There are a few iconic items in the country French kitchen that you can get fairly inexpensively. You will want to stick within one basic theme when you choose this design style. There are two sides to it. One is more elegant and the other is more casual.
This is going to be the direction you want to go in if you already have classic kitchens with a lot of black and white. Otherwise the white colors are going to seem a little bit too stark. However, then you’re going to need to bring in very iconic items. These include ceramic roosters as well as toile fabric. You can also get away with diamonds tones. Then it’s time to bring in a more casual design style. Try sanding down and distressing some of your wood furniture. You can still stay within the neutral color palette but just make it look more worn.
More casual takes on this design style are going to include more muted color palettes. You probably won’t see black and white here. You might want to look for stainless steel appliances or have your cabinet maker create panels to go on top of special panel front appliances. These paneled appliances help keep within the vintage kind of feeling.
As far as your color palette goes look for a denim blue. Use this on your furniture. Then bring in lots of taupes and ivories. This can even work around ceramic tile that you may already have. Add in a few luxurious elements such as a tumbled tile backsplash and mini chandeliers. This is a way to personalize your basic taupe kitchen which seems to be the basic builders trend but not necessarily the decorating one.
This can be a way just to accessorize with true vintage pieces as well as reproductions. This could be a silver plate tea service if you want to make your room slightly more elegant. However, you can also just skip the more traditional items such as French country roosters in this case just because you do have such an antique inspired color palette. Then you can just look for clocks that mimic parchment paper. Oversized versions really aren’t that expensive. They can be the focal point of your entire room while keeping within the neutral color palette.
Remember to find subtle ways to continue this throughout your room. This may mean that you go with tea towels instead of lots of soap bottles You can look for decanters or even crystal dish soap dispensers instead of leaving a lot of the cleaning supplies out. Of course you will need to follow safety precautions if this is going to be around kids.
One direction that you wouldn’t initially think to take a country French kitchen is going to be to go with a contemporary kind of style. This can be very subtle such as bringing in a harlequin print on stainless steel backsplashes. You can also try bring in a funky chandelier that’s been painted turquoise. Look for lots of ornate gold frames that you can turn into chalkboards or bulletin boards. You can either paint these out in a dramatic black like the feminine basic gold. French style frames that are going to have a lot of scroll work on them. This was very popular in the 1970s so it’s readily available at a lot of thrift stores. You’re going to get a higher quality item and spend less money than you would at say Walmart. It’s very rare to find metal or even wood frames at the stores. Usually they will just be plastic even if they are quite expensive. This is why shopping for antiques can really make your entire room. Sure, it does take a little bit more time but it also is really going to give you that true French inspired feeling.
As far as your window treatments go you want to choose a pattern kind of fabric. If you already have kitchen blinds in your space then you might just go with an ornate valance. It should have a scalloped edge to it. This is one of the few styles where you’re still going to see floral prints. However, if you are using this very ornate style you can bring in more casual prints because this mixing of the two styles is very evocative of that country French feeling. Stay with Roman shades instead of typical wood window blinds.