When Rooms Feels Especially Celestial & Ethereal

86,000 followers on my Facebook page, and 80,000 of them are likely turned off by pale neutral rooms. That makes it tricky to share the ethereal spaces I personally favor so I’m thankful for y’all! While that audience on FB prefers chinoiserie, colorful wallpaper, deep moody paint colors, and high contrast, my heart still swells for neutrals. Is it the celestial & ethereal lightness I’m drawn to? The gossamer whispery quietude of spirit? I sense an optimism and a faded elegance to the less-ness and lightness. Maybe this tranquil collection of beauty will soothe whether you admire Modern French, French farmhouse, Tuscan, Nordic French, or Belgian style.

I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.

Celestial & Ethereal European Country Interiors

I was a decorator with colorful rooms at home until I began to experiment with whites in the 90s. More and more, I was attracted to the quieter side of European country inspired spaces. Paleness inside and bold color outside feels both balanced and natural.

After all, colors, texture, objects, and finishes inside and out are always having a conversation, yes?

Designer and blogger Greet Lefèvre’s use of neutrals sets a tone for an elegant, sophisticated, and hushed vocabulary with timeless Belgian style shimmering through it all. (Greet is celebrating her blog’s 15th birthday…Hello Lovely’s 15th will be January 1st!).

Chateau Domingue proprietor Ruth Gay’s quiet Tuscan country manor style home suggests Texas-sized warmth and hospitality.

There’s an earthy conversation happening about the past as well as rich possibilities ahead as traveled and textural glories harmonize.

Oh my, if those reclaimed floors and French Limestone could whisper their stories to us!

Celestial & Ethereal Plaster & Plaster-Like Walls

French antiques, plaster, and Old World style seem to converse poetically in a timeless white European modern kitchen with finishes by Segreto.

To achieve the look of Venetian plaster with an alternative material, Brooke and Steve Giannetti coated walls at Patina Farm with a thin layer of Kal-Kote. No paint required, and what a heavenly backdrop for years of memory making.

Humble & Serene French Nordic Style

There is opulence and fancy talk, and there is the quiet whisper of elegant simplicity.

Like a prayer from a pure heart, faded colors and timeworn hues suggest a learned humility that newly saturated colors seem still too young to understand.

Years around the sun will do that!

When Stone is Ethereal

And what happens when humble faded beauty discovers renewed purpose as it travels to new lands?

How gratifying to honor age! To honor years in the making patina by allowing it to elevate architecturally magnificent shelters.

For lovers of the old, and for dreamers with reverence for the secrets and mystery of spiral-like time, preserving natural beauty which continues to increase with the years, is a sort of calling.

Who can say how living with such beauty births new blessing!

Heavenly Repurposed European Country Antiques

I know firsthand that repurposing something old (whether the old piece is rare and valuable or not) often makes little sense economically speaking.

Yet it’s a very European country sensibility to re-use, re-purpose-re-cycle, re-store, and re-finish.

Pieces are saved from landfills. Aged finishes and peely paint can be enjoyed daily as art.

And it can be so very radical to repurpose or re-use. In a capitalistic culture where we are wooed to dispose, increase consumption, and create anew, resisting the status quo can feel positively generative and earth-honoring.

Confit Jars and European Wares

When functional objects are also prized collections to bring into service daily?

And when they are neutral in color so the look is cohesive and gentle even when the items vary?

These eyes will never tire of collections of white ironstone, terracotta, urns, jars, bowls, and receptacles in a naturally neutral array of hues.

YES, an array!

Texture as Color in European Inspired Spaces

Think of the range of whites, putties, pale sage, linen, limestone, greige, and beyond.

And of course, texture can be all the color we need!

Need proof?

Thank goodness there are no design rules, and ideas about how one must add “a pop” of this or “an accent” with that are simply myths.

Contrast is a wonderful tool for art and decorating.

It can create drama and tension and mood.

Whether high or low, visual contrast contributes to emotional impact.

We need not succomb to exterior pressure to create a mood unreflective of our hearts or outside of the realm we dream of inhabiting. How do my surroundings and lifestyle appear to others? I should care about matters as a blogger, yes? Yet I’m still not interested.

