Red, White, and Blue Chinoiserie

Mary McDonald

In honor of Memorial Day weekend, I thought it might be fun to show some red, white, and blue Chinoiserie rooms that are elegant and not kitschy which is indeed a delicate balance. You don't want your house to end up looking like the Star Spangled Banner.

The Mary McDonald hall above is gorgeous with its blue and white Chinese fish bowls filled with lemon topiaries. The billowy red linen curtains are lovely and not fussy. No Miles Redd ruffles here.

I think the key is to keep the red as pops of color, not dominant.

My Inspiration Board

Ashley Whitakker - House Beautiful

My Inspiration Board

Mary Watkins Wood - House Beautiful 

A spindle settee in blue and white Greek key piped in red

Lonny

One Kings Lane

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend as much as possible. Another pandemic change - I carried out a Costco pizza last night and only cheese or pepperoni - "everything" on it not available. But the pepperoni one was still great.

Inspiration Boards

Foyer

While I was on my Pinterest Board Palm Beach Style looking for something, I came across these inspiration boards I did for various projects. Lots of fun, happy, whimsical spaces. I would love to use some of these ideas in the new house.

Powder Room

Lanai

Home Office

Landing and Hallway

Foyer

Dining Room

Guest Room

Bedroom

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.

Can Black Be Girly?

This week we are looking at the feminine side of Chinoiserie. In fashion, I think everyone will agree that there is nothing more feminine than the little black dress, yet this is not the perception in interior design. We tend to think of rooms with black walls as modern, urban, moody, and somber.

Yesterday, The Pink Pagoda posted on this room below by Leslie Pritchard. Check out the black walls with lots of pink and loads of Chinoiserie. Not the least bit masculine, right? It motivated me to create this board above for The Pink Pagoda's Polyvore contest - "Art-Filled & Feminine." I hope you have entered to win a $500 gift card from Horchow - you can enter as many boards as you wish. Jennifer featured my board today on The Pink Pagoda as well.

I have also included more examples of feminine rooms with black walls. This has me rethinking black walls - just add pops of color and Chinoiserie!

Leslie Pritchard

Vogue

via vmacandcheese

via Cape cod Collegiate

via Singularesmag

Architectural Digest

?

via Desire to Inspire

via the Decorista

Lonny

via crazywildgirl

Feminine Chinoiserie Spaces

Domino

Today Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda launches her Polyvore contest and the theme is Art-Filled and Feminine. You could win a $500 gift card from Horchow. To enter, create as many boards (or sets as Polyvore calls them) as you like expressing your idea of this style.

Since I love this style, I thought it would be fun to run a series this week on Chinoiserie Chic on favorite rooms of mine that combine art, feminine decor, and Chinoiserie.

Here is a board I created last week that reflects my aesthetic in a room combining these elements.

Below are three Polyvore inspiration boards I created this morning and entered in the contest. For all three, I used variations of my 2014 Chinoiserie Chic Color of the Year Lavender.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I am snowed in again here in the DC area. This is getting old! Lots of time today to play on Polyvore.

Come Join My Chinoiserie Chic Group

First up, I have just created my Chinoiserie Chic group on Polyvore. You can join here. I'd love for you to participate and add any inspiration boards that you design with Chinoiserie elements. I will be featuring some of them here on Chinoiserie Chic.

These are two more inspiration boards that I have entered in Calling It Home's Tropical Coastal Decor contest on Polyvore where you could win a $500 gift card from One Kings Lane. The contest ends on Sunday and you can enter as many boards as you wish.

If you'd like to follow my inspiration boards on Polyvore, you can find them here.

Today is my birthday. This blog is a big part of my life and I'd like to thank all of you who follow and support Chinoiserie Chic. I can't imagine my life without this blog or without all of you. Chinoiserie Chic will soon be celebrating its 5th birthday!

Another Polyvore Inspiration Board

I was playing around on Polyvore yesterday and I created this inspiration board. This is pretty much exactly my style. I love the color palette of blue and white, black, pink, and gold. Have you noticed that pink sofas are popping up everywhere? I have used blue and white Chinoiserie wallpaper, curtains edged in Greek key, my favorite pillow from Dana Gibson, and a pink Kate Spade vase. I love mixing in vintage and antique pieces like the coffee table and lamps (topped with new hot pink silk dupioni lampshades). Abstract art is a wonderful way to keep a room looking fresh and modern. I have included a pair of my favorite Frances Elkins loop chairs in black from Charlotte & Ivy.

You can follow all my inspiration boards on Polyvore here. And you need to enter Calling It Home's Tropical Coastal Decor contest here for a chance to win a $500 gift card from One Kings Lane. You can enter as many boards as you wish.

Creating Inspiration Boards

Have you been dying to create beautiful inspiration boards but didn't want to take out a student loan and go back to school to buy and learn Photoshop? Polyvore to the rescue. You can join for free and start creating boards in minutes it's so intuitive and fun. Linda at Calling It Home has a great tutorial here.

Here are some boards I published yesterday. You can see all my Polyvore boards and follow me on Polyvore here. Once I get 30 followers, I plan to create a Chinoiserie Chic group where you can join the group and add any Chinoiserie inspiration boards you create.

To make it even more exciting, Linda has a room design contest on Polyvore called Project Decorate where two winners will receive $500 gift cards from One Kings Lane. Here are three boards I entered in her contest yesterday. You can enter as many boards as you wish. The contest ends Sunday. Here is the link to the contest.

The theme is Tropical Coastal Decor. To make it even easier, I did a post for Linda a while back on Tropical Coastal and how to achieve this look including the good, the bad, and the ugly. You can find it here.

This is a board I created for a contest on Polyvore called Seaside Glamour (the contest has ended) just as an experiment since this was my first contest on Polyvore.

Here is Linda's inspiration board that she created with her vision of Tropical Coastal.

I was so happy to see that it was not filled with Linda's beloved driftwood. I have nightmares of her new home in Florida being filled with this -

Now go have fun and start creating your own boards on Polyvore.