The Chinoiserie Dining Room

Brannan Geary - Southern Living

 

This is a lovely classic dining room in a New Orleans home. The hand painted mural on the four walls combines palms and tropical plants in muted greens and browns. The ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a perfect match for the bronze tones in the room like the dramatic silk curtains. 

The Blue and White Dining Room

Kristen Nix Interiors

This is such a lovely blue and white dining room. The wallpaper is Brunschwig & Fils Bird and Thistle wallpaper in Aqua, a favorite of mine. This wallpaper is not really Chinoiserie style, but I feel it reads like it, if you know what I mean. The sideboard is interestingly placed in front of the window. I wonder if this is just for staging purposes as the pair of lamps have no electrical cords. I love the mid century modern sputnik chandelier, probably a modern version. The table centerpiece is blue and white Chinese porcelain filled with hydrangeas. The chairs are Miles Redd's Diamond Dining Chair from Ballard Designs - a lovely fretwork design he based on Chinese Chippendale. They are very affordable and on sale now as well. I really like this chair. It is also available as a barstool or counterstool.

The piece of art is also quite affordable - this print by Leslie Weaver is available on Chairish for $225.00 framed for this size with free shipping. I really like this. I checked out her website and her originals are very well priced as well. An alternative perhaps to Sally King Benedict whose work I love but perhaps is being a bit overused.

Don't let this quarantine keep you from home projects - rooms can be done like this lovely example shopping entirely online. Support businesses you love if you can. Life doesn't have to stand still. I couldn't find a description of this room, so I just did some research and found the sources of some of the pieces. If you know where any other things in this room are available, let me know. I love a room like this that is gorgeous and relatively affordable.

A Moveable Feast

Mallory Mathison Glenn - Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles

I have seen this several times from magazine photo shoots, but I find it bizarre, if not somewhat humorous. Inanimate objects that move around in photo shoots.

Here we have a large blue and white Chinese porcelain vase next to the front door in the foyer. In the next photo, this very same vase has hopped onto the foyer table and is filled with magnolia branches. Then, to show its versatility, in the last photo, it has meandered over next to the chest in the foyer. So three different shots of the foyer, and the same vase is in three different places. Is the vase taking selfies?

Do they think we don't notice?

Here below is an even wilder example I posted a couple of weeks ago. In this feature in Elle Decor, the shell table is shown in the foyer and then shows up in the adjoining breezeway. I can't help but wonder what the rooms looked like before and after the shoot. Where does that table actually belong? I suspect it is from the foyer below with the green and white wallpaper. In the breezeway in the second photo it looks kind of tight and just stuck in there to me. So in the same article on this home, the table changes rooms. Weird. And the table is probably heavy and delicate to boot.

Do you find this as strange as I do? I think people who buy shelter mags actually notice such things. I do and it seems a bit off to me.

Jonathan Adler - Elle Decor

Jonathan Adler - Elle Decor

I found the table on 1st dibs - it is 20th century and has a travertine top. It was from a West Palm Beach store and this is Liz Lange's house in Palm Beach. Very Tony Duquette.

I bought a pair of seashell encrusted obelisks at Tuesday Morning years ago - see them on top?

Etagere in My Kitchen

I guess my point in all this is that it strikes me when I see things like this that the house has been so staged for the photo shoot and I'd rather see it the way it actually looks. You can't separate out the interior designer's work from the magazines's staging.

Thoughts?

Staging with Chinoiserie

freshome

I am in the midst of staging a large home in Georgia that is about to go on the market and starting to stage my own home to sell and came across this wonderful kitchen staged with lots of blue and white Chinoiserie - ginger jars, a foo dog, a blue and white Chinoiserie panel, and a blue and white Chinese cachepot. Lot of inspiration here for your own home.

Chinoiserie Magazine Styling

I always enjoy doing a post when I find photos of the same room styled by the interior designer and then restyled by a magazine for a photo shoot. I understand that magazine stylists have to earn their keep, but it is a bit funny in the case of an interior designer as talented as Alex Papachristidis.

Above is his own dining room as styled by him, and below as styled by Elle Decor. I prefer his, especially for a magazine shoot. On top of the Chinoiserie cabinet, they have replaced his bold coral pieces that really pop against the aubergine walls, with books, foo dogs, a Chinese figurine, and a black object. I think their choices are too small and too dark, blending in too much against the deep purple background.

In the photo at bottom, you can see that on the dining table, they have replaced his blue and white ginger jar and coral animal figurine with a pair of pagodas and a couple of other pieces apparently to pick up the purple and white. Stylists always have fresh flowers, or in a kitchen, staged fruits or vegetables. They have chosen to leave the politically incorrect blackamoor, perhaps feeling that since he is dressed as a flower child with a peace sign above it is OK.