Chaneling Mario Buatta @ CCC

CCC

 

Welcome to Casa Chinoiserie Chic. Yesterday I had a Eureka! moment. Do you see the white wicker chaise? That was in my daughter's nursery 37 years ago with a Laura Ashley pink and white ticking stripe cushion. When we moved to a new home when she was a teenager, it ended up in my sun room with the cushion recovered in a Mario Buatta fabric called Evelyn with a skirted table in the same Mario Buatta fabric. 

When I moved to Florida, I brought both with me. I still love the fabric so much. The chaise has been in my guest bedroom and the tableskirt stored because I couldn't decide what to do with them. Yesterday I had the idea to try both in my great room.

News to Share

Venice, Florida

Big news. I am house hunting. Again. I have decided on Venice, Florida, about 30 minutes south. Although I love the house here, a great house is not enough. A house in not a home. I will leave it at that. The good news is that I will have a new house and will share the house hunting, renovating, decorating, and all of it here. I am really looking forward to this next chapter. If any of you know Venice and have ideas for me, let me know, please. Trying to narrow down neighborhoods. This weekend the puppies and I will take a long drive and explore more by car - so far I have just been looking online. I have a wonderful agent down here who I worked with on this house, so that's good.

Venice is chic, low key, historic, great restaurants and beaches, really nice vibe. I'm very excited to go "full on" Palm Beach/Chinoiserie/Florida/Tropical in my new house. My daughter wants a Tiki Bar in the lanai. I have extra rolls of wallpaper from my laundry room and dining room in Virginia that I hope to use, especially the Brunschwig & Fils laundry room paper "Ironing Bored" that was a Palm Beach favorite before it was discontinued.

Venice Fishing Pier

Downtown Venice

Grand Palm - one community I am considering

Reflections

My lanai last evening

This is my first Mother's Day in 35 years that I have lived away from my daughter, and Kate and her boyfriend were supposed to be arriving this evening. With the pandemic, the trip was of course canceled. Disappointing, but we all have to keep in mind how fortunate we are compared to so many others right now. This was my view last evening having a glass of wine in my lanai. Paradise but in troubled times. I hope everyone has a lovely Mother's Day weekend in trying times. Stay safe.

Tomorrow I am posting on my closet that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was staging. I was delayed posting because I ran out of black velvet hangers from Costco and had to wait for another Costco run to reload. And Monday I have the best Chinoiserie Gone Wrong to date. You will not believe it.

A sneak peek -

The pair of wooden hangers are from years ago from the Boca Raton Hotel and Beach Club. My late husband and I were both lawyers at the Commodity Futures Trading Association and would attend the Futures Industry Association Conference that was always held there. I loved staying there every year.

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Scenes from Sarasota

One of my palm trees

It is such a gorgeous day here in Florida and I have the morning all to myself while golf guy is out - you guessed it - golfing. So has your guy stopped shaving because of quarantining? Mine has and he looks like a bad version of Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway

I feel like taking a few photos of my home to share with you. Hope you enjoy.

View from the front door

The wet bar

The wet bar

Entrance to the dressing room

More golf balls

A Kate Spade travel scrabble set I scored on eBay

In the living room

The master bath

The living room

The master bath

Living room vignette

Juju in family room

Antique bar in family room

In the breakfast room

Lanai bath

Decorating with toilet paper - LOL

Stairwell

Harper is sleeping in

My Front Door

My Front Door

This is the front door of the Florida house - I had my painter repaint the front doors in a glossy black, added this Pottery Barn lighting fixture I have wanted for years, and hung this very chic lion door bell.  I bought him twenty year ago for my house in Alexandria, Virginia and it did not work there. I love it here.

I love my door bell!

And look who was trying to come in last night -

I was just asked to serve on the Landscape Committee in my community and my first meeting is Monday - by Zoom of course. I personally nixed meeting in person. I am really enjoying gardening in Florida - here is my home.

Florida Vignette

My Home

I am really enjoying putting my things together in new ways in the Florida house. Above is a skirted table styled in my new family room and below in the old family room. The 10 foot ceilings in the Florida house definitely make everything look better!

My Old Home

The Chinoiserie Bathroom

Edith-Anne Duncan Design

Now this is incredible. My compulsive side worries a bit about wallpaper on the ceiling in a bathroom, but this is beautiful. I love the pagoda etagere to hold towels, the gilded leaf chandelier, and the giant shell. My daughter found a shell like that at HomeGoods. The neutral palette creates a nice zen spa-like atmosphere as well. I have almost finished the master bath here and will share soon. Below is a peek. I love the blue and white dragon sinks I found.

My Master Bath

Blue and White in Florida

Blue and White in My Kitchen

I am headed out today to tour the Edison Ford Winter Estates in Ft. Meyers. I thought I would share a blue and white vignette in my new home. Above is a favorite spot of mine in my kitchen. I bought this etagere a few years ago at Ikea and my daughter and I hand gold leafed it. (Ikea Vittsjo - cost for entire project under $100.) It previously housed her handbag collection - I have repurposed it to hold some of my blue and white Chinese porcelain collection with lots of vases at the ready as I am always arranging flowers. I have another great Ikea project I am excited to share in an upcoming post.

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.

Simple Christmas Decorating Ideas from My House

A toy car - a vintage Corvette - bringing home the Christmas tree

Don't forget to enter the Treetopia White Tree Mystery contest - all the details here.

A gray and silver feather wreath layered over a mirror in my pagoda bedroom

No room or time for a big tree? This tabletop topiary tree with vintage ornaments is a favorite of mine

Old fashioned peppermint sticks in a green Chinoiserie bowl

My Charlotte Olympia slippers and Kate Spade sleep mask make a darling vignette

A pair of goose feather trees in gold and silver

Vintage ornaments are as beautiful in a bowl as on the tree

A stocking of hand painted silk and vintage black fox and a wrapped present sit atop my gilded Chinese Chippendale chair