Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Flea Market Style

                Frenchantiques

A peek into my home. Flea market style. The run down. Pair of armchairs found on the street, recovered with an old green bed cover. The picture frames are new, the engravings inside are not. The lamp base is old, the lamp shades are not. A linen bed sheet becomes a curtain, a table used in someone’s garage becomes an end table and the mirror reflects its surroundings as not to have you focus on its broken crown.

Mix and match pieces, texture and elements. What is your home decorating style?

Photo: A corner of my home this morning. A guessing game is coming Friday. I found something that you will never never guess what it is.  It is a dandy of a thing.

Some of my favorite places:

Old Plank Road

Bountiful

Trove

Found Now

Atmosphere

Comments

70 responses to “Flea Market Style”

  1. Parisbreakfasts

    Nothing looks “run down” to me!
    A linen bed sheet for a curtain – how clever and how chic!
    I love the reflection in the mirror…
    And beauiful grey values throughout!

    Reply
  2. Parisbreakfasts

    PS
    Please come and decorate my home..?

    Reply
  3. Mélanie

    You have a wonderful home . it is more than flea market finds …so beautiful

    Reply
  4. adi

    hmmmm
    seemed a bit subdued for my Indian sensibilities 🙂
    wonderful glimpse into your world, is it going to be a continuous process? especially after your own pic?
    lots of love Corey

    Reply
  5. Hasmin

    Corey, simply stylish!!!
    The armchair was a street find? nothing beats “FREE!” (did you re-upholster it yourself?) LOVE that mirror, broken crown and all. My home decorating style? It has changed quite a bit during my lifetime, but I always seem to gravitate towards cottage style. Love old things, rusty, chippy, etc.
    ___________________________________
    Hi H
    No i did not re upholster it myself. My friend Michel did.

    Reply
  6. Miss Maddie’s

    Oh Corey, your little corner of the room is just like all your posts; HEAVENLY! Susan

    Reply
  7. Darla

    The green of the chair is just the spark that sets off the whole arrangement. Lovely.
    Darla

    Reply
  8. Marie-Noëlle

    My home style?
    Let me think… What can I say?
    Question: Has my home got one style? My own style… Our style…
    Only one answer : come and see!
    (another train to hop!?!)

    Reply
  9. Jeanne

    Home is where our story begins.
    Love you
    Jeanne

    Reply
  10. karen

    Very elegant. You have THE touch. My house is a mix…more old than new. Things that touch my heart.

    Reply
  11. Beverly

    I’m so lucky to see inside your home…I’ve been wondering if it’s filled with clever use of beautiful antiques, and it is!
    Our home is filled with “easy to clean”…tile floors, leather furniture, not too much fluff. But, after two boys and the sandy air in Florida, it’s just the way I like it!

    Reply
  12. My Melange

    Just as I imagined. Love, love, love everything!!!! When I move to France, you can decorate my space *sigh*. Oh and my style is the same as yours! Who doesn’t love Free chairs…LOVE that!!! 🙂 Matter of fact…I found a trio of nested Italian gilt gold tables at my local flea market for $15…just saw the same ones in a local antiques store for $135!!! SCORE!! Those are the moments I live for 😉

    Reply
  13. Bridget

    Corey, I’m in love with this green among these grey!
    Thank you for your warm comments, you know it’s so important when one works alone and of course sometimes…doubts!

    Reply
  14. Cottage Contessa

    Simple. Stunning. Perfect. Love it!
    Amanda (aka Cottage Contessa)
    http://jacarandacottage.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  15. Liberty Post Editor

    Hello from Canada! I discovered your blog after reading the comment you left on my brownie post. I thought it was so ironic that the post was indeed ‘tongue in cheek’ and then I find out that’s the name of your blog ! …which I love by the way. I’ve linked you up!

    Reply
  16. rochambeau

    The layers of textures, the plastered walls, the tile floor and the elements of old mixed with new are soothing and pleasing to the eye.
    The real reason I believe it looks so nice is because you put your soul into it and it show.

    Reply
  17. Miz Booshay

    Oh Corey!
    You have just beautiful style!
    Have you ever thought of writing a book?
    An American in Provence:
    et cetera
    Decorating is not a skill I have at all.
    I could use one of those decorators who come in and arrange the “things” that I do have. Cause I have some pretty things….but the are in drawers or closets.
    I’m not good with shoes and purses either. :o)

    Reply
  18. tinker

    I think my house wishes I had your magic decorating touch! Your home looks lovely, Corey.
    Oh goody! A guessing game – I can hardly wait…

    Reply
  19. Ally

    Upon seeing the interior of our home a decorator once told me that when asked “what is our style” I should say: comfortable and eclectic, then just smile. Does that answer your question?!!