How do I want my life to feel? And how am I creating a life and home that feel right for us? Ahhhhh. These are better guides.

European Country Garden Details

Can the quietude of celestial & ethereal European country color stories extend beyond our walls?

Oui!

A natural color palette is always a brilliant idea.

European Country Sophisticated Simplicity

What is it that makes folks clutter a space with objects and energetic color?

I suppose it’s the spice of life!

Living things have varied tolerances, experiences, and relationships with their environments and nests.

Have you seen bowerbirds who build vibrant-hued nests to attract mates?

Personally, I am become too easily overwhelmed by the volume of colors, clutter, and stimulation. Maybe my bowerbird imagination has all the complexity and color it requires.

Putty, Stone, and Chalky European Texture

What is it about brand new modern rooms with smooth, pristine, finishes that feels flat?

Honesty and an earned integrity are transmitted when finishes are worn and scarred from time and use.

While Charlotte’s French farmhouse kitchen floor above may look just as lovely in photos were her terracotta tiles new, somehow there’s an integral layer of authentic charm added by their 150 years. Those tiles have been kissed by time and served multiple generations.

If new ceramic or porcelain tiles that appear old can fool the eye, is there even a place for investing in old authentic examples?

Investment and budget will answer that in part. Saving the old thing can indeed be costly. But so can settling for new. When you draws life and joy from authenticity, original art and raw beauty, there may simply be no room for the imitation.

So much of life boils down to seeing purely and recognizing your true desires! (Psst. I am working on a book – sort of a mixed media thing right now – and have been writing about longing and desire…why does it take us years to uncover it?)

When you do the soul work to truly see what it is you deeply want and what it is you deeply value, it can be surprising.

So often what our true self longs for contrasts with what our public selves seek. Going inward and relearning what we want makes it easier to turn away from what we don’t want and all of the imitation.

I have been fascinated for more than a decade by how as a species, we seem to readily accept “real enough” over “real.”

How will an Ai-saturated world and metaverse filled with the fanciful and “real enough” affect our travel habits, our social habits, our commitment to preserve earth’s beauty?

Old World Style in a New Build

If I have lost you in an ethereal haze of philosophical rambling, well, then, it’s like you’re right here with me! 17th Century French limestone flooring and discussions of the dangers of losing our human-ness in a rapidly evolving technological landscape? Makes perfect sense to me!

Hopefully seeing a mix of interiors with various neutral color stories, textures, and soulful layering, will open your imagination as it does mine.

Ethereal spaces offer a sort of spaciousness where I personally feel I can freely daydream. All of the finest art seems to do that for us too.

Who can say how mysteries within time, objects, and unseen realms hold together the fabric and the shelters of our lives?

I hope you are creating your own nests of ethereal European country beauty with a sense of freedom.

Only YOU can know what unlocks and awakens a sense of peaceful contentedness in your spirit.

And should you feel perplexed or locked out of the garden of knowing what sets your soul at ease, may I gently remind…

you are held even in the dark wild of unknowing.

As a glorious seeker of beauty, beauty is flowing toward you.

We can always seek more grace to know and to see. You’re never on your own. Oh so much grace is available here and now.

(I’m often available too – hit reply and speak from your heart about what is stirring within.)

More Inspiration to Get the Look

Tap here for a primer for creating a rustic white European inspired look. For an incredible gallery of sophisticated interiors with artful finishes, GO HERE. Also, don’t miss this white paint color idea story and THIS HOME TOUR.

Soulful Beauty

Have a few minutes for a bit more beauty?

This was 62-years young, Lam Duan, a few years back at Elephants World in Thailand. Blind most of her life, there’s something beyond soulful about watching her sway to Bach and classical pieces played by Paul Barton here:

That moment around 2:00 (above) heals something in me. And below, Barton plays Clair de Lune for partly blind, Ampan (who was 80 at the time)…are we sure heaven is later? Is it simply in a lighter realm, accessible right here, right now?

Elephants, humans, and tropical places on an earth created by Divine Love are a perfect combination with music, yes?

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

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