Exuberant gardens, elegant chateaux with brick flooring, laced curtains … Everything about the French signifies elegance per se.

Your interior can look practical, efficient, and competent. But without that extra dash, that element of romance… it is almost like drinking Champagne minus the fizz.

So you are thinking of re-modeling your home a la French country style? Well, why not, considering that it is the most popular one, even more than hip-hop swinging Americana. You could start with the flooring which could be of brick entirely.

These days you can get tiles that resemble bricks and look extremely elegant on the floor. Or you could get tiles of terra cotta (aged) which will lift your floor space the way you have never imagined before.

Your walls could be plaster-surfaced with light yellow paint resembling the color of butter. Get beams for your ceiling with that rough and rugged look and your home is already on its way in terms of appearing half-French.

Much of French country décor is accented with chic wrought-iron furnishings. You can start with a relatively cheap wrought-iron bench in your foyer in place of the glossy farm-table. To age the metal, you can spray rust treatments that you can buy in any home-improvement outlet. For lighting up your interiors you can settle for the olive branch chandelier – one that branches out most elegantly to converge at the centre.

Or you might choose something more eccentric like having colorful pottery for shades – does extremely well in terms of lighting up your garden.

Next, you are thinking of fixing that living room, right? How about painting it up with typical ‘French’ colors like cornflower-blue, mustard, or salmon-pink? You can hang paintings (or imitations and prints for affordability) by early Impressionists like Monet. Laced curtains on the windows in soft hues will offset that colorful divan you bought at the flea market. Don’t forget to add a rooster as a motif.

Fall in love with your salle a manger or dining room by wallpapering it classic toile designs. The chunky motifs will make all the difference to your eating space. You may also paint your cabinets with light cream color as base and glaze them across with chocolate or mocha-brown paint. They will add to the depth and richness of your dining room décor.

Don’t forget your bathroom in all this. If French-style tiles become too expensive you can simply throw in accessories such as an inexpensive French mirror (it can be an imitation if you can’t afford the real thing) with a black-hued iron wall planter for the hand towels.

Now step back and view your rustic French home in toto. Awesome, almost a la campagne isn’t it?