A Contemporary View of French Furniture Styles in the Home

The term French Furniture includes three distinct design groups, Royal, Parisian and Provincial. Characterised by the elegance of a bygone era, these styles are steeped in history. Fortunately, they remain available today. Like all great art, the appeal of French furniture is timeless.

French Royal Furniture

Mies van der Rohe's 20th century philosophy of 'less is more' doesn't apply to French Royal furniture design. Minimalism was a future concept. Elaborate and sophisticated, the FrenchRoyal style was spurred on by the foundation of the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins in the 17th century. While known for the production of tapestries, they also produced the furnishings for royal palaces. In the Parisian factory, under the direction of the minister of finance, a variety of craftsmen created beautiful furnishing for the Royal Palaces. The expert silversmiths and cabinet makers worked together to create exquisitely turned furniture inlaid with intricate patterns.

French Parisian Furniture

The aristocracy and the wealthy desired to emulate their sovereigns. However, the French Parisian style, the designer French furniture of its day, was similar in design and filled the niche. It allowed ordinary people to furnish their chateaux with high quality, luxurious furniture. Perhaps, like today, society wanted role models and, at the time, Royalty set the trend. Whether it was interior design, pastimes or even what appeared on the French menu, society looked to the kings and queens. By the first half of the 17th century, Paris had become the centre of luxury furniture design. The French Parisian style had become a major touchstone of the developing decorative arts movement. The influence of furniture from this classical period spread throughout Europe and Russia. It was particularly sought after in Great Britain.

French Provincial Furniture

The French Provincial furniture, although less intricate and elaborate than former styles, was distinctive. It was manufactured at various locations including Orleans and Blois in the Loire Valley and Lyon in the south-east of the country. Its features often included cabriole legs, simple scalloped carving and a wheat motif in recognition of the rural surroundings of its maker. The wooden dining chair with ladder back and woven rush seat is typical of the style. As innovations in style and manufacture, including designer French furniture developed, the French Royal style flowed into the Parisian style. This pattern continued until eventually, what was once the privilege of the hierarchy materialised in the provinces.

French Furniture

Original pieces of classic French furniture command prices far beyond the average budget. But, fortunately, for those who want to furnish their homes with classic French pieces there is a solution. Designers such as Juliette's Interiors Ltd can provide information on what's available. With a range of designer French furniture to suit all room layouts and dimensions, there is something to suit everyone. Those who wish to utilise this style in their homes can choose from collections by international designers to give their contemporary lifestyles a touch of continental chic.

AUTHOR BIO

The Author has lived in France for ten years and has experience of continental interior design. She is particularly interested in French furnishings and decoration. She writes extensively on home and lifestyle issues. When sourcing information on French furniture she often makes reference to and suggests that readers also visit this page.

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How to Pick the Perfect Duvet Cover with Online Shopping

Choosing a beautiful bedding set is an intrinsic part of creating the right ambience in the bedroom. The bedding must match or contrast with the colour scheme and must look fresh and appealing. It can be rather overwhelming, though, to get the selection right with so much choice available.

There is a huge range of bedding sets on the market and it can be very time consuming and confusing to wander from store to store searching for the right one. You may not even get to see a store's entire stock. Shopping online for bedding has a great many advantages over High Street or retail park shopping. You get to see a list of retailers from which you can choose, together with pictures and enlarged images of the entire stock of bedding ranges available from each supplier, including the sizes, alternative colour choices and the fabric type. The only disadvantages are having to pay and to wait for delivery, rather than being able to take the item straight home. However, the advantages far outweigh this small inconvenience.

Online shopping for bedding items is also ideal if you are working to a budget, as internet retailers are often able to offer lower prices. This makes it possible to get cheap duvet cover sets of the same quality and designs as those available on the High Street.

Getting the size right

One of the main problems in buying duvet covers is getting the size right. Many suppliers don't use the standard single, double or kingsize size labels, using instead the metric measurements in centimetres. This can be confusing if you haven't already measured your duvet or existing duvet covers to get the exact measurements. To simplify this issue, it is worth making a note of the general measurements to use as a guide. Single duvet covers are usually 135cm by 200cm, double sizes are 200cm by 200cm, kingsize 225cm by 220cm and super kingsize 260cm by 220cm.

Hotel style luxury

Choosing the fabric for your duvet set is also an important part of getting the comfort factor right. Egyptian cotton and linen fabrics with a high thread count have become increasingly popular in recent years. If you have ever stayed in a quality hotel, then it is likely that you have slept on high thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, as many hotel chains favour these for exceptional comfort and luxury. With many bedding ranges using this fabric it is easy to get the luxury hotel bedroom feel at home. Fabrics such as satin, sateen and silk have a delightfully smooth feel on the skin and are perfect for those who spend a lot of time in bed, due to illness, for example, as they prevent friction that can cause bed sores. These fabrics also give a touch of glamour and femininity to the room. Percale is also a popular choice, as it has a very soft feel and requires very little ironing, so is easy to care for.

