Blue and White Checks

Mark D. Sikes - Architectural Digest

The gorgeous Hollywood Hills home of Mark D. Sikes is filled with blue and white checks since his latest refresh. Above is Brunschwig & Fils blue and white gingham Carsten. It is such a timeless classic.

Chinoiserie Gone Wrong

Tory Burch - Vogue

These dining spaces are both stunning, BUT......... I have such a thing about tablecloths that do not reach to the floor. Please use either floor length or use beautiful placemats - I have a collection of really lovely placemats because of this tablecloth issue. I have everything from hand painted mirrored Chinoiserie, to leather hand painted with Greek key, to beaded crabs.

And it is even more egregious here because these are staged for photo shoots which by definition are styled for perfection and not always completely reality based. Let's face it, we don't all have floral arrangements all over the house and perfect bowls of fruit in the kitchen every day. Unless you are John Heilemann who has perfect bowls of fruit in his kitchen along with his gorgeous dogs for his pandemic from home interviews every day. Now that is staging. I am envious.

These tablecloths look wrinkled, don't hang well, and ruin the sartorial splendor of these rooms for me. Use what you like for every day - but give me a floor length tablecloth or a nice placemat every time. I know shorter tablecloths are more functional, but they are unattractive.

Meg Braff - Portfolio

In both these pictures, IMHO the tablecloths bring down the aesthetics of beautiful rooms. The Meg Braff photo is her own dining room BTW. Your thoughts? Do these look good to you? And please don't tell me about long tablecloths in people's laps - use elegant placemats if that is an issue for you.

Chinoiserie Entertaining

Amanda Lindroth

I never mentioned this, but we had a cocktail party/open house scheduled for two weeks ago for local friends and everyone in the community where we live which was obviously canceled. I had been working like crazy getting the house all done for it. I wonder when if ever it will be rescheduled. Check out this wonderful party setup. That blue and white Chinese porcelain vase/ginger jar is absolutely enormous! Boy is that dramatic!

The tablecloth is a bit sketchy, I'm afraid. It is too short and too wrinkled, but I love the centerpiece so much it is worth posting! A pet peeve of mine is tablecloths that do not reach to the floor. I also always use a liner - old blankets work great, so the tablecloth hangs well. The liner need not be as long as the tablecloth - it just needs to overhang the top by a foot or more to drape nicely. Who knows the correct term for a tablecloth liner?

(The answer is a silence cloth)

At any rate, I love the idea of a setup like this in the lanai for entertaining and will be searching for a large blue and white tablecloth for when life returns to normal.