My Florida Inspiration Boards Circa 2013

The Living Room

Back in 2013, I did a series for The Glam Pad of fantasy inspiration boards for a wonderful historic Coral Gables, Florida home that was on the market at the time. I was married, living in Alexandria, Virginia, and the thought of living in Florida had never ever crossed my mind.

Fast forward, and here I am widowed, living in Sarasota, Florida in the middle of a pandemic. "May you live in interesting times." Interestingly, that expression has long been said to be a Chinese curse, but there is no truth to its origin being Chinese.

BTW, the house sold for $600,000 in 2014 and then was on and off the market since 2015, with an asking price of up to $1.85 million and finally sold in 2019 for $1.175 million. Chinese Village consists of eight homes built in 1923, designed by noted architect Henry Killam Murphy.

Chinese Village House in Coral Gables

I  thought it might be fun to repost my Florida Inspiration Boards. I still really like them!

The Entryway

The Dining Room

The Kitchen

The Home Office

The Porch

The Master Bedroom

The Guest Bedroom

It's quite interesting to me that all of my things from my previous home have worked perfectly here in Florida. My only purchase was a navy blue velvet sofa for the living room because the sofa I had was too large, but I repurposed it for the sitting area in the master bedroom. I think my decorating style was always a bit more Palm Beach than Virginia, but then I think Chinoiserie Chic style is a classic that works anywhere!

I'd love to hear what part of the county you live in, what type of home (condo, townhouse, single family), and how you've used Chinoiserie elements in your own home.

For example, I live in a single family home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida. I have a large collection of Chinoiserie, especially blue and white Chinese porcelain, art, Chinese Chippendale chairs, and pagodas that I use in every room of my home, including outdoors. My absolute favorite Chinoiserie element is blue and white ginger jars.

Gorgeous Giveaways & A Virtual Show House

Two of my sponsors are having great giveaways right now that I don't want you to miss. Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda has launched a new website and redesigned her blog and is celebrating with a wonderful giveaway of three items from her prints and accessories stores. She is also having a print sale. Find out all the details here.

My newest sponsor Charlotte & Ivy is giving away a beautiful navy chevron blanket (navy and chevron are two of my favorites) to celebrate their partnering with Chinoiserie Chic and to introduce you to their sensational online store. You can read the details and enter on this post here.

If you have been following my virtual makeover of the Chinese Village House over at The Glam Pad, I am finally finished with it! Andrea has done a recap and you can see a virtual show house tour here.

The ginger jar from The Pink Pagoda's giveaway

The Pink Pagoda's giveaway

Some great pieces from Charlotte & Ivy's online store

Charlotte & Ivy's chevron blanket giveaway

9 Palm Beach Chic Inspiration Boards

Living Room

 With the passing of Lilly Pulitzer this past week, Palm Beach style has been very much in the news. I think you will see interior designers feature the Palm Beach look in the next year in homage to her. Coincidentally, I have been doing guest posts over at The Glam Pad the past 2 months featuring my virtual makeover of the historic Chinese Village House in Coral Gables currently on the market. Here are the 8 rooms I have done inspiration boards on to date all in Palm Beach Chic.

Head over to The Glam Pad to see today's 9th board - the upstairs landing and hall. For each inspiration board, you can click on the caption to be linked to the original post for details on the room. BTW, I did the porch with furniture from the Lilly Pulitzer home collection.

Watercolor of Chinese Village House by Laura Mullaney

Entryway

Dining Room

Kitchen

Porch

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Home Office

Raw Meat, Guest Post, New Inspiration Board

Raw Meat Fabric - My Contest Entry

The other day I was researching one of my favorite fabrics - Scalamandre Zebras and came across the 2013 First Annual The Ugly Fabric Contest using Scalamandre Zebras in the yellow colorway as the Pinterest board cover for the contest. Shocked, I clicked over to the blog and contest rules and decided to enter the contest. This is my submission - Raw Meat above. Voting for the ugliest fabric starts today and runs through Sunday. The blogger, who has a sewing workroom, plans to make window treatments out of the top three finalists' fabrics. This I want to see!

Please stand up for all that is Chinoiserie Chic and Palm Beach Chic by voting here for my submission - Raw Meat. You vote by leaving a comment over there choosing my submission - Raw Meat. And yes, if you'd like to buy this lovely fabric you can purchase it here in cotton, a linen blend, or even silk. Perhaps a roman shade for the kitchen or silk panels for the dining room? Nothing whets the appetite like staring at yards of raw meat.

And speaking of Chinoiserie Chic and Palm Beach Chic, today my series at The Glam Pad continues where I am doing a virtual makeover of a fabulous historic house in Coral Gables - The Chinese Village House. Pop over and see my new inspiration board for the dining room.

If you missed my first post in the series - a makeover of the entryway and main hall, click here. And yes, I did use Scalamandre Zebras.

And don't forget to vote for Raw Meat by leaving a comment over here. ;-)

Scalamandre Zebras