A Sneak Peek

My Dining Room

This is a little peek at my house - the painting is a brand new acquisition from a wonderful art show and auction of local Sarasota artists to benefit Guide Dogs and Alzheimer's. The painting features a pair of roseate spoonbills that I also have in my backyard along with a zooful of animals. The house has ten foot ceilings which makes everything look great. I am excited to combine my Chinoiserie collection with some new Florida pieces as well. Headed to West Palm Beach soon for some great vintage shopping there.

Below is a quick shot of my lanai with lots of my blue and white Chinese porcelain.

My Lanai

Below is me winning first prize at the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at a beautiful rooftop venue in Sarasota last month. I am definitely getting blonder down here!

Christmas Chez Chinoiserie Chic

 To decorate my dining room this year for the holidays, I moved a pair of Chinoiserie lanterns to the console to give them more attention and added an ombre Christmas tree. The tree starts silver and then goes to gray and then black. I think it is so sophisticated. I left it unlit and undecorated to really show off its ombre. For a tree skirt I used some African mudcloth I had. The black and white works perfectly.

There is still time to enter my white Christmas tree guessing contest.

Chinoiserie Chic House Tour - The Dining Room

Today my house tour continues with some vignettes from the dining room. Many of you will recall that the Ralph Lauren gold leaf and crystal pagoda chandelier was one of my favorite HomeGoods finds. Here are the other rooms we have looked at to date if you missed them.

Chinoiserie Chic House Tour - My Dressing Room
Chinoiserie Chic House Tour - The Foyer
Chinoiserie Chic House Tour - The Kitchen

My Christmas Dining Room

I Love You HomeGoods

Mary McDonald

 Many of you read yesterday's One Room Challenge post about how I snagged $2,000 worth of Brunschwig & Fils wallpaper on eBay for my laundry room for $150. Well, it happened again!

I have been working so hard on my laundry room makeover, that I decided to take a little break yesterday and make a HomeGoods run. I have shopping ESP, do you? I sensed walking in that I was going to find something truly amazing. I always head to the lighting department first, because I have posted before about my addiction to Ralph Lauren Chinoiserie lamps I find at HomeGoods.

There it was, calling out to me - "Beth, Beth, I'm over here."

A
Huge
Ralph Lauren
Gold Leaf
And Crystal
Chinoiserie
Pagoda
Lantern

The regular price on it was $2,000 and I got it for $350.00. I have been looking for a new chandelier for my dining room for ages, and what I really envisioned was a gold leaf pagoda. I have lived with the lighting fixture I have for years, knowing it would someday appear. The one below is one I posted on that got away on eBay much to my dismay. I like mine a thousand times more.

There is one small glitch. It is missing its ceiling canopy (the round piece that hides the hole in the ceiling). I spent some time looking for replacements online and none are gold leaf and none have modern lines - lots of antique reproductions. Maybe I can find a simple brass or metal one and have my amazing antique restorer in Old Town gold leaf it for me. I have not shown you a picture of it, as I would much rather have you see it for the first time hanging in my dining room. So you can look forward to my dining room reveal and my laundry room reveal.

As an aside, I have had great luck on Etsy and eBay with wallpaper, especially high end wallpaper. Several years ago a follower of Chinoiserie Chic emailed me about an Etsy seller with 15 rolls of Clarence House Chinoiserie Baroque for $150. Here is the post about it from 2010. It is a very expensive and very beautiful and very discontinued paper worth $$$$. I snatched it up and it is gorgeous in my dining room. Here is a tour of my dining room with the existing chandelier.

Clarence House Chinoiserie Baroque

On the laundry room side, my wallpaper hanger spent all day yesterday skimming and sanding the laundry room walls and they look like glass. Today he is doing still more prep work and priming them, so the hanging won't start until tomorrow. Quite a perfectionist. Tomorrow he wants me to work with him positioning the layout of the design.

The one that got away on eBay, not mine

A Chinoiserie Christmas - My Chinoiserie Home

I was in HomeGoods a couple days ago and spotted these fantastic gold faux coral garlands for $12.00. I created quite a Tony Duquette moment in my dining room. I picked up a second one too that I think I will spray paint coral pink for a different look in the spring or summer.

My Dining Room Wallpaper

For those of you who have inquired about my dining room wallpaper, it is Clarence House Chinoiserie Baroque.

Another Reveal

You will recall my excitement last weekend over the pair of Chinoiserie paintings I had just won at auction. After hanging them Sunday, we have had a rainy week ideal for my garden, but not for photography. A glorious fall day today allowed a little photo shoot of them in my dining room.

A linguist friend also uncovered more information on the French artist of these paintings -

"Leila De Dampierre was the wife of Count Robert De Dampierre, French ambassador to Hungary from August 1940 until December 1942. As you noted, she was a poet and painter, illustrated his books with sketches and original designs (e.g., L'equipee d'une legation de France [Norway 1940]), and during his tenure in Hungary they both were active in the public life of Hungary, especially in raising aid for French prisoners of war (after the French collapse in June 1940). You will also see reference to an exposition of her silk paintings with oriental motifs in the Hungary Gazette of 22 January 1944 (the exposition was shared with the watercolors of Baronness Elma Podmaniczky)."