Palms & Pineapples

Echo Palma Paradise Caftan

I love this chic caftan with some of my favorite tropical things - palms and pineapples. This can be worn as a dress or a coverup. With sheer dresses, all you need is a nude slip. I would wear this with gold sandals and a straw bag. It would also be great over a pair of slacks.

Jewelry - Bamboo, Palms, Seashells & More

Bamboo Chain Necklace

 

I just found a jewelry collection that literally checks all the boxes for me. It is Palm Beach based and designed  - all the collections are inspired by nature. The collections include Bamboo, Palms, Ocean, Orchid, Forest, and more.

Pink & Green Palms

Blush Palms Leila Coverup

 

This darling dress is blush with pink and green palms - and it is on sale. Perfect for here in Florida or for your vacation this summer. A Palm Springs vibe for sure.

Creating Tropical Style

Amanda Lindroth

 

I love the view into the outdoor space filled with potted tropical plants and her signature rattan and bamboo lanterns. Whether you have a balcony, patio, lanai, or porch, this is such a great way to bring beachy island style to your home.

The Chinoiserie Front Door/CCC

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When I bought my Florida home, the front entrance lacked personality, with nothing but painted concrete. The first thing I did was to add a pair of blue and white Chinese garden stools. They have been outside in my gardens for thirty years and I couldn't wait to use them here. They will be even happier because they are quite sheltered from the elements. I never thought about this before, but they are perfect for all of my deliveries ! Amazon Prime perches.

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I keep a pair of umbrellas in the entryway - I take lots of walks with the pups and they are at the ready and I also love combining blue and white stripes with chinoiserie. A blue key fob is a new addition.

Charleston Chinoiserie in the Garden

via Alessandra Branca

 

Alessandra Branca posted this lovely view of a Charleston garden with lots of blue and white fishbowls filled with topiaries and ferns. I love this and it is the look I am going for in my Florida garden - sort of British Colonial - a cross between an English garden with the formal structure and topiaries and tropical with all the palms. Quite lovely.

Palm Beach Neutrals

Courtney Giles Interiors

 This lovely bedroom is from the newly opened Kips Bay Show House Palm Beach. Although we generally associate Palm Beach with lots of vibrant color, this is a wonderful example of embracing that style with a neutral palette. The palm wallpaper is Schumacher Blair House Palm. I especially love the scalloped linens. I spot a Chinese Chippendale chair and an orchid on the side wall.

The Foyer @ CCC

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I love my foyer - double French doors and a transom and high ceilings let in tons of natural light. A black and gold antique Chinese chest, a brass and black marble console table, and blue and white Chinese porcelain are from my Alexandria home. They combine with Florida touches like palms and seashells and a new Dana Gibson faux bamboo oversized Chinese lantern. The color palette introduces the colors in the rest of my home - blue and white with pink and green and lots of gold.

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Palm Trees Indoors

Amanda Lindroth

 In this fanciful tropical bedroom, Amanda Lindroth combines many of my favorite things. Wicker and rattan is in abundance - they will continue to be huge trends in 2021 - especially designer versions of these wonderful natural elements. The rattan canopy bed is fantastic and I am a sucker for canopy beds. I always wanted one as a child and my parents refused in their ultra modern mid century home. Note the wicker pagodas and rattan breakfast tray. 

Other favorite elements include the palette of pink and green, orchids, seashells, and stripes.

I like her use of faux canvas palm trees mixed with real palm trees. I have an extra blue and white Chinese fish bowl and I love the look of a live palm in a fish bowl topped with moss. Which palm species have you all had good luck with indoors? I think I will venture out to Home Depot and Lowe's today as I am also looking for camellias.

Palms and Entertaining

Perrier Jouet

 

This champagne ad showed up in my Facebook feed yesterday and I thought it was interesting how palms seem to be everywhere - this has some great ideas. And what about this idea below for silverware for the buffet table? I love this.

Pop Quiz

HomeGoods Score

This is a pop quiz. Do you like the gilded palm lamps I scored yesterday at HomeGoods? If you answered no, please unsubscribe from Chinoiserie Chic. LOL

Just kidding - we welcome people of all decorating faiths here. I dropped the pups off for their spa day yesterday and it is on the same road as my fave HG. So guess where I headed? I spotted these and almost fainted. As soon as they were in my cart, the lighting department manager came over and told me he had put them out literally five minutes before. He told me they have a line at the door every morning.

I am going to hide the cords with those little Command clips, but couldn't wait to show you.

Here they are lit.

Lots of questions on my vessel sinks. They are so inexpensive you will not believe it. And free shipping. And a really nice company to work with. And excellent quality.

Here you go. I have used them in two homes and love them. With the current 15% off sale and free shipping the cost is $185.00. A serious steal. Someone asked about height - the height will be perfect - you do not need to lower your countertop - most vanities are too low and you have to bend over. Just make sure the faucet is tall. I chose a quartz in white with a very subtle gray marble veining so as to not compete with the sinks. The quartz countertop was a remnant as I mentioned, so this project was so inexpensive and I simply love it. My master suite is such a retreat - you enter it through eight foot tall double paneled doors - very dramatic!