    Reply
  20. Catalina

    I just can laugh of myself Corey….
    I would LOVE a place likes yours!
    A part of me is a Zen monk with just a few things around
    The other part (the one you actually see) is colours everywhere an “piles” of things that I don’t know where to put….
    🙂
    Beautiful decoration! You really have a designer eye!

    Reply
  21. Travelingmama

    Oh! How everything is so lovely! Your mirror is so fabulous! Like the perfect accessory!

    Reply
  22. phyllis

    I love the balance you have achieved! A true decorator 🙂 And the flea market style…well I GUESS I could get used to that Hee hee 🙂
    I have enjoyed the man on the street post below (someone’s dear father I guess…) and the Laduree love too!!!!

    Reply
  23. qualcosa di bello

    your decorating style seems to be heart & soul…you have the gift to see the beauty in all around you & you pull it together so lovingly!

    Reply
  24. cruststation

    You are so clever in your decorating, I love images of your home (more please!!) Have you ever considered going into Interior Design or selling recycled antique furniture? I really love the linen bed sheet as curtains too, you’re a genius!

    Reply
  25. delphine

    oh you have such flair. 🙂 and i like that so much light comes into your home. & thanks for the links.
    delphine

    Reply
  26. Kristy

    When can I visit?

    Reply
  27. Paula

    Hi Corey ~ Your style is so refreshing to me. The shade of green is particularly nice. I always enjoy seeing the possibilities in “used” items. And, I like to imagine who owned those things, what stories they could tell.
    My style? Rustic American Southwest is probably my best description. Lots of primitive handpainted furniture, mexican retablos and bultos, eclectic.
    Oh I love your home. It just feels so, so, inviting and calming.
    Thanks so much for sharing this.

    Reply
  28. Paula

    Oh and I forgot ~ those links are really the best. Thanks so much !!!!! I’ll never get any work done now !!

    Reply
  29. melissa @ the inspired room

    Corey, Your room is beautiful. I know I have visited here a couple of times but I truly must add you to my regular visits. Your photos and posts are just lovely. So inspiring.
    Melissa

    Reply
  30. Aina

    OH WOW!! What a wonderful lovely decorated room! Oh, i so love the chair, the mirror, the table, yes everything really 🙂 I do mix max old and new myself, i think it looks very personal and gives the room character.
    Aina

    Reply
  31. Jeanette

    My walls are decorated with family and friends pictures from the late 1800’s to the present. I feel the presents of them with me and reminds me that life is good and full with loved ones around. My children don’t remember or never met some, but they will know that they have a large loving family. Who are watching over them.

    Reply
  32. Jeni

    Hi Corey, I love the simplicity of your home. Very elegant but yet inviting. What a talent! My style? It’s been southern living classic, American flea market, till we sold and built a French stone farmhouse,rustic beams, limestone tile, etc. now what to do with a 48′ trailer full of Americana flea market, auction finds? I’ll just have to come back to France for my treasures.
    Your home is your canvas and you paint it beautifully.

    Reply
  33. Daisy Cottage

    So serene and beautiful Corey!
    For now, my style is all about cottagy and color, BUT if I ever changed it up, I’d love to be able to create something as beautiful as this.. you are so talented.
    xo,
    Kim

    Reply
  34. Sharon at American Harvest

    Hi Corey,
    This corner of your home is gorgeous. I like this style of decorating too. The mirror is wonderful and your creative way of photographing the mirror with the reflection of other treasures in the room is terrific!
    Sharon

    Reply
  35. martina

    I love your decorating style. I have some friends who are great hunters, finding really nice things out on curbs, etc. This past week they brought a carved mahogany and marble top table (I’d asked them to look for a nice end table) to me that someone was throwing out. I screamed with happy-table is far nicer than I expected. The house is not cluttery nor minimalistic, but everyone comments on how nice it looks and how welcomed they feel.

