20 Awe-Inspiring French Country Living Room Ideas

A French country-style living room is ceaselessly appealing—as well as elegant, opulent, and timeless—no matter how many miles away from Burgundy you are. From a Provencal farmhouse to a seaside Brittany cottage to a Normandy country home, there’s inspiration to be pulled from the classic regions with rich history—and an equally as-rich design style.

Utilizing a mix of classic neutrals with pops of pattern, rich hues with natural elements, and time-honored traditions with modern amenities, French-style design has it all. It’s where life meets art meets history, and we are here for it.

Scroll on for 20 ultra-inspiring French country-style living rooms that will have you breaking out Duolingo and researching flights, in addition to a new couch or piece of artwork. Oui, oui!

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Keep Neutrals Interesting

Subtle and striking: keep those words in mind as you’re creating a French country living room, like this Marie Flanagan Interior design. Think white shiplap paired with variegated white brick. Think: raw edge wood coffee table with neutral furniture. Yet it’s far from boring, thanks to pops of pattern and interesting natural features. Even the family silhouettes on the wall feel French, no?

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Utilize Landscape Art

There’s something about landscape artwork, especially when oversized and (seemingly) old, that feels like it’d fit in a French countryside manor. This Marie Flanagan Interior design is a classic, traditional, and very Provencal-style sitting room. Other musts for a French country feel: a vintage bar cart and plenty of seating to sit back and enjoy a French martini.

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French Style Simplified

For a more streamlined, less baroque French country living room, take inspiration from this Marie Flanigan Interiors-designed room. Note the tall, richly colorful window treatments and emphasis on textured elements, primarily wood, brass, and brick. Can’t you see yourself kicking back to take in a good book?

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Use French Blue, and Lots of It

Perlmutter-Freiwald Interior Design put bleu de France to good use in this living room. Pair the rich blue hue with neutrals, like white, silver, and tan, to let the traditional azure shine. Here, a nubby, textured rug (try sisal or jute) grounds the room, while the wall-to-wall windows and skylight drown the space in sunlight, and the French doors lead out to a Marie Antoinette-worthy garden.

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Think Rich

Rich color, rich patterns, and rich fabrics led to a French-esque living room, like this space by Fava Design Group. There are so many French nods to take note of: the wrap-around built-in bookcases, the medallions on the ceiling, the unexpected carpet, the wingback chair. This library space is the definition of the art of living.

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Blend Easy and Opulent

We’re picturing winding down with a glass of red wine—something from Bordeaux, preferably—in this utterly charming French countryside living room. You too? There’s a comfortable, laid-back essence to it, despite the fact that it’s upscale and refined—the best of both design worlds.

Take note of the exposed brick wall, the wooden beams, the graphic artwork, and the neutral, classic furniture. Well done, designer extraordinaire Kate Hume.

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Add Modern Touches to a Traditional Space

When looking for French-inspired living rooms, where’s the best place to turn? Actual French living rooms, like this guest cottage (in where else? France) by designer Kate Hume, of course. The checkerboard rug brings a graphic punch while the industrial light fixture adds a touch of modernity to the wonderfully aged space. We’d like to move in immediately, please.

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Veer Towards Traditional Patterns

This French-inspired living room features something interesting to look at from floor to ceiling. Plush seating options allow conversation to flow, while the artwork evokes the sea views off the coast of Brittany.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match traditional patterns, from the rug to upholstery, to capture a French feel, like Perlmutter-Freiwald Interior Design did here.

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Subtly Mix and Match Patterns

Even if the bones of your room don’t particularly emite French vibes, you can bring in layers of Frenchiness with rich textiles and accessories. Here, M. Lavender Interiors incorporated patterned upholstery with a nearly wall-to-wall patterned rug (in a French blue, naturally) in an otherwise beautifully neutral room. The pièce de résistance? The classic blue and white ceramics.

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Emphasize Architectural Elements

Take a minute to soak in all the oh-so French aspects of this stunner of a living room by Kim Armstrong Interior Design. The church-inspired elements, from the ceiling to the stair railing to the chandelier, transport you back a few centuries to the south of France.

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Bring in a Bar Cart

A bar cart is a must in any French-inspired living room. In addition to the good stuff (oh hello, Veuve Clicquot!), stock rows of San Pellegrino—or Perrier, to stick to the French theme—and a bouquet of fresh blooms too. To make the cart pop, place it against a nature-inspired wallpaper, like this Chasing Paper design, which evokes the lush land of the French countryside.

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Embrace Natural Elements

Play up natural features, like a brick fireplace and a wooden mantle, to embrace the countryside feel. Every piece in this Becca Interiors-designed living room enhances the fireplace, making it the focal point of the calming, unassuming space.

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Go Grand With Window Treatments

While this chic living room is a continent away from the French countryside, design elements seem inspired by a Francophile. Exhibit A: the grandiose floor-to-ceiling window treatments by Wovn Home, which emphasize the ceiling height and add a rosy glow to the room. Then when you really want to pretend you really are in Bordeaux, simply close the curtains and crack open a bottle of Cabernet Franc.

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Emphasize Romantic and Feminine Features

Ooh la la! Mallory Fletchall of Reserve Home's, well, home, emanates a French chateau with its curvy pink couch, boucle chair, and nubby rug. (And that mirror! Oh, that mirror.)

Fletchall’s space plays up its architectural elements, but if you’re lacking in that department, add plenty of vintage accessories to trick the eye into seeing only the old.

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When in Doubt, Add Shiplap

French countryside homes love shiplap—and really, who doesn’t love shiplap? Wide, white wooden walls of all kinds create a tranquil, clean space, and would fit perfectly in with a French-inspired living room.

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Prioritize Seating for the Whole Family

In this elegantly understated living room by JESSICA NELSON Design, two plush couches ground the space and remind you what a living room is intended for: conversing and relaxing. You’d never see an oversized TV as the center of attention in a French country living room, and you don’t here either. Instead, the two facing couches create a space intended for catching up with each other, not the latest Netflix phenomenon.

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Embrace the Dark Side

All too often beautiful dark wood is painted white. We understand why, of course; white lightens and brightens a room. But if you’re lucky enough to be designing around dark wood that you’d see in an old French home, embrace it. Play it up with moody painted portraits, lush crushed velvet chairs, and a vintage rug that has been around for a few lifetimes.

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Combine Modern with Classic

This Kate Marker Interiors- designed living room could be in the French countryside...or in upstate New York, or in the hills of Twin Peaks, or even in Switzerland. It’s hard to tell, and that’s what we love about it. With such classic features, like the lush leather chairs and gauzy window treatments, it transcends styles, while more modern touches (the herringbone fireplace, the stunning light fixture) keep it with the times.

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Blur the Lines Between Indoor and Outdoor

Karen of Milk and Honey Life lives the dream in this white-washed open living room with vaulted ceilings that begs to be in the French countryside. Just think of all the clear summer nights you could gaze at through the skylight, or the backyard dinners through that wall of sliding doors. By keeping the walls mostly free of art and the furniture in shades of neutrals, Karen created a space that blends the indoors and outdoors.

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Mix New and Old

If you’re vying for a French country-style living room design thousands of miles from the land of cheese and Champagne, try your hand at sourcing French antiques, like Kim from Savvy Southern Style does. There’s nothing like a side table or mirror (or just about anything) from France to bring an essence of sophistication to a space. Take cues from her sunroom, which is scattered with one-of-a-kind French antiques.

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