Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making a Home - Hardcover

Postel-Vinay, Danielle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062741691 ISBN 13: 9780062741691

Publisher: Dey Street Books, 2018

Synopsis

French Women Don’t Get Fat meets The Little Book of Hygge in this lively, sophisticated, and practical illustrated lifestyle guide that shows how to enjoy la belle vie—to live like the French every day—transforming your house into a home defined by beauty, family, and accessible elegance.

How do the French create the elusive and alluring sanctuaries they call home? This question long intrigued Danielle Postel-Vinay. Thanks to a chance encounter with a French expat in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and years of immersive research, she embarked on a quest to discover the secrets of the French home aesthetic.

Experiencing first-hand la belle vie—the beautiful life—Postel-Vinay now shows everyone how to create their own French sanctuary, a home sweet maison, no matter where they live. Providing more than just interior decorating and design tips, Postel-Vinay teaches you how to foster the warmth, beauty, and rituals inherent in the French home and create an environment better suited to living a rich, full, connected life. At the center of the book is the idea that your house should be a reflection of you, your hobbies, your family history, your rituals, all the things that make your life unique. A happy home is a home that expresses your rituals and your taste, not one that relies on prefab décor from a mass retailer.

Home Sweet Maison takes a room-by-room approach to show how the French view: 

• The Aesthetic: why the objects in your home matter, why minimalism is overrated, and why the French always choose the perfect décor for their salons
• The Practical: how to use mise-en-place, or the French art of organization, in your kitchen, and how to find the right stain-removing potions to create your own French laundry
• The Sensual: the way the French employ scent in their home as a personal signature
• The Philosophical: the idea that every room in a French house has a specific purpose, and that the activity in one room should never bleed into the others

Home Sweet Maison encapsulates the very heart of the French way of seeing the world: set the table formally, adhere to all the conventions of ritual and tradition, then take pleasure in indulgence. It’s about using French concepts and routines to change our homes, our relationships, and our lives for the better.

About this title

About the Author

Danielle Postel-Vinay is the French alter ego of the New York Times bestselling author Danielle Trussoni, whose fiction has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Prix Bête Noir des Libraires 2025 and has been translated into over thirty languages. She is married to a Frenchman and spends part of the year in Paris with her family.

From the Back Cover

La vie est faite de petits bonheurs.*

Live as the French do and Make Your Home a Place for Conversation, Tradition, and Pleasure

How do the French create the alluringly beautiful sanctuaries they call home—formal yet comfortable, organized yet casual, filled with decorative objects that are also a practical part of their everyday lives? What may feel effortless is not, of course, and in Home Sweet Maison, Danielle Postel-Vinay shares what she has learned about the French art of making a home. Through a transformative friendship with a Frenchwoman who mentored her in the good life, her marriage to a Parisian man, and years of immersive research while living in France, Postel-Vinay learned the true essence of how the French live la belle vie.

Home Sweet Maison takes a room-by-room approach to show how the French view: 

• The Aesthetic: why the objects in your home matter, why minimalism is overrated, and why the French always choose the perfect décor for their salons
• The Practical: how to use mise-en-place, or the French art of organization, in your kitchen, and how to find the right stain-removing potions to create your own French laundry
• The Sensual: the way the French employ scent in their home as a personal signature
• The Philosophical: the idea that every room in a French house has a specific purpose, and that the activity in one room should never bleed into the others

. . . and much more.

Sophisticated, charming, and aspirational, Home Sweet Maison is a unique look at how the French view their most intimate spaces, family life, and themselves. With touches of history and how-to, Postel-Vinay explains the life-changing benefits of introducing French traditions and practices into your home. You may personalize the entrance to your apartment, make your dining room the soul of your home, or create a kitchen space that moves with the efficiency of a four-star restaurant, but more important, Home Sweet Maison shows that anyone, with any kind of living space, can create a sanctuary; a home filled with warmth and self-expression, better suited to living a rich, full, connected life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dey Street Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062741691
• ISBN 13: 9780062741691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288