A Chinoiserie Christmas with Southern Style

Southern Living Holiday Chinoiserie Topiary Kitchen Towel

A perfect way to add some chinoiserie charm to your kitchen for the holidays is beautiful kitchen towels. I have towel bars at the ends of my new marble kitchen island and these would be great.

Melissa Rufty of MMR Interiors

If someone were to ask me to name my very favorite interior designers, Melissa Rufty's name would without question be on my list. An interior designer based in New Orleans, MMR Interiors exemplifies my favorite style - a modern take on classic Southern design. I live in an absolutely gorgeous neighborhood  - Belle Haven, in Virginia just outside of DC, a historic neighborhood with beautiful older homes, many of them dating back to the twenties. The new breed of homeowners here exemplifies this modern Southern style - mixing antique and modern pieces in a look that is classic, yet today.


Melissa's approach is relaxed, elegant, sophisticated, chic, modern, classic, layered, and comfortable, with a wonderful use of color and accessories. If you look through these photos from her portfolio, you will see her love of Chinoiserie everywhere. It may be as subtle as a potted orchid or a calligraphy brush, or as bold as hand painted Chinoiserie wallpaper or a Chinoiserie toile fabric, but it is there.

Melissa Rufty

The best Southern interior designers know how to use Chinoiserie in a style that is classic yet modern, but never ever trendy. I have featured before Phoebe Howard who is a perfect example of this. Today we look at New Orleans interior designer Melissa Rufty of MMR Interiors. Her Southern style is elegant and classic imbued with modern and chic, wonderful use of color, and a lovely but subtle dose of Chinoiserie. As we say goodbye to Southern Accents who carried the banner of showing us such talented Southern designers, we in the blogging community can perhaps carry this on in our own way.