Sunday Inspiration

How's this for an incredible use of a Chinese screen? This is the entry to Suzanne Boyd's New York apartment as featured in O magazine.

Saturday Chinoiserie Picks

New from Gumps, these darling Chinoiserie magnets based on vintage Chinoiserie textiles and gorgeous Chinoiserie table linens, quite like de Gournay for the table, all quite well priced and fabulous to boot!

de Gournay

Friday Chinoiserie Find

I love this Conure Rug from Anthropologie. I think it has the feel of Gracie or de Gournay for your floor, don't you? It has a gray background and is hand embroidered in wool. Starting at $78.00 for a 2' x 3', it is available in sizes up to 9'x 12'. I think it would be wonderful for a powder room, bedroom, or entry. Or what about hanging it on the wall!

The Chinoiserie Bar Cart

I admit that I have a thing for bar carts. There is something so glamorous about a well stocked bar cart. Mine below is all ready for guests at all times save for ice. I always keep white wine and champagne chilled as well. My nickel and glass version from Restoration Hardware is quite classic in design. If you enlarge the photo you will see Chinoiserie touches including silver parasol cocktail picks and a silver pagoda bottle stopper. Isn't this antique Chinoiserie cart above to die for?

Here is my daughter's bar cart below-a great Art Deco version in chrome and black glass from Target we snagged a couple years ago. Be sure to check out this previous post I did on the Chinoiserie bar for more inspiration. eBay is a great source for vintage bar carts. Several years ago I read a great quote by an interior designer who said the only problem with bar carts was the concern that the host might roll it away!

White Webb Chinoiserie

Some wonderful Chinoiserie design ideas from the New York design firm of White Webb. Above, a custom designed over the mantle mirror with a collection of blue and white Chinese porcelain. Below, a custom screen with antiqued mirrors behind an antique Buddha.

A pagoda dog bed with Greek key trim.

Treillage walls.

A black lacquered Chinoiserie credenza gives weight to this traditional room of watermelon and celadon.

Red lacquer turns this media room and this bathroom into dramatic spaces.

Grasscloth

One of my favorite wall treatments for the Chinoiserie room is grasscloth. Green, environmentally friendly, elegant, textural, warm, and sophisticated, it can be made from sea grass, jute, hemp, arrowroot, rush, sisal, or bamboo. It is particularly great in new houses where it gives much needed instant character. Grasscloth comes in every color and can be found screen printed or embroidered in countless or even custom patterns. Interior designers adore the papers of Phillip Jeffries. Above is a room by Meg Braff.

Elizabeth Dinkell

Suzanne Kasler

Mary McDonald

Thibaut

Mark Lund

Phillip Jeffries

Eddie Ross

Japanese Quince

To me, there is no flower that is more quintessentially Chinoiserie or holds the promise of spring quite like Japanese Quince. I have several of these lovely shrubs in my garden. They could not be easier to force indoors-just cut a few branches when the flower buds begin to swell and show color and place them in a vase with fresh water. In my area, this is happening now. I love the dramatic and architectural look of the coral pink flowers against the bare branches. These two lovely images are courtesy of Style Court.

Japanese Quince is perfect in blue and white Chinese porcelain. Check out this wonderful Twenty-Two Piece Blue & White Porcelain Canton Collection at The Well Appointed House.

Or perhaps a painting of Japanese Quince like this one from Olga Plam.

James Waterman-acrylic on board.

One of my favorite wallpapers-Flowering Quince by Clarence House.

Charlotte Moss on Chinoiserie

SA: Chinoiserie is a common thread in your work. How can people bring this element into their own homes and make it look appropriate?
CM: You can start with something as simple as a chinoiserie tea caddy, a tray, a screen, or a wallpaper panel framed as a piece of art. A black lacquered secretary is a good choice because it's not as bold as a whole room done in chinoiserie, like my dining room in New York. I'm drawn to this style for its exotic nature. I love the characters and landscapes because they all tell a story. The same is true for a chinoiserie toile; it wants to have a conversation with me, and I love that.

(Courtesy of Southern Accents)

Chinoiserie Jewelry

Ward Kelvin, an emerging jewelry designer in luxury jewelry, has launched his first collection entitled American Chinoise. The forty piece collection is his modern interpretation of 1930s Hollywood Regency with its bamboo and lattice filled interiors. The pieces are light and airy. He wishes the woman wearing it to feel "it was created by the chicest chinoiserie bird, as if it were creating a nest." He uses gold, platinum, diamonds, peridots, and Mali garnets. Mr. Kelvin previously designed for Tiffany & Co. and Ralph Lauren. His jewelry can be found at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan now and Neiman Marcus in San Francisco this spring. Pictured here are the Bamboo cuff ($20,450), Chinoise Bracelet, and Peacock Earrings. Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

The Chinoiserie Garden

After my post yesterday on blue fu dogs, I received a fascinating comment by Magnaverde on my reference to the Fu Dog Garden at Robert Allerton Park near Monticello, Illinois. Despite having grown up in Lake Forest, Illinois, I was unaware of this wonder. Robert Allerton was the only son of Samuel Allerton, founder of the First National Bank of Chicago. He was an art collector, philanthropist, and artist. He legally adopted as his son his life partner John Gregg. Their estate in Illinois is now the University of Illinois' Robert Allerton Park. Their home in Kauai, Hawaii is now Allerton Garden. He also donated over 6,600 works of art to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The early gardens of the 1,500 acre Allerton Park had a strong European influence, but as he expanded his travels it took on an Asian flair, from the Avenue of the Chinese Musicians, to the Chinese Maze Garden, to the Fu Dog Garden with 22 porcelain fu dogs. Few of you know that I am an avid gardener, a Master Gardener, and studied landscape design, and I would love to someday visit this garden of Chinoiserie delights. My own garden has a strong Chinoiserie influence-wisteria, Japanese quince, peonies, camellias, blue and white Chinese porcelain and my Chinoiserie shed with its Chinese blue door and dragon door knocker. I hope this tour of Robert Allerton Park may inspire you to plan some Chinoiserie features for your own garden this spring.