Rooted in the rural French countryside, the French Country style includes both modest farmhouse designs as well as estate-like chateaus. At its roots, the style exudes a rustic warmth and comfortable designs. Typical design elements include curved arches, soft lines and stonework. Inside, you’ll find wood beams, plaster walls and stone floors as common thematic features.

Authentic Tuscan architecture normally features tall, narrow wood-framed windows along with the use of window shutters. Many Tuscan style homes also have an enclosed courtyard. Most of the Tuscan style homes have a stucco exterior, and a large number also include some stone.

There are some similarities between Mediterranean home design and Tuscan home design. However, authentic Tuscan architecture tends to be a little less busy or intricate in appearance. And that basic "Italian villa" approach has worked well for many, many years.

Here are some of the main characteristics of the Tuscan theme accessories

*Stucco Veneziano
*Crumbling stone walls
*Romantic Tuscan ligthing
*Wrought iron accessories
*Stone farmhouse
*Floors of marble & terra cotta

When you’re looking to build a home in the tuscan home decoration, it would be made from a natural rustic stone (sandstone) in order to give that natural style.

On the roof, you would place terracotta tiles to further enhance the outward appearance, and this is easily done on the modern day home as well to give the Tuscan feel. The windows would be deeper set into the home and have wooden shutters to add to the rustic appeal.

The outside of the home, however, is just as important as the actual structure. Many Tuscan homes will include a portico or patio that is surrounded by sandstone bricks for privacy. The homes also tend to include fountains in their courtyards as well as statues for decoration.

Of all the American states, Louisiana owes its most enduring heritage to the French, who founded New Orleans to control the Mississippi River. The state was the southernmost area of France's vast Louisiana Territory and became part of the United States in 1803 when President Jefferson doubled the size of the country with the Louisiana Purchase.

By that time, Creole and Cajun influences had stamped New Orleans and the countryside with a distinctive look adapted from the architecture of their homeland in ways that met the exigencies of the climate and natural environment.

Creole (French who were born in America) architecture developed around New Orleans in the early 18th century. It featured hipped roofs and half-timbered construction using cypress, which was abundant and did not rot in the warm, moist climate. Roofs extended over wide galleries, or porches, to protect walls and provide shade. Doors from first-floor rooms opened onto galleries, not a central hall. After experiencing rains, floods, and invasions of insects, settlers began to build their houses on low brick or wooden posts to raise living areas above ground level.

The Cajuns (a corruption of the word Acadians) arrived after 1755 when the British forcibly deported them from Acadie, now Nova Scotia, where they were farmers and fishermen. The French Acadians chose Louisiana as refuge, settling along the rivers and bayous in the southwest section of the state. They adapted Creole architecture, changing it slightly.

For example, the Acadians built steep-pitched roofs with gabled end walls, just like those once so useful in Nova Scotia for casting off snow. The need no longer existed, but the old way persisted.

Still later, the simple Creole and Acadian cottages evolved into plantation houses and raised cottages.

The impressive, sheltering roofs and decorative wood designs of this style harken to the French countryside. Discovering one of these homes is like stepping back in time to a gentle, romantic era filled with whimsical charm.

Half-timbered wood set inside stucco walls, wide, wooden beams and steeply-pitched roofs are the hallmarks of French Normandy style. The rules are not hard and fast, however. Windows can vary wildly in shape and size, chimneys can be short or tall, roofs can have irregular heights.

This style wasn’t created by a single architect; it flourished in France with regular people building homes themselves that suited their needs. Wealthy Americans traveling the French countryside in the late 1800s created demand for this style in the United States. Architects in the U.S. loved the style because it was flexible to individual lifestyles but oozing with charm.

If French Normandy is what stirs your spirit, you are a true individual. You walk to the beat of your own drummer, but make plenty of time for friends and family.