AUTHOR BIO

Smith is a home and interiors journalist who writes for a range of publications, as well as his own interior design blog. He uses a variety of suppliers in his work and recommends that shoppers get more information on cheap bedding and soft furnishings.

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How to Protect Aging Parents Who Still Live Alone

Even if your parents can take care of themselves, chances are they still need (and appreciate) your help. From Internet security to heirloom preservation, they're aging and feeling so old. While respecting their independence, help your parents protect their identity, manage their home and cherish their golden years.

 

Prepare and Preserve

Over the years, parents tend to collect special keepsakes such as photographs, handwritten letters, heirloom jewelry, etc. Help them preserve family treasures in a fireproof container or a safety deposit box. For insurance (and memory!) purposes, assist your parents in taking photographs of their belongings. Important files or pictures should be backed up on portable hard drives and kept in multiple locations, in case of fire or burglary.

 

Install a Security System

Not only do alarm systems provide protection and peace of mind, but they also act as deterrents to potential thieves. Burglars are likely to find another target if they see a sign or sticker from an alarm company in a yard or on a window. Knowing or suspecting a home is protected by a security system is often enough to turn trouble away, LifeShield.com reported.

 

Appear to be Secure

Your parent's home shouldn't only be secure, but appear to be secure. Feeble-looking locks on rickety-looking doors will attract burglars, not repel them. Find creative ways to make your parents home look less of a target. Even if your parents don't own a pet or participate in a neighborhood watch, consider posting a "beware of dog" sign or "neighborhood watch" warning in the yard. Don't give burglars a clear shot at peeking into windows or hiding behind bushes.

 

Internet, Phone & Mail Safety

Even tech-savvy parents need safety reminders when it comes to Internet, phone and mail safety. Whenever you learn about a popular scam or phishing hoax, make sure your parents are aware of the trick. Older generations are often targets of these crimes and, unfortunately, end up giving away personal information or money they didn't intend to. Also remind your parents not to post travel plans on social networking sites like Facebook. It just makes their empty home a target to potential theft.

 

Tips for Traveling

If your parents are the traveling types, make sure they know they can't leave their home without taking special precautions first! If they plan to be out of town for several days, someone should be gathering their mail and keeping an eye on the household for them. Boxes and newspapers sitting on the porch for several days are key indicators to burglars that homeowners are far away. For longer trips:

• Have your parents request a hold on mail, find someone to maintain their landscaping
• Maybe even hire a house sitter.

 

Keep Valuables Out of Sight

Burglars will rarely break into a house before trolling it out to make sure it's worth the risk. Just as a precaution, encourage parents to keep any cash or high-value belongings out of sight. If they have valuable electronic items in clear view of their windows, install privacy screens so they can look out without anyone seeing in.

Author : Belinda Brighton is a dedicated mom, writer and art therapist, Belinda believes sharing her love of family, art and the environment is what makes her a better writer and a great mom to her two sons, Michael and Patrick.

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Applying Mobile Tracking Software to Obtain Many Benefits

Among various software that you may find in today’s market; have you already known about mobile phone tracking software? This type of software offers many helpful features and can be applied for personal and business purposes. Using mobile spy software that you can purchase at http://www.mspy.com/; every user will be allowed to keep track of one’s mobile phone activities which the phone has been installed by this software before.

Personal users such as parents can benefit from the spy software program to ensure their child’s safety every day. The increase of kidnapping occurrence surely makes many parent worried and want to be capable to frequently track their children position. Installing the mobile tracking software in to your child’s smart phone can be the right decision. Provide your loved one with a smart phone that has built-in GPS system and has been installed by this spy software; it will give you ability to know the accurate location of the mobile phone –with or without the phone user.  

With the support of the mobile spy software at Mspy.com, observing your child’s phone activities and position isn’t hard anymore. Tracking function can also be helpful in the case when your child doesn’t remember where he put the phone. The ability to check their children’s position, performed phone calls and text messages will offer many parents peace of mind.

Let’s say that the phone had been stolen; perhaps it will be hard to get it back again but this mobile spy software can protect the personal information from being opened by strangers. For data protection function, you may lock the phone and remove the whole phone’s memory -from a distance. Check out the official website to find out other features of the mobile spy software that you can obtain more!

This article is a sponsored post.

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