One of the most popular styles chosen when decorating a kitchen interior has been the French Provence style for a very long time.
The name itself, when you see a photo of a kitchen in the Provence style, speaks of an interior rich in color and decorativeness.
By following some techniques, you can decorate your kitchen in Provence style on a small budget.
Specifics
In the interior of a kitchen in the Provence style, preference is given to soft, blurred tones, as if faded by the sun. It can be sand, lavender, beige, olive or wheat.
These colors combine perfectly with bright, rich tones of green, blue, red, lilac and yellow, giving a special decorative and colorful style.
Provence style furniture is mainly provided in restrained tones of blue, yellow, lavender or turquoise with a small splash of rich tones.
Universal use of white tones. If the furniture is chosen in dark colors, the kitchen area is decorated in a light palette.
The rustic style of Provence clearly involves the use of natural materials or made to look like natural materials when finishing: stone, wood, metal, glass.
Rough plaster of the walls and ceiling, bright floral patterns on the lampshades will add a rural flavor to the design; if there is a large space in the kitchen, the area with a fireplace will look unusually impressive.
Properly organized lighting plays a big role in creating style; a Provence-style kitchen with either a large window or two looks ideal.
Color spectrum
In shades of gray
Neutral gray goes well with other shades. In a Provence interior, it will look good as a background and as a tint for another color.
A room in the Provence style will be decorated laconically and elegantly with wallpaper that looks like plaster or has a light pattern, such as monograms or stripes. Color can be added to the design of the room using textiles and decorative items.
White
In the Provence style, white finishing is often used. A textured surface, such as plaster-like wallpaper, imitating painted wood panels or brick, will make it interesting and not boring. White color will harmonize with any colors, be it decoration or interior filling.
Blue
Blue color refreshes the interior of the room and visually increases its size. A good solution would be both plain wallpaper and canvases with drawings.
The walls can be decorated with wooden or plastic moldings that frame an area of wallpaper like a painting.
Greens
The green color of the wallpaper can have an olive, herbal or mint tint.
Olive and grass will look good in a northern room; the colors will make the interior warmer. On the contrary, mint will have a refreshing effect and goes well with pink, yellow and white tones.
Pink
Delicate feminine pink color will look harmonious in combination with gray, white and green shades. Pink is suitable for decorating a bedroom, kitchen or children's room. A beautiful shade can also decorate a room in photo wallpapers depicting sunsets or flowers.
Yellow
Sunny yellow will be one of the best solutions for a dark or poorly lit room. Yellow wallpaper is suitable for decorating any room in Provence style.
Pastel shades can be used on photo wallpaper, wallpaper with a floral pattern or a plaster finish.
Textile
The design of a kitchen in the Provence style is distinguished by its abundance of decoration with linen tablecloths, handmade lace napkins, soft covers on chairs, painted potholders, and thick curtains with floral patterns.
All materials used are selected in light colors with the obligatory presence of floral patterns.
Areas of application: in the kitchen, bathroom and more
Provence tiles can be used in any room, but most often they are used traditionally: kitchen interiors and bathrooms. Let's look at the most common applications first.
Kitchen
Wall tiles play a key role in the design of the kitchen interior, because the kitchen apron is the most active work area.
In addition to aesthetic functions, the apron must have decent performance qualities. The surface will constantly be exposed to contamination and various influences: steam and moisture, temperature changes.
It is preferable to use Provence style kitchen tiles in small formats (for example, 10x10 or 20x20). If you want to experiment, consider making the backsplash seamless - using one large format tile.
The drawing, in accordance with the chosen style, may contain the floral variations mentioned above, or contain images of food and scenes of its preparation in a simple rustic setting.
If you want to use a custom image, photo tiles are a great solution. You can apply any composition to the surface, depicting, for example, a still life or a landscape.
Bathroom
Bathroom tiles in Provence style are selected in accordance with the rest of the interior elements. The Provence bathroom in general is also characterized by aged furniture, flowing shapes and bathtubs with forged legs. Forged elements and faucets are often finished in precious metals or bronze. Furniture is painted in various shades and floral patterns are used.
Accordingly, the tiles in the bathroom will also be distinguished by soft tones, for example: olive, beige, sea green. Darker colors are quite suitable for flooring; use tiles that resemble natural stone, wood or copper shades, sand and terracotta.
A Provence style bathroom can be tiled with weathered effect tiles.
On the wall
Wall tiles in the most authentic (for Provence style) version are an imitation of natural stone. Smooth stone is convenient from the point of view of cleaning, but, for example, structured porcelain stoneware under stone will cause more trouble with washing, although it looks more advantageous due to its rough texture. Choose light and warm shades.
Brick tiles will also look very appropriate, especially yellow, olive, blue or white. The white color of Provence kitchen tiles is the most universal in this case, as it goes well with almost any environment.
To create bright accents, patchwork tiles with floral or antique-style motifs can be used. Terracotta shades are also allowed.
On the floor
When using ceramics for flooring, as a rule, preference is given to imitation wood or natural stone. A slightly uneven surface texture helps enhance the effect.
It makes sense to select floor tiles in the Provence style from the same collection as wall tiles in order to obtain the most harmonious composition. Of course, relying solely on your taste, you can combine different collections.
To paraphrase a well-known saying, we can say that “porcelain tiles will not spoil Provence”! It is often used as flooring. Moreover, in many photographs of interiors in this style it may seem that we are seeing a good wooden floor. It's actually porcelain tile.
In addition, it is highly durable, and if you drop any kitchen utensils, the floor will remain undamaged.
Thus, Provence floor tiles are not only beautiful, but also practical.
Furniture
When selecting furniture in the Provence style, the rule of natural materials and antiquity is observed.
Such furniture looks especially harmonious in a Provence style interior. But if you don't have antique furniture, then there are quite a few tricks to create the effect of antiquity.
The aging of furniture is especially emphasized by defects such as cracks and unevenness.
When choosing furniture made from natural wood, they most often choose durable oak, durable ash, or walnut and cherry with a beautiful texture.
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For a budget option, you can choose a collection from the available materials MDF, chipboard or fiberboard, which is artificially aged or painted with floral patterns.
Furniture fittings made of marble, glass, and granite will give the furniture a provincial feel. The spacious kitchens have massive and capacious cabinets with a buffet. For a small kitchen in the Provence style, a more acceptable option is a corner table and open wall shelves with dishes.
