A Well-Kept Home : Household Traditions and Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother

by Laura Fronty, Yves Duronsoy (Photographer)

This classic volume—now available in a new, smaller format and at a reduced price—provides time-tested advice and old-fashioned wisdom for maintaining a lovely and inviting home. The frantic quality of modern life and our increasing reliance on technology and on manufactured goods has submerged our awareness of the inherited and seasonal patterns of effective domestic household management. A Well-Kept Home revives the more natural methods used by our forebears to run their homes, reflecting on the traditional way that earlier generations cooked, cleaned, decorated, groomed, and gardened. In this exquisitely illustrated book, Laura Fronty draws on her own grandmother’s life experiences in the home and the garden, providing helpful tips and natural solutions for effective food preparation, cleaning methods for clothes and the interior, restorative beauty treatments, and basic approaches to gardening. She emphasizes the satisfaction gained from even the most mundane of tasks and offers indispensable tips for activities that cover a variety of domestic themes, such as making bitter orange marmalade or instant shortcrust pastry, lighting a wood fire, treating wooden floors with wax, mixing ivy water for cleaning delicate fabrics, and preparing lily oil as a face moisturizer. A Well-Kept Home transforms our approach to the daily chores surrounding the upkeep of a home. The practical advice and natural recipes make it possible to take real pleasure in essential household duties, while at the same time evoking the atmosphere and spirit of a time gone by.

Genres: Nonfiction, France, Self Help, Reference

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 2001

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Well Kept Home is a beautiful book of artfully arranged spaces in pretty rooms. Interspersed are the many tips and old secret ways to do things like keep butter, shine shoes the natural way, dye fabrics, concoct food based cleansers,moisturizers, plant and gardening wisdom. Not terribly likely or practical for today's busy household but perhaps fun to try alternative methods. Who knows, maybe better after all?

[Erin Hendrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would be the helpful/practical sort, but it turned out to be useful only as a sort of historical account of rural French housecleaning techniques. Most of the advice and instructions were for pretty outdated practices (or at least, not ones common to the US), like whitewashing your house with lime every year, and most of the ingredients and recipes for preserves or cleaning solutions were things I've never seen in stores. So, maybe an interesting book to flip through, but don't expect it to be very helpful.

[Abby Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you sit and read it as a whole, it is very soothing, encourages beauty, tender care, details, and a love of glass, plants, food, and fabrics. It's hygge before hygge. But, it's a quick read. It's more of a vibe than it's actually concrete help.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the photography and laughed hysterically at the text. Never has a book made working relentlessly appear so peaceful and lovely -- it's all gracefully gliding swan, and no frantically paddling feet.

As much as our authors want to portray their French grandmothers as living a life of calm, bucolic simplicity, I posit that was mostly an illusion they enjoyed while their grandmothers worked tirelessly to make life pleasant for the family.

Seriously, A Well-Kept Home just makes it all seem like so much WORK, but the authors seem to have no clue. Here's a textual example, discussing "The properties of iris" (p. 131):

"Once ground, Florence iris rhizomes make a fantastic natural toothpaste, which whitens and polishes teeth efficiently. Just dip a damp toothbrush into the powder."

It was the use of "just" in this sentence that made me laugh a bit madly. Of course, "just" dip your toothbrush in the powder of ground Florence iris rhizomes! When really, the process goes something like this:

(1) Inherit land or money to buy land where you can grow Florence irises. Alternatively, work hard enough to make the money to buy it. Wikipedia says Florence irises grow in Italy, France, and Mediterranean islands, so good luck with that. I guess one could grow it in a pot if you had limited space, but then, of course, you'll have to pick which of the many gardening tasks in this book are worth the space. And see below my query about how many irises are needed for sufficient supply?

(2) Successfully grow said Florence irises. Plant them, water them, and keep them free of pests and disease. And, of course, you wouldn't use any fertilizers or pesticides. Keep it natural.

(3) Harvest the rhizomes. [???] No clue what this process would entail, nor how much would be needed. Does one require a whole field of irises, or will a few suffice? Does harvesting the rhizomes require destroying the plant? What time of year is best?

(4) Grind the Florence iris rhizomes. Honestly, this seems like the easiest part to me. I have lots of frustration that can be channeled usefully into grinding rhizomes.

(5) Preserve the ground rhizomes? I'm not clear on this at all. If the rhizomes can only be obtained at a certain point during the year, how does one preserve the ground rhizome for the rest of the year? Once ground, how long does it keep?

(6) And then, of course, "just" dip your toothbrush into your ground Florence iris rhizomes.

I don't know ... maybe I'll "just" go buy some toothpaste at the pharmacy instead.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has lots of cleaning tips.

[Dani Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do love the pictures and flipping through this book, however it feels lacking in other aspects. The book is mainly written in bullet points of miscellaneous tips like “rub a cut onion over glass to keep paint off”. While there are some interesting tips, I wish there were more to them like cleaning or recipes for natural cleaners or really tips on how to actually have a “well kept home” which after reading this made me feel like I still didn’t know. I just have a myriad of random tips some bordering on old wives tales which are fun to read but not necessarily useful.

[Missy LeBlanc Ivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommend by my good friend, Happy. This is the perfect coffee table book full of beautiful photos and vintage household tips and how-tos to naturally cleaning with essential oil recipes...but only a few, baking, preserving and homemade recipes for soap and other beauty care. Love it! But, a lot of stuff in there is not really practical and I don’t have a coffee table. So, after shelving for a while, it’s off to Goodwill.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical oddities for household hints, but some very pretty pictures!

[Caitlin Rhea · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for modernity, this book will disappoint at every turn. But if you're looking for nearly-lost time-tested practices for keeping a home that you cannot find using a quick Google search, this book is a diamond. Other reviews say the solutions within are "impractical," but I believe a better word is, "unconventional." I gained so much useful knowledge from this book that will aid my family in rebuilding our 1800s farmstead and in reclaiming a fading way of life.

[Karly Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful and useful book! Things are presented in a calm and straightforward way while still haloed in lovely language. No 5 page intricate directions though there are some pretty wild (to me) recipes for polishes, cleaning clothes, etc. Wonderful!!! I did check this out at the library but am tempted to buy myself a copy just to have it!

[Lanigan Vitaceae · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time for inspiration in natural homemaking.

[Xia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely. Informative. Folksy.

[Mandy Crumb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vintage recipes for furniture polish and toothpaste are bookended by calming photographs. A good book to enjoy once but not one that deserves a permanent place in my life.

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful and nostalgic romp.

[Abbey Holladay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely photography and old world housekeeping. It is lovely to browse through.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and pretty light read. There were household tips on each page, many of which I could use, although there were quite a number involving ingredients that aren't at all common. Lovely photographs as well.

[Melissa]

Has interesting tips for things like making your own soap, preserving lemons, washing the floor and other stuff that French country women do.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice book with lots of photos but also lots of really good tips for how to make your home nicer.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the photographs, text not so practical if you don't live in rural France.