Monday, May 14, 2012

Home Inspiration from Gascony, France

Happy Monday morning!  I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  It was college graduation weekend here in Indiana, and with the addition of Mothers Day there was not much time left for blogging.  I will do my best to record the videos I promised last week that show how we water all of our potted plants without ever picking up a watering can all summer long!

For today, I want to share where we got the inspiration for the exterior architecture of our future home.  For those of you that have been to Gascony, France; we are jealous.  We really never set out searching for a Gascony style design, but rather started looking for French influenced homes in books and online.  After about a year my wife and I noticed that many of the homes we liked gravitated towards the same style of architecture.  By chance, we stumbled upon a French real estate website that had their listings divided up by regions of France.  After thumbing through Gascony we determined that this was the region that gave influence to the style of homes that captured our interest. 

Today’s photographs are of homes in the Gascony region of France.  It’s so beautiful that some days we think we should just pack it all up and move there instead of recreating it here!  Please share your thoughts or email us photographs if you have a great Gascony inspired home.



Great combination of color on this home.  The touches of blue on the shutters and potted plants make the exterior of this home come alive. 



Gascony homes tend to have lots of arches and exterior doors.  Functional shutters are also one of the staple design elements. I point out functional because that seems to be overlooked in the USA.



Again, more shutters, arches, and exterior doors.



This photograph reinforces our last post on the use of potted plants in French landscape. Trees look wonderful in pots, especially ornimental.  Bring a pop of pink cherry blossoms to your front door in the spring with potted trees. 




This home is very much a traditional Gascony home design.  Centrally located front door with symetrical windows flanking both sides.  A Romeo and Juliet balcony just above the front entry adds character to the front eleveation.



This is the back of the home featured above.



The back of this home has a great pool.  Many of the homes in the region appear to have pools.  This courtyard would be great for entertaining (and keeping potted plants as you can see).



Another Gascony home.



This last home actually came from Normandy but has great elements also found in Gascony.  We kept this picture in our inspiration file because the exterior materials change from stucco to brick.  Changing materials gives the appearance of age through a home addition even though it may be new construction.  A great way to change up the exterior of the home and add more character.


Hope you all enjoyed the photographs!

Rob

5 comments:

  1. All beautiful - I especially love the gorgeous blue shutters - they bring back memories of the year I lived in Charentes-Maritime - they were everywhere!
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. Fabulous inspiration - they're ALL absolutely stunning, although my favourite has to be the image of the back of the house with blue shutters. What a simply divine garden!
    Great choices, great blog - and with these ideas in mind, I'm sure that your own house will be stunning!
    Paula x

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  3. p.s. Do you have a follow button? Px

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  4. Very nice and I love that first image. The color is gorgeous, love the blue shutters!

    leslie

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  5. Gorgeous homes!! I love each and every one of them.

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