We “Own” Mardi Gras and French Farmhouse Style

Since 1702 when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf Coast has been “French.” And that my friends, means everything when decorating a room.
 
The French influence on the Gulf Coast is best defined in two words, excess and restraint.  Two seemingly incompatible ideas that are perhaps more easily understood when discussion cooking, and not, Mardi Gras itself.
 
The French Farmhouse style is like creole cooking—a wonderful mix of a lot of things that in the end are simple, uncomplicated and so, so satisfying.  See--excess and restraint. 
 
French Farmhouse style incorporates the wonderful antiques and decor of the southeast and blends them with delicate French style, so like our beloved creole cooking—are homes are always awesome but never created the same way twice, not created in a day, but curated from well-loved family favorites and well-considered new furniture and accessory finds, just like our gumbo recipes.
 
As for the French Farmhouse style and Mardi Gras--well “Laissez les bons temps rouler” or “let the good times roll.”    Each Spring we enjoy weeks of fun and tons of excess as we head into Lent, the long season of reflection and restraint.
 
Like Mardi Gras celebrations, the French Farmhouse decor begins with a lot of choices and then distills down the patterns, and colors and finishes into the best possible mix for results that are considered and unexpected combinations of styles not normally found together. 
 
During Mardi Gras, downtown streets are blocked to create parade routes for the lavish floats and costumed masquers throwing trinkets to the crowd.  The mélange is an eclectic and welcoming gathering of friends and families, children on the shoulders of parents, ball guests in the streets in all their formal finery, street vendors selling everything from treasured Mardi Gras trinkets to bunt cake sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Aromas fill the air, and the beer and wine are flowing. 
 
Like Mardi Gras, French Farmhouse Style is an eclectic mix, encouraged to be spontaneous and easygoing, “aged to perfection but never perfect.” Bringing diverse objet’s together to become fast friends.
 
Does this design style make your heart sing and want to dance in the streets?  How do you develop this style that is practical, unique and engaging?  Look for our next blog entry later this month, as we continue to celebrate Mardi Gras, our rich Southern heritage and one of our favorite Gulf Coast La Z-Boy lifestyles, French Farmhouse.
 
In the meantime, “Laissez les bons temps rouler”!