Faudree Charles - Charles Faudree Country French Legacy

Charles Faudree
Country French Legacy

Photographed and Written by
Jenifer Jordan

Charles Faudree Country French Legacy

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2015 Jenifer Jordan

Photographs 2015 Jenifer Jordan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-3855-1

In celebration of Charles Faudree: his beautiful heart, his love and friendship to many, his distinctive design talent, and his love of all things Country French.

W here does one begin in talking about a man like Charles Faudree? He held a certain type of magic, like the Pied Piper, that caused people to follow his lead. In the process his followers fell in love with his energy, enthusiasm, talent, humor and zest for life! He was known as the master of Country French style. This was truly a giftcoming from Muskogee, Oklahoma, Charless hometownhaving that innate style and vision of his signature look. His look evolved and changed throughout the years. It was never trendy and was always timeless. This book shows his design legacy, which is oh, so Charles.

Jenifer Jordan has photographed for Charles for more than twenty-seven years, beginning with regional field editor Nancy Ingram and Traditional Home magazine. This book includes the broad scope of Charless career, including Jenifers images of his earlier works as well as his last completed projects. She shows how his look has withstood the test of time and yet has evolved and changed. Charless work is simply amazing.

Then there is Charles the person. What a great brother, partner, friend, teacher and clown. He was a devoted partner to me, a doting brother to Francie, and a great friend to many. Some remarked at his memorial service that he had 300 best friends. He never met a stranger and always had time to listen. He was gracious, humble, and will be missed by many. Charles remarked many times that he had one more book in him. I am sorry he was not able to see it, but I hope you all will enjoy this look at his Country French design legacy.

Right: Lila and Ruby nap on a French chair covered in Dauphine/Teal from the Charles Faudree Collection for Stroheim.

In a beautiful outdoor Jamaican breezeway, a pair of 19th-century French iron chairs flanks a 1940s French bronze table with a faux bronze marble top.

I have had the privilege of photographing five of Charles Faudrees Country French design books; it is with love and honor that I present his sixth book, Charles Faudree Country French Legacy.

I met Charles in l987 when I was hired to photograph his home for a Christmas issue for Traditional Home magazine with Nancy Ingram, regional field editor. I remember it vividly. It was a hot, humid October day in Oklahoma when I walked into the most beautiful, opulent Christmas setting I had ever seen. It was a memorable surprise, stunning! There were bows, ornaments, wreaths, decorated trees and flowers making it a Christmas wonderland like only Charles could dowith style.

Fast forward to 2002 and many fun photography shoots of his work with Charles and Nancy for national interior design magazines and books. The three of us thought we should do our own design book together. I crudely prepared a book prototype; I literally cut and pasted images and faux text onto pages into a small book. The one prototype acquired some tattered pages and a few rejections before we found Gibbs Smith publisher. We completed what we set out to do, our first design book, Charles Faudrees French Country Signature. The book was well received and Charles created quite the following across the country. Over the next few years we added four more volumes to our library, including Charles Faudrees Country French Living, Charles Faudree Interiors, Charles Faudree Details and Charles Faudree Home .

Charless style was unique and very distinctive. In the twenty-seven years of photographing with this incredible talent, I was always amazed and inspired when I walked into one of the beautiful homes he designed. As the photographer, I walked in, of course, when the rooms were photo-ready; every pillow was, as Charles would say, poofed; fresh flowers were in place; every book and design element was artistically placed and fires were roaring in the fireplaces. It was Charless beautiful vision, but it was my joyous task to photograph and document every detail and record his Country French legacy. As an interior photographer, I see in two-dimensional vignettes and could visually see images for the printed page. There was eye candy everywhere I looked. I could shoot for days in one location and had a hard time editing the images. In the five books I did with Charlesnow sixI hope my photographs of his work illustrated and portrayed his undeniable talent and his aesthetic.

I looked forward to every one of our photo shoots, in anticipation of not only seeing Charless magical talent but of spending time and laughing with my dear friend. I can honestly say that Charles was the funniest person I have ever known. It was not all business all the time! He would make me laugh so hard that sometimes I could not catch my breath. His many jokes included prank calls. I am sure if you have been the recipient of these calls you are laughing right now. Mine was a phone call from an old woman saying she was my neighbor down the street. Do you have two yellow lab dogs? They just ran past my house! Startled, I dropped the phone, but there were Sister and Sadie sitting right beside me. He got me. I picked up the phone and Charles was laughing and laughing.

Once I was setting up a shot and had to move a few things to correct tangencies through the camera. I got closer and there was a red puddle of a spilled bottle of bright red fingernail polish on this very expensive Louis XVII fine antique commode! I quickly grabbed it thinking, Oh, no! Charles was laughing at me picking up his plastic fingernail polish joke in a panic.

The biggest gotcha was in Spain, where we were shooting an incredible villa. The home had one of those faux life-size butlers. We had been shooting for three days and Charles was busy having the butler pop up for a startle and a laugh all over the villa, scaring everyone. The last night of the shoot, I thought I was free from the joke. We had to get up by 4 a.m. for an early flight. I wearily walked into the showerand screamed!

Six days before his passing, Charles and I reminisced about fun times, and he even spoke of us doing another book when he was feeling better. I believe Charles wanted his friends, family and readers to see the last projects he was working on. I hope this book would have fulfilled that desire.

Au revoir cher ami. Good-bye, dear friend.