Saturday Inspiration - Preppy Chinoiserie

I'm in love with this room done by the mother and daughter interior design team The Rinfret Group. This is from the American Heart Association show house. I love the traditional, modern, preppy, Chinoiserie vibe - just my style. It pretty much checks all the boxes for me -

Blue and white
Pink
Zebra
Leopard
Greek key
Ginger jars
Chinoiserie toile
Pagoda
Chinese lantern
Quatrefoil

Pretty, pretty, pretty, right?

Palm Beach Chic Virtual Show House - Inspiration Boards

The Chinese Village House - watercolor by Laura Mullaney

 Over a month ago, Andrea of the fabulous blog The Glam Pad discovered a historic Chinoiserie house on the market for the first time in 30 years near where she lives in Coral Gables, Florida. She invited me to do a series of guest posts on how I would decorate this Chinoiserie home.

In week one, I renovated the entryway. In week two, I transformed the dining room. Week three was the kitchen and week four, the porch. Today is the guest bedroom. Check back next week, as I share my inspiration for the home office.

Click on each of the caption links to read the particulars on each room.

The Entryway

The Dining Room

The Kitchen

The Porch

The Guest Bedroom

Coral and Chinoiserie and My Redo

 I saw this vignette above and was absolutely smitten. I love the coral pink silk taffeta, the khaki Chinoiserie wallpaper, and the gold leaf table. I discovered it was by Nancy Pearson for the American Red Cross Designers Show House in Palm Beach - Traditional Home - 2013. Armed with this information, I wanted to see the whole bedroom.

I first found this enlarged view below and I thought - gee, I'm not liking the bed linens, the bed, the carpet, or the bed in front of the window.

Then I found this even larger photo and I'm still not liking the bed, the bed linens, the carpet, and the bed placement, and I also don't like the dinky chandelier and the fact that the Chinoiserie wallpaper is two unmatched panels.

This often happens to me where I see a beautiful close-up vignette but then don't like the rest of the room.

I would use my gold leaf Annie Selke pagoda bed (preferably not in front of the window), Leontine Linens with a coral monogram, a Marjorie Skouras Designs chandelier in pale blue, and a bound sisal rug. I would have either used one of the wallpapers for the entire room or as two matched panels.

Crazy day today - my painter arrives to start on my office, I need to work on my post for tomorrow's One Room Challenge update, and DC is bracing for its first snowstorm in two years starting tonight.

My Virtual Living Room at Design du Monde

The vintage Fornasetti ottoman I used as a cocktail table

DC area artist Kerry Steele (I have two of her pieces) and blogger (Design du Monde) had the very clever idea of asking some local interior design bloggers to each create a room for a Virtual Show House shown below. I was asked to design the living room. Please go check it out here. It reflects my interior design aesthetic and some of the operating principles I tend to use in doing a room -

A mix of high end and accessible pieces
A dramatic piece of art - generally an abstract
A pop of red
A mix of new, vintage, and antique
Traditional, but with a fun and whimsical edge
Black to ground the pastels I am drawn to
An investment piece to really up the ante of the room
A neutral, classic couch
Elements of Chinoiserie