China Furniture Online Dragon Vessel Sink

Today is garden day at Casa Chinoiserie Chic - pruning palms, garden cleanup, and selecting mulch. I am really picky with mulch. If there is time, I plan to go to a couple garden centers as well to start getting ideas. I am thrilled that I am ahead of schedule on the house and can start on the garden. The timing is great right now with all the snowbirds away.

My Favorite Living Room

Bunny Williams & John Rosselli

I have posted hundreds of living rooms in the years I have been doing Chinoiserie Chic, but none do I love more than this one, Bunny Williams and John Rosselli's Punta Cana home. I would love to share more photos of this room.

There are so many elements here I will use in my living room and home in general. Lots of blue and white Chinese porcelain including Chinese garden stools, ginger jars, vases, lamps, and cachepots. Pagodas. Elephants. Palm fronds as floral arrangements. Potted orchids. Painted ceilings. Neutral walls and floors. Books. British Colonial style. Ceiling fans. Sea shells. Slipper chairs. Animal decor. Tropical. Collections. Timeless.

This room makes me happy. I believe Mark Sikes said this is the most beautiful living room in the world. I must agree. It certainly embraces the style I would love to capture in my new tropical Chinoiserie home. What do you think?

Gardening in Florida Chinoiserie Style

Carolyne Roehm

I love gardening and really fell in love with the bones of my Florida property - a very large corner lot with a huge lanai and pool sited right on a lake, with mature live oaks and gorgeous palm trees. Unfortunately, the divorced man who owned the property had really ignored the garden and it was in poor shape when I moved in - even had the painted red mulch!

Well fast forward a few months of my watering, fertilizing, pruning, and general TLC and the yard is gorgeous. I was able to keep everything I had and filled in bare spots with a camellia bed, large Eugenia topiaries, agave, bromeliads, and topped everything with nice dark brown double shredded hardwood mulch.

Now comes the fun part. I am really enjoying using blue and white Chinese porcelain outdoors here in Sarasota. So far, I have used primarily ginger jars and garden stools, but would love to add some boxwoods in blue and white Chinese planters.

Two problems - English boxwoods don't grow here in South Florida and I don't have drainage holes in my blue and white Chinese porcelain containers. I take the palms out of my blue and white Chinese porcelain fishbowls to water them. Fun fact - I chose Areca palms because I live on Areca Boulevard. Every street where I live is named after a palm.

1. Has anyone successfully drilled drainage holes in Chinese porcelain? Tips?

2. What is a good substitute for English boxwood in South Florida? Perhaps Japanese boxwood?

Next question for you gardening experts. I have three of these shrubs in my garden and they were in horrible shape when I moved in. I debated yanking them. Now they are looking much better - but what are they? Beautyberry perhaps? They have small white flowers at the end of arching stems that turn into berries/fruit as you can see. The leaves look like variegated dogwood but the flowers and berries are not consistent. My best guess as I said is Variegated Beautyberry - perhaps Callicarpa Dichomata????

And next subject.....

When I moved in, the flower bed in the lanai was pathetic with 2 dying ferns. I decided to see what a little TLC would do for them. Now I have a bed with dozens of ferns, some almost 4 feet tall. And it has turned into a little resort for lots of my gecko friends - their correct named is Brown Anoles. I even have babies. The top one pictured below has become my buddy and pops out of the ferns whenever I am over there and listens to me talk to him - they hear and see very well. I even put a blue and white Chinese porcelain water bowl there for them.

Palms

Jonathan Adler - ELLE Decor

In the breezeway of this Palm Beach home, Jonathan Adler used canvas palms by The Canvas Nursery set into Frontgate planters. The shell table is from 1st dibs with a blue and white Chinese porcelain vase. Lanterns are from Colleen & Company. The black and white checkerboard floor is hand painted. More from this amazing home tomorrow.

Update - I just discovered that The Canvas Nursery is located about an hour away from me. I think this canvas palm in the apartment of Rebecca de Ravenel may be from them too.

Rebecca de Ravenel

The Chinoiserie Foyer

Amanda Lindroth - House Beautiful

I am in love with the foyer in this Bahamian beach house with a pair of massive blue and white ginger jars, rattan Chinese Chippendale chairs, and the faux palms flanking the doorway. I would love to find a pair of palms like those for my house.

Check out this hallway with plaster palm trees.

Miles Redd - Architectural Digest

Blue and White

Suzanne Kasler - House Beautiful

A blue and white Chinese porcelain collection, palm fronds, and palm tree lamps combine in this lovely vignette.

Chinoiserie Chic Style - Amanda Lindroth

Amanda Lindroth - House Beauitful

Let's look at some of the elements in this wonderful Worth Avenue Palm Beach apartment filled with lots of vintage pieces and Chinoiserie. I really love how whimsical and comfortable it is.

*Tromp l'oeil Chinoiserie walls in mint - mint is a hot color right now
*Bamboo blinds
*Slipcovers
*Skirted tables
*Blue and white Chinese porcelain
*Color palette of green, pink, blue, yellow, coral, black
*Wicker
*Leopard
*Palms and palm motifs
*Ginger jars
*Tulipieres