based in Paris, the book is filled with illuminating examples, many of them from the homes of well-known hostesses and interior designers.
Though aimed at American readers in particular, her decorating advice is valid for anyone trying to achieve a French interior style. Don’t worry about things matching, she counsels; her book shows some very beautiful bedrooms, for instance, where the night stands and lamps are different, yet still harmonious, or inviting table settings using several different patterns of china.
Even the completely clueless can find easy-to-follow advice here. There are sections providing brief, illustrated guides to French fabrics, furniture of different periods, and an explanation of table manners (keep your hands, but not elbows, on the table; don’t use a fork to eat cheese).
MacLachlan also includes tips on how to buy food at a market and a few sample dinner menus, with recipes.
Texture to life
“This is a very interesting book. She’s acquired a great deal of knowledge and it’s quite accurate,” says Corinne Wiley, a San Francisco-based interior designer who works frequently with European and American clients, particularly using traditional styles.
She agrees with MacLachlan’s emphasis on fine fabrics and a mixture of colors. “You can tell a lot about a country by their interior design,” says Wiley. “The French have a wonderful way of combining color, texture and fabrics. That’s one reason French women dress so beautifully.”
How does an American become expert enough on such details?
MacLachlan, 39, first got the bug in the 1980s, when she was associate publisher of Esquire magazine and responsible for its offices in Paris, London and Milan. She would travel to Europe four or five times a year.
“I fell in love with Europe. Every time I returned to New York, I would be depressed for a couple of days,” she says. “There is a certain texture to life in Europe that’s missing in the United States.
“I began to wonder if I could recreate here what I found so pleasing about life in Europe.”
MacLachlan, a Massachusetts native who studied physiology in college and worked as a medical researcher at Yale University before going into publishing, dusted off her research skills and spent long hours studying French customs and history. She picked up practical tips by spending a year in France, observing the French at home.
“I spent time living with French families. I would go to the market with them, help them make the beds and set the tables,” she says. “All the things that tourists never get to do.”
When in Italy …
She did the same for the second book in the series, “Bringing Italy Home” ($40), which is out this month. Although both France and Italy share Latin roots and are often grouped together, homes in the two countries have strikingly different styles.
Unlike the cozy homes of the French, Italians prefer space, clean lines and very distinct silhouettes.
“Italy still reflects the Romans in some ways,” MacLachlan says. “There are lots of right angles, clean lines and always the feeling of space.”
Light is very important to Italians, she adds, saying that they prefer harsher, brighter light more akin to their Mediterranean sun. “There are many more polished surfaces than in France, and Italians don’t cover everything with fabrics. The floors are often left bare, for example,” she says, adding that this is made possible by the warmer climate.
“Bringing Italy Home” includes a guide on pronouncing Italian names and, not surprisingly, a detailed discussion of food.
Next stop, Sweden
Currently, MacLachlan is at work on a third volume in the series, “Bringing Sweden Home,” which is scheduled for publication next winter. England is likely to be next on the list.
She says that the Swedish style–one she only half-jokingly describes as Ikea with a touch of 18th Century elegance inspired under King Gustav III–is probably the easiest to recreate in an American home: “It’s very light, refined and linked to nature. Sweden was not a wealthy country like France, and people had to figure out how to do things in clever ways,” says MacLachlan. She sees similarities between Swedish furniture and the pure, simple lines of American Shaker works.
Still, creating a replica of another country’s style from A to Z isn’t really what MacLachlan says she had in mind with her books. “You don’t necessarily want to copy what others do,” cautions MacLachlan. “The most important thing is to create an environment that nourishes your own life.”
CREATE THAT FRENCH FEELING
So you want to bring France home? Here are some practical tips from Cheryl MacLachlan’s book “Bringing France Home” (Clarkson Potter, $40):
– If your budget or available bedroom space does not permit the installation of an antique French baldachin (canopy), you can re-create the same cozy feeling by building and draping an alcove. Place the head of the bed against a wall. Using plywood, box out a section of ceiling over the bed about 16 inches high and 24 inches deep. Purchase enough fabric to upholster the box and suspend drapes from either end. Drapes should be lined. Tie back drapes on either side of the headboard.
– Rather than upholstering your walls, consider draping one or more walls. The fabric can either be suspended like a curtain and allowed to tumble freely to the floor, or it may be gathered along narrow rods both at top and along the bottom for a shirred effect.
– If your kitchen does not allow for overhead racks from which to hang pots and pans, consider transforming a cabinet into a hutch. Select an above-counter cabinet that has at least two and a half feet vertical space, remove the doors and shelves and attach a metal grid to the cabinet’s inside back wall large enough to cover the entire vertical surface. Then, using metal S-hooks, hang your pots on the metal grid and stack extras on the bottom shelf. You will now have both easy access to your cookware and the visual texture provided by its varied shapes and materials.
FOR LOVERS OF THINGS THAT ARE ITALIAN
Details in flooring and bedding all can contribute to your success in bringing Italy home. Here is some of “Bringing Italy Home” author Cheryl MacLachlan’s advice:
– For a less expensive substitute for terrazzo, a simulated vinyl “terrazzo” containing marble chips is now available in many different colorations. This vinyl flooring product has the advantages of easy installation and a relatively moderate cost of less than $8 per square foot; it is also softer and warmer underfoot than real terrazzo. It is particularly well-suited to entrance halls, kitchens and laundry rooms.
– To create a spacious feeling, evaluate your current furnishings with a critical eye. Are there chairs, small tables or lamps that do not receive regular use? Could they be removed to create more unobstructed space? Are there table drapes, pictures or objects displayed that you are not really in love with? Over the years we tend to accumulate more clutter than we realize, and, in fact, there may be quite a bit of space in your home for you to reclaim.
– The strategic use of veneer and objects made of stone, tile, marble and wrought iron can enhance the feeling of noble materials in your home. A fireplace mantel and surround can be resurfaced with marble. Architectural salvage yards often contain treasures that can be integrated into the interior. For example, a section of a wrought-iron balcony railing can be covered with a piece of glass and made into a dining table or coffee-table top, and two same-height stone cornices can be used as table bottoms.
– To create an Italian feeling in your displays, make your focus simplicity. For example, remove everything from the fireplace mantel except for just one or two well-scaled objects that you particularly like. Similarly, consider placing one large colored glass vase along a ledge or shelf, or two to three objects of a single color on a small occasional table.
