French Riviera Style from: Decorating Ideas Using Optical Illusions from Menton, France

In the words of Keith Richards, Menton is "an Italian town just inside France by some quirk of treaty making." The town certainly fits that description, though for five hundred years the principality of Monaco claimed it for its own. The truth, like the French town, lies somewhere in between. Located ten minutes west of Ventimiglia, Italy and ten minutes east of Monte-Carlo in Monaco is the Menton property of a woman whose story reflects that of the town. A Monasgasque with an Italian name who now lives in France, she entrusted the makeover to a fellow Monagasque, a sculptor, who shaped it into a jewel box using simple techniques grounded on that cornerstone of artist's training: perspective. He did it without moving a wall, and so can you. Here's how.

Look at the the open kitchen and living room above. It would have been simple enough to leave the living room walls white, which is what most of us do as the easy way out. Or, to match the kitchen cabinets, we zealously paint the whole wall matchy matchy at the risk of overpowering the living room. Instead, the lines and colors of the kitchen cabinets, white and wine, have been extended directly into the living room. This makes it possible to:

• Make both rooms look larger than they are. The small wall divider clearly states "there are two rooms here," yet with the continuity of color and line, if you look at the kitchen it appears to incorporate the space of the living room, and vice versa. It almost creates a mirror effect.
• Push up the ceiling. The ceiling in the house is not particularly low, but unless you have cathedral ceilings and feel dwarfed by them, most homes can use a ceiling lift. bringing the ceiling color down a short distance onto the wall is one common way to achieve this.

One oft-seen recommendation to make a house or apartment look larger is to use the same floor treatment in as many connecting rooms as possible. The same is true with color, as we have just seen. But depending on your needs, a touch is sometimes all it takes. Here, elements of the wine color are carried into the bedroom and hall, and cleverly used to:

• Add substance to a picture or other wall hanging by placing it within a proportionately-sized frame of your making. Simply square off the area using painter's tape and voila! Do be sure to accurately measure the distance on either side or the effect is lost.
• Create depth in a short hall. Architects, given the chance will often design curved hallways to prevent you from seeing to the end and thus creating the illusion that the hall continues on and on, rooms sprouting on either side. Here a vertical band of paint creates the same illusion, constituting a narrowing focal point as one would have with a painted door at the end of a long hall.

Often we fret over what to do with odd-shaped spaces such as the trapezoidal area on one of the hillside property's terraces that spans the front gate and the house. Yet artists and architects sometimes seek to create just such a shape for the visual illusion of depth it provides. Here is how you achieve the same effect:

• Simulate depth using lines that taper away. Notice how the trapezoidal koi pond, which extends straight to the front gate from the house, emphasizes the already existing tapered lines of the surface area on which it was built.
  
• Create a focal point to draw the eye the full length. The vertical stem of the palm tree at the end of the koi pond is wonderful eyecatcher that contrasts nicely with horizontal lines of the pond, fence, and drystone wall holding back the upper terrace.
  
• Frame the most advantageous view. The best view need not be the biggest. While the huge palm tree looks fabulous lit at night, during the day the awning not only provides respite from the Mediterannean sun, it frames the lovey koi pond setting and offers a chance to introduce citrus colors, which brings us to our next point.

Nestled amidst the lush warm valleys that, like the Alps themselves, radiate out from the sea starting on the beaches of Menton, the location's unique geography has been a draw since Neanderthal times. Later, medieval homo sapiens turned it into a shipping hub for citrus across Europe. Then, in the mid 1800s, wealthy Brits and Russians realized that if lemons could winter in Menton's micro-climate, so should they. They flocked by the droves into the pebble-paved streets and onto the pebble beaches, and by the early 1900s, luxury hotels and villas had pushed out most of the citrus orchards. Nonetheless, citrus and pebbles alike are irresistable icons and integrating them into the decor is a way of rooting a home in Menton's history.

Menton is one of only two tiny flecks on the French map that qualify under USDA hardiness zone 10 (10a to be more precise) and yet it has developed it's own strain of lemon, the citron de Menton with a flavor and chemical make-up so unique it has chefs around France and abroad clamouring for more, and the mayor is encouraging farmers and even residents to plant and keep the strain thriving. The town even has its own citrus festival, a carnival with floats decked in oranges and lemons. Climate and surface permitting, you too can:

• Plant a selection of citrus trees. Here, the bust of another Menton icon, the avant-garde poet, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, is seen here in the public gardens of the Palais Carnolès, where "intensive" cultivation of citrus in the area began in the .

• Stagger varieties for a long winter harvest. Menton and Meyer's lemons are not your only options. The Carnolès garden boasts 80 varieties, Europe's largest collection, but you hardly need that many! On the upper terrace of this hillside house, oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit keep make for an ever-renewing treescape.

Keith Richards isn't the only stone roller around Menton. Jean Cocteau, mentioned above, laid his share of paving pebbles around the town during his stays there, turning the local mason's craft into an artform.

• Use pebbles on outdoor walls like Cocteau did here on the Menton fortress when it became the first museum dedicated to him.
• Bring pebbles inside. The Menton home subtely recalls the spirit of Menton and Cocteau with this bathroom flooring that simulates pebble paving.

Of course it needn't be lemons or pebbles at all. What is inspiring here is the way the owner has captured the spirit of a place. You can do the same wherever you live. But if it's really Menton property you're after, do be aware the owner is selling (other photos available), and if you'd like to try the house out first, you can do that too...

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