    Reply
  36. Cheryl

    Corey, What a beautiful corner! I, too love flea market stuff. Hanging in my living room is a gold and plaster mirror missing some of it’s decoration. People have told me how to fix it but I leave it that way to remind me that surface beauty is fleeting, but inside beauty is not! Cheryl

    Reply
  37. stljoie

    My husband and I love flea markets. We have found ourselves with a variety of oriental things. One is, we just recently identified, a wooden chest made without nails…it’s shaped like a garden seat and painted with scenes and florals on a black lacquer background with writing inside the lid…it is made of camphor wood and smells wonderful. It’s Chinese and was used to ship tea in!! We suppose the objects we are finding were brought back by servicemen and they are now being disposed of at garage sales and finding their way into flea markets. We never set out to collect such things but find treasure after treasure that we can afford.

    Reply
  38. lila

    Your house decorating style may be (the endlessly interesting) mix & match, but you seem to “hold it all together” with a sophisticated and subtle color palatte. It looks lovely on your blog!

    Reply
  39. Rosemary

    Beautiful corner Corey!
    Just my style. Love it! I am going to the flea market this Sunday. Can’t wait.
    Rosemary

    Reply
  40. AnnieElf

    Love that corner. I’d like to curl up there and never leave. It looks so peaceful. Great links too. Thanks.

    Reply
  41. Britt-Arnhild

    It started to snow here today and my outside world has the same colours as your home……though quite alot colder. I am not ready for winter yet. Books, a fire in the hearth and hot chocolate is the solution.

    Reply
  42. Paris Parfait

    Such a lovely vignette – the best of flea market decor!

    Reply
  43. Pinkie Denise

    Corey, your living room is so lovely. I love the mirror, it is great. I see one of my favorite colors, oh that chair! I want to see it in person, someday. Pinkie Denise

    Reply
  44. Cre8Tiva

    dandy huh?!?!?…i will be winging my way to chicago…but i’ll come late…blessings, rebecca

    Reply
  45. AmandaMay

    oh you have such a beautiful home! I love the idea of linen sheets, and even more the idea of using them for curtains. So serene.

    Reply
  46. naturegirl

    Mon Cher.Magnifique!!
    My home is decorated with cat hairs..very cat friendly.. never wear white when you visit..hugs NG

    Reply
  47. tommiea

    love the decor….I am very much a mix and match person. I prefer the warm fall colors though.

    Reply
  48. Leigh

    Thank you for listing my blog as one of your favorite places!! I feel honored! I love your house. I’d like to move in or at least go shopping in there! I love the book Flea Market Style by Emily Chalmers. Do you know the book? A bit of a modern twist, but still I think you’d like it. PS. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s name that thing game.

    Reply
  49. Tamara Giselle

    Thank you for the links. I found a pair of chairs that caused my heart to literally stop beating for a moment because they were so beautiful (and $25K for the pair, of course). I bet this happens to you daily there in France. I wonder if all the beauty lengthens your life because your heart gets to rest as you gaze upon all the beautiful things, natural and man made?

    Reply
  50. tut-tut

    What a soothing interior you’ve created. I’d love to see more . . .

    Reply
  51. Tamara Giselle

    I love your home and I am coveting your mirror (I know it’s wrong to covet). I have been searching high and low for a mirror with that kind of character that they don’t want my right arm and leg for. I have an obsession for mirrors. I love what they do to light in a room. My home is filled with treasures both new found and passed on from my mother and grandmother. My grandmother didn’t have many things but what she had was always of great quality and very beautiful. She saved long and worked hard to have them. I also have acquired a few pieces brought over from France and England by a man I know. One of my favorites is a carved armoire actually made in Belgium, it still has the craftsmans tag inside. These are my little bit of Europe here in the states. I adore old things and often imagine what stories they would tell me if they could. I guess much like you do with your stories.

    Reply
  52. Sonia

    This corner of your home is beautiful! Looks very inviting! You have a good taste for decoration. If you have the time, take a look on my house, click on:
    My Tapestries and Crochet: http://leavesgrass.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-tapestries-and-crochet.html
    and Corners of my House: http://leavesgrass.blogspot.com/2006/03/corners-of-my-house.html
    Have a nice day!

    Reply
  53. marita

    such an inviting decor, serene, calm, nipping tea and some spekulaas, enjoying some silence in moss green and off white, gray shades and terra with eyes closed…
    a perfect retreat!

    Reply
  54. gemma

    Love this style.
    There are so many one of a kind or unusual flea market finds.
    Beautiful!

