French antiques and vintage finds can, at the very least, bring a softness to a space and, at the very most, a femininity. The French aesthetic here at Tallwood is quite pronounced and can be traced back decades, to the installation of a rather glamorous French grisaille in the dining room. Needless to say, I was enchanted from the start. The term grisaille comes from the French word for “gray” (gris) and is a painting technique in which a monotone underpainting is overlaid with translucent oils. I often catch myself lost in the famous fountains of the Villa D’Este, which our grisaille depicts.
