Fleur-de-Lis Fanatic

Fleur-de-lis New Orleans style (fleurdelistees.com)

Mardi Gras is just around the corner and whenever I think of New Orleans, I think of the fleur-de-lis. The French word translated is "lily flower" or "lotus flower" and it's origins are traced to the 12th century French monarchy of King Louis VII.  In 1967 the New Orlean's NFL team The Saints adopted the symbol at the inception of their franchise and in 2008 New Orleans governor Bobby Jindal made the fleur-de-lis the official symbol of the state of Louisiana.  You can find the fleur-de-lis in so many places.

The Ouerbach House, Louisville KY built in the mid 19th cen.
(brokensidewalk.com)

I love the colors of this painted wood block
(ebay)

A concrete motif on the side of an LA apartment
(apartmenttherapy.com)

When my sister and I first moved to New York in 2003, we jointly decorated our two-bedroom Upper East Side apartment.  We were eager to make the place our own and thus had to find common ground with our interior decorating taste.  At first my love of Moroccan textiles and wooden stools from Africa couldn't see eye-to-eye with her passion for Scalamadre window treatments.  What we could agree on was our shared enthusiasm for French country, engrained in us very early in life by our mother.

Thus we became regulars at Pierre Deux's Third Avenue shop, carrying home golden toile seat cushions, le Cordon Bleu silver napkin rings, and fleur-de-lis print pillows.  I now admit in retrospect we went a little overboard, but my mother was the one who really fed the Francophile fire shipping us fleur-de-lis tiles for the kitchen and-- what still remains one of my favorite pieces--a blue ceramic fleur-de-lis tile mirror.  That was over seven years ago and since my husband and I moved in together, we've (read: he) have been phasing out some of our French country decor.  However, I'm still holding onto some of the pieces.  Here they are in our apartment in Charlottesville.

I'm trying to source more of these;
my mother gave me three but I'd like a dozen or more

This piece is definitely coming with me to Norfolk
I'd like to hang it in a big bathroom or prop it above a mantle

Pierre Deux toile seat cushions

In my bathroom is  a fleur-de-lis hook to hang my ooh-la-las

So that is my fleur-de-lis French influences currently, and here are some stunning French Country living spaces I aspire to someday...

French Country Kitchen (interiorcontemporarydesign.com)

Parisian Living Room (homedecoratinginfo.com)

 

French Dining Room (mczelda flikr)