    Reply
  55. Di Overton

    Very very innovative. You have a gorgeous home.

    Reply
  56. Sandy

    Hi Corey. Thanks for the peek into your home. It looks very soothing. I love that mirror! I love to see home photos in the various blogs. The ones from France & the Scandinavian ones seem to have lots of white & lots of gray which is so clean & uncluttered looking. My home is a mix & match. My husband & I have so much “stuff” around & a not big enough house. I love collections so decorate with many of them. My kitchen is blue & yellow French. My living room is Arts & Crafts style with black, brown, beige, rust. My sewing room is shabby chic pinks & greens. Quilts in practically every room. On top of that we have many of my mother’s antiques. Very busy but I love everything in it.

    Reply
  57. blogamop

    What a gorgeous corner! I just love it. You do have great taste!

    Reply
  58. Amy

    I love when you show pictures of your home! My style (if you can call it that) leans toward antiques. Old things that just get better with age…. I would love to live in a castle complete with all the furniture of the day…sexy velvets, satins… If I could leap into the Marie Antoinette movie, I would be blissed out..

    Reply
  59. Michelle

    Hi Corey!
    Your home is so beautiful and inspiring! You have such an amazing talent for decorating and for the written word! Do you remember me? I am the girl who’s dad grew up in Willows, CA. We corresponded by e-mail once or twice. We wondered if our fathers may have know one another and you said if my dad rode motorcycles they would surely have know each other and I said the thought of my dad on a motorcycle made me laugh. 🙂
    It is so wonderful to see someone from such a tiny unknown town living a beautiful life in France. It gives us all hope! 🙂
    Michelle
    ________________
    Yes I do Hi Michelle!

    Reply
  60. p

    Ooo! So very Provence! hee hee ! It is fun to see other’s home decor! My style is shabby Eclectic French garden flea market ..side of the road castoff style! HOO hooo!

    Reply
  61. susanna

    Wow! I’m in awe of your decorating sense, Corey. Such elegance. I could use your sense of style in my own home. And this photograph is so lovely. It looks like it came straight out of Cote Sud magazine!
    I can’t sleep tonight so I’m off to (virtual) shop in all your recommended places… 🙂

    Reply
  62. Elaine L.

    Corey,
    I LOVE seeing photos of your home and the treasures you have found.
    My home is Spanish Style on an acre on a hill top in the high desert of California.
    We have been married 34 years, so our home is very eclectic and decorated with items found in antique shops, thrift stores, and on our travels to Egypt, France, South America, Central America, Morocco, Japan and Israel. Although, I am very attracted to pastels and love looking at pictures of homes decorated in pale colors, I always seem to gravitate toward rich jewel tone colors.
    The ultimate, for me, would be to have three homes all decorated in different styles – Spanish adobe, farmhouse, and New York loft.
    ~elaine~

    Reply
  63. susanna

    Okay…I love, loooooooove Trove! If only I had a wallet the size of those big vintage blue books! And thanks to you, Corey, I just found another decorating guru for me in, I think, Denmark. I love everything that Atmosphere has posted. And have you checked out his/her (I can’t tell) links? Oh oh oh!

    Reply
  64. Marge

    Hi Corey! I absolutely love your mirror! It’s so gorgeous! I can see your style fits you very well. It’s very lovely, romantic and chic.I live in a Craftsman bungalow in Tacoma, Wa.I love the vintage, English cottage style of decorating. I have lots of florals, overstuffed furniture and flea market lovelies. It all comes together with sentimental things given to me by the women in my family including my daughters.Thank you for the lovely view of your home. 🙂 Marge

    Reply
  65. jen

    Looks just like out of a magazine! Grandkids running to and fro (plus crafting 10 hours a day!) hasn’t done a thing for the upkeep of my lovely home. :-p
    Thanks as always for sharing, Corey.

    Reply
  66. Nora

    You have exquisite taste Corey.

    Reply
  67. rochambeau

    What an amazing touchstone for your life and ancestry! Could it be a pumice stone?

    Reply
  68. Kristin Co

    Quel plaisir de partager un peu de ton univers

    Reply
  69. Bethany

    Gorgeous not only what you have artfully pulled together to make such a great look but the how and where you culled each item from is soo truly special both as individual items and as a whole composition. LOVE IT

    Reply
  70. Gina

    I love it, absolutely stunning!

    Reply

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