Summers In France

by Kathryn Ireland

Home decorating has never been more simple and easy than Summers in France. Come along to Europe with designer Kathryn M. Ireland who celebrates summer living and entertaining in the French countryside. Ireland introduces readers to the town of Montauban, which is near the farmhouse she renovated and remodeled in her classic shabby chic style. Kathryn shares inside details of her remodel along with tips and ideas about entertaining, and how to make guests comforable. Through family photographs, journal-styled entries, and detail shots of the bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchen areas, readers are treated like family as they discover how Kathryn makes a room come together. Using her signature fabrics—seen in draperies, linens, cushions, duvets, bedding, and more—Kathryn shows what she did to brighten and enliven the atmosphere of each room. Kathryn's style also illustrates how easy it can be to decorate while on a budget by combining fabrics with antiques and vintage decor found at local flea markets. Summers in France is an eclectic decorating book overflowing with country home design inspiration. Kathryn presents her favorite summertime recipes and entertaining tips as well as stunning before-and-after photographs of the remodeled and decorated rooms. Also included are centuries-old charcoal drawings of the various buildings on the property; lists of guest room must-haves; tips for house gifts; even several recipe ideas and marketplace shopping lists. Kathryn M. Ireland is among House & Garden 's "10 to Watch" architects and designers expected to influence 21st-century style. For the last decade, House Beautiful has named her one of the top 100 designers in the United States. She is the author of Kathryn at Home, Creating a Home, and Inspired By. . . . She divides her time between Santa Monica, California, and Montauban, France.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, France, Memoir, Cookbooks, Biography, Cooking

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sumptuous pictures, recipes and lists for how to be both the perfect host - and the perfect guest (so important if you want to be invited back!). Kathryn Ireland is the British Francophile who became famous for her ‘shabby chic’ style in California. This is shabby chic style with a French brocante twist. Style inspiration and mood, more than detailed advice. My only quibble was with the black ‘typewriter’ font - which I found hard to read against the coloured pages.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely photos and dreamy story ruined by an author who makes rude, stereotypical comments about the French and then whines about what would make you a good or bad guest should you be so fortunate as to receive an invite to stay with her (offer to help clean and also tip the staff well ... WHAT.). Ugh.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really it's three stars simply because I love the photos...that's about it.

[Relyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some really pretty eye candy here, but not a lot of design inspiration.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUMMERS IN FRANCE – Kathryn M. Ireland

Kathryn M. Ireland is a British-born, Los Angeles-based interiors and fabric designer. Her book Summers in France, showcases her beautiful holiday home which she renovated herself, inside and out. Formerly a tumbledown farmhouse, Ireland spent a lot of time sourcing the furnishings, fabrics and knick-knacks to create a shabby-chic style haven to which her family and friends retreat for 3 months of the year. Gorgeously illustrated, Summers in France is my idea of the perfect interior design book – packed to the brim with ideas and inspirations, with lots of photographs and a bit of commentary to give some context. Detailed shots of the bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchen areas allow the readers to discover how Ireland makes a room come together. She not only shares the inside details of her remodel, she also provides tips and ideas about entertaining and how to make guests comfortable - and, more importantly, lists what guests can do to ensure an invitation to come back! Not only that, Ireland also provides a window through which we can peek into her personal life through family photographs and journal-styled entries showing her family and friends enjoying their wonderful Summer holidays in France. A great coffee-table book and all-round wonderful read.

[writer... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with photographs of views from her home renovation , celebrations, and summer village life in France. An invitation...

[DPK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this - her spirit, her message, the photos! Looks like a beautiful place, and a wonderful part of France.

[Brianna Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely pictures, hosting tips, and inspo for my future French chateau!

[Kim Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really design, not really food. Lovely pictures

[Gail Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathryn Ireland is living the dream... she runs a successful interior design business in California with her gorgeous, successful, loving, patient husband and spends her holidays summering in her beautiful, bucolic renovated farm house in the midi-Pyrenees in the south of France. She's accompanied on her holidays by her husband and their three young boys and has family, friends and acquaintances coming to stay to share the experience and enjoy her phenomenal hospitality. This book is a loving ode to the renovation of the farmhouse and stables. It's essentially a coffee table picture book with gorgeous full page photos of the house surrounded by gorgeous gardens and fields, interspersed with a diary of daily life during summer holidays complete with holidays snaps (photos), pretty interior design sketches and beautifully written lists of renovating, gardening and hospitality tips and tasks. The last chapter is filled with rustic French recipes - all of which are easy to reproduce and rate highly on the YUMMO scale. Summers In France is a beautiful holiday read - I received this book as a Christmas gift and read it one Saturday afternoon sitting on my back deck, drinking white wine while eating olives and goats cheese and... dreaming of going to stay with Kathryn at her beautiful farmhouse during a French summer. The only problem is... one would eventually have to leave!

[Annmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a scrapbook of this woman's summers in France in an old farmhouse she remodeled. She's apparently an interior decorator and textile designer and is not the same person as the model turned designer Kathy Ireland, as far as I can tell. Anyway pretty photos and brief text that amused me on my deck while I pretended I too have a Provence farmhouse and the time to spend summers there with loads of friends, cooking and drinking and riding ponie in sunflower fields on my way to buy fancy cheese at the weekly market in a charming French town. The book is basically like drinking a mojito. Not really actual helpful tips for interior design, the text gets a bit "lives of the wealthy" & precious at times, the recipe chapter for casual fresh French farm food was actually inspiring, and the photos were fun.

[Maicie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recounting of an LA woman who purchases a farm in France and turns it into a retreat for family and friends.

The photos are great; fab design ideas and beautiful countryside. But my knickers got in an awful twist while reading how difficult it was for this poor woman to get decent help installing her swimming pool.

I don't begrudge the wealthy their wealth. However, I couldn't share in the author's delight over saving a few bucks having her Audi shipped to France from the U.S.

Maybe I am turning into a bitter old woman.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathryn Ireland is my favorite artist/designer and I love collecting her books. They are beautiful, full of inspiration, and this book didn't disappoint. I've read it cover to cover twice and I love the stories she tells of the people who visit her, her love of the little French town her home is in, it's so dreamy!

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I will never own a former farm house in France, nor will I have friends who do, but this book let me dream for a couple of hours and imagine that I do. Really enjoyed the photos and stories of keeping Summer in France.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book with beautiful photos, inspirational really, combined with poorly edited or even unedited text. I noticed many grammatical errors, typos and confusing verb tenses that I would prefer to have corrected prior to publishing.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cue to MY summer home in France! Not if, but when.... :)

[Jacquelyn Core · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less about decorating for me and more about a way of life. Open doors and windows. Open invitations. Plentiful good food, great company, and an amazing ease to life...

[Lua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photos. Fun to imagine having my own summer home in France...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded up