Modern chinoiserie interior design
Chinoiserie Is Making A Major Resurgence in the Design World
Lately, we have been seeing a resurgence in everything that is traditional, elegant, and a little bit bougie in the design world. Things like ruffles and pleats, chintz, and toile, Victorian-style furniture and ornate mirrors, intensely patterned wallpaper, and ornate oil painting, that for the past decade have felt dated and grandma-ish, are filling up our Instagram feed as part of one of our favorite trends in a long time: grandmillennial style. One of our favorite design motifs of this much-needed revival? Chinoiserie.
Philadelphia-based interior designer, Sabrina Piazza of Living Quarters Interior Design, explains that chinoiserie is one of those sleepers in the design world—it’s always been around, but is finally getting the mainstream recognition it deserves.
“In the super high-end traditional homes it has continued to adorn powder room walls and guest room bed canopies, even through the recent decades of modernism,” Piazza tells MyDomaine. What exactly is chinoiserie? Think “ancient Chinese motifs ripe with pagodas, peacocks, and peonies hand-painted on silverleaf, all evoking a time of days gone by with pain-staking labor in production and attention to detail,” she explains.
While this ancient European reproduction of Chinese embellishment (in French meaning "Chinese'esque") has always been a go-to for the upper crust due to the labor-intensive process and high cost, people are gravitating toward it once again in revolt of the minimalism and somewhat generic design genres that have dominated the last decade.
“At the brink of a new decade when wallpaper, floral prints, and bohemian vibes continue to trend on our Instagram accounts, it's no wonder that this theme is sparking interest,” she continues. “It’s always been there, it is now just now swooning the minimalists.”
Another reason these motifs are becoming more mainstream is that they are easier to produce. “Now catching the eye of Vogue, companies such as Tempaper, co-founded by Kate Szilagyi and nieces Jennifer Matthews and Julia Biancella, are cutting costs without compromising aesthetics,” explains Piazza.
“A fraction of the cost compared to traditional hand-painted versions by institutions like Gracie or De Gournay, these mural-like 12'x10' masterpieces can be easily applied with a squeegee in a less permanent fashion.”
“I love the juxtaposition of a traditional wallpaper in a more modern application or space and chinoiserie can soften the look of a room while still feeling current if done correctly,” adds Stefani Stein of Stefani Stein Inc. “I think you can't beat the chinoiserie of the past and I prefer the old school!”
Thinking about adding chinoiserie to your home? Here is a little inspiration and a few tips on how to get the look.
Okay, so to cover an entire room with hand-painted De Gournay is prohibitively expensive for most of us. However, this cleverly designed bedroom proves that just a few panels of chinoiserie can go a long way.
This small dining space boasts maximum design power with the help of these beautiful blue chinoiserie panels.
If you move a lot and don’t feel like investing a ton of money in chinoiserie wallpaper, splurge on a chinoiserie screen.
Chinoiserie wallpaper shouldn’t be an afterthought. In fact, you should be incredibly thoughtful when choosing furniture to accent a room dominated by the theme. “Choose one of the less prominent colors in the chinoiserie wallpaper and tie it into the rest of your design, suggests Stein.
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A GUIDE TO CHINOISERIE
Chinoiserie has been around since the 17th century. It’s nearly impossible to flip through an interior design magazine without seeing chinoiserie elements show up. The iconic blue and white ginger jar may be the most recognizable chinoiserie piece, but this global design style embraces far more. Today, I’m sharing a guide to chinoiserie to help you discover the history and motifs of one of my favorite Asian-influenced design styles.
THE FAR-AWAY HISTORY OF CHINOISERIE
The word chinoiserie comes from the French word chinois, meaning “Chinese” or “after the Chinese taste”.
Chinoiserie didn’t come directly from Asia. Instead, it’s a European interpretation of East Asian design. As trade with Asia flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries, the chinoiserie style soared in popularity.
Few Europeans traveled to Asia. Their limited knowledge of the region caused some misunderstandings, but they developed a great respect for Asian art and culture. They were intrigued by these “exotic” cultures and began creating their own versions of East Asian designs. The highly ornamental rococo style was a beautiful match to the fanciful designs of chinoiserie. It wasn’t long before chinoiserie was gracing the palaces of King Louis XV and King George IV.
A chinoiserie-themed pillow in a condo at The River Oaks.
A vintage screen serves as a chinoiserie headboard for this bed.
Tea exports rose and Europeans quickly adopted the culture and tradition of drinking tea. As a fundamental part of society, aristocratic ladies desired to create the appropriate chinoiserie mise-en-scène for their tea rituals.
This strengthened the European demand for chinoiserie pieces.
A GUIDE TO CHINOISERIE: KEY ELEMENTS OF THE STYLE
DRAGONS
The dragon plays a prominent role in Chinese folklore. It’s a mythical beast symbolizing strength and luck. Dragons are often seen on ceramics, silk screens, and other decorative objects.
A dragon-themed, chinoiserie rug contrasts against a white L shaped sofa in our North residence.
FOO DOGS
Foo dogs are a common motif in the chinoiserie style. However, they aren’t dogs. They’re known as Shi, which means “lion” in Chinese and appear in pairs, one male and one female. Believed to ward off negative energy, they are often placed outside temples and palaces.
NATURE SCENES
Bold, whimsical nature scenes with pavilions, birds, and rambling floral motifs are popular in the chinoiserie style. Europeans favored this design for wallpapers and screens, which were often handmade and expensive.
White curtains complement hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper from Gracie.
PAGODAS
The pagoda originated in India and arrived in Asia with the spread of Buddhism. These multi-tiered buildings serve as sacred religious sites and are an integral component of East Asian architecture.
A pagoda-inspired, chinoiserie light fixture
A GUIDE TO CHINOISERIE: FURNISHINGS AND MATERIALS
MATERIALS
Faux bamboo and lacquered wood are two of the most popular chinoiserie materials. The art of creating traditional Asian lacquerware pieces is a slow, meticulous process. Artisans coat pieces of furniture with layers of tree sap. The sap hardens into a durable resin that gives the furniture its signature shine. Oftentimes artisans hand paint scenes, inlay details, or create intricate carvings to finish the piece.
FURNISHINGS
The chinoiserie style can be found on everything from wallpaper to chairs and decorative objects. Many furnishings include graceful lines that mimic pagoda tiers and carved ornamental designs called fretwork.
Thomas Chippendale, a notable 18th century chinoiserie furniture designer, drew upon Chinese fretwork as inspiration for his lattice-back Chippendale chair.
A vintage, chinoiserie console table, circa 1920.
A GUIDE TO CHINOISERIE: CERAMICS
Chinese porcelain takes a high-level of skill and craftsmanship to produce. That’s why chinoiserie ceramics and porcelain are some of the most sought after pieces. Europeans were never able to replicate the same quality porcelain, but they did copy the designs. Designers used the traditional blue and white Ming style design on pieces like jars, vases, and tea sets.
Ceramic and porcelain vessels, like ginger jars, were often used as spice storage containers. As trade with China blossomed, the demand for ceramics rose, but took on purely aesthetic purpose. These prized pieces were placed throughout the home, securing their place in history as classic decor.
AGELESS APPEAL OF CHINOISERIE
Chinoiserie is an art form inspired by the world.
The blend of elegant European design with intriguing, exotic East Asian artistic traditions is versatile enough to work with every interior design style. Whimsical designs, lush garden scenery, and embellished finishes contribute to chinoiserie’s worldly aesthetic.
Another look into the North dining room featuring bamboo chairs and hand-painted, chinoiserie wallpaper from Gracie.
INSPIRATION FOR MY TAI PING CAPSULE COLLECTION
When Tai Ping invited me to create a capsule collection, I knew the classic elements of the chinoiserie style would play a role. My designs draw inspiration from Chinese fretwork, antique screens, and blue and white ginger jars.
Whether I’m designing Classically Current interiors or products, my desire is to bring iconic designs of the past into the present. To make the collection feel fresh and modern, I chose a mid-century inspired color palette and luxurious textures. The contemporary interpretation of the patterns proves how timeless chinoiserie is.
10 features and highlights
Of all the design trends that have infiltrated Western interiors from Oriental cultures, chinoiserie is considered one of the oldest, exotic and irresistible. It consists in using the motifs and techniques of Chinese interior art, which Europeans stylized at the beginning of the 18th century. Initially, branded Chinese elements - carved furniture, elegant porcelain, luxurious silk draperies, sophisticated screens - occupied an honorable place only in royal palaces and houses of aristocratic nobility, because not everyone could afford them due to their high cost. Entrepreneurial Europeans decided to copy Chinese decor in their own way - this way they got the opportunity to embody the design style of the Celestial Empire in the interiors without high financial costs and adapt it to their restrained aesthetics. nine0003
This is exactly the type of chinoiserie invented by the Europeans that is now on the wave of popularity. But not in its pure form, but only as individual items with an admixture of oriental exoticism - in combination with elegant classics, they create a truly fabulous atmosphere with Chinese flavor in homes.
ReRooms has selected the most original and vibrant chinoiserie elements that will help you create a fantasy entourage in the Chinese spirit in a modern interior. Get inspired!
1. Chinese screens
The easiest way to let the impressive chinoiserie atmosphere into the interior is to buy a Chinese screen. Wooden partitions with lacquered surface, painted with Chinese patterns, look bright and impressive in any room. In the living room, for example, a Chinese screen can zone the space; in the bedroom, it can act as a headboard.
Designers skillfully use decorative screens to hide architectural flaws in a room, create a beautiful backdrop for furniture or hide secret doors behind them. In any case, such an element will bring a little oriental charm and mystery to the interior, and you won’t have to arrange repairs to give the room a Chinese look. nine0003
2. Silk wallpaper
For chinoiserie styling, wallpapers with a texture reminiscent of silk are perfect.
The use of natural-themed patterns with graceful peonies, lotuses, chrysanthemums or symbolic images of two-headed dragons and birds in wall decoration is considered by designers to be one of the most effective and affordable ways of transforming modern interiors in our realities.
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But you should not cover all the walls with such beauty, otherwise the room will suffocate from the exotic and will have a depressing effect on people. It is better to use painted silk wallpaper on an accent wall or use it on small areas of surfaces to highlight some interior elements.
3. Juicy colors
Chinoiserie's color range, as a rule, consists of black, red, sapphire, emerald, yellow and gold hues. But today this stylistic direction is reproduced in more neutral and lighter colors - in order to follow Chinese traditions, you can harmoniously mix bright and rich colors with silver, light green, mother-of-pearl, blue and turquoise hues.
In such combinations, the interior turns out to be spectacular and expressive, while deep and dark tones do not “eat up” the area, and airiness and spaciousness remain in the room. nine0003
4. Lacquered furniture with carvings
The Chinese have long been masters of lacquer finishes, so chinoiserie interiors use lacquered furniture with intricate carvings. Cabinets, secretaries, chests of drawers or cabinets, decorated with carved ornaments in gilding or hand-painted with asymmetric compositions of colorful birds, flowers and images of exotic nature, will help bring Chinese flavor to the design of studios, living rooms, bedrooms and home offices.
Create a relaxed atmosphere in a room with Chinese drum stools. They can play the role of coffee tables or bedside tables - this option is perfect for tiny rooms that do not have room for bulky cabinets or decor. nine0003
5. Chippendale style stools
Replicas of furniture by the English master Thomas Chippendale, inspired by Chinese pagodas and geometric ornaments, can be an excellent addition to chinoiserie.
Even one piece of furniture with a recognizable pattern in the Chippendale style will be enough to emphasize the Chinese style in the interior.
6. Painted panels
Another interesting element of chinoiserie is painted panels depicting strange birds, gardens and court life scenes. They will bring comfort, sophistication and chic to the interiors and will be appropriate both in bedrooms and living rooms, as well as in dressing rooms, hallways and bathrooms. The main thing is to choose a plot that you like and combine with the general background of the interior of the room. nine0003
7. Blue and White Porcelain
Pure white porcelain with cobalt painting, which appeared in the Ming Dynasty, a characteristic feature of the Chinese style, which was also fully copied by the Europeans. Blue and white vases, decorative plates and tea sets are alluring and never go out of style. They look spectacular in a modern interior, both in large companies and individually.
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Exotic pagodas If floral and floral prints are not to your liking, imitations of exotic pagodas, sacred buildings of a cult nature, can bring the mood of the chinoiserie style into the interior. For example, you can imitate the shape of interesting structures in a mirror frame or decorate the cornice above the window in the form of a Chinese pagoda pediment - as you can see, even a small element will allow you to get a chinoiserie stylistic effect in the interior. nine0003
9. Birdcages
Songbirds in cages in Chinese interiors have been symbols of luxury and wealth for centuries. Therefore, gilded or bamboo birdhouses, carved from expensive wood with inlays of precious stones, have become characteristic of European chinoiserie. In modern interiors, bird cages are used not only as a decorative element - this design is ideal for the role of a lampshade for a lamp or a place for placing a home mini-greenhouse. Regardless of whether the cage will hang from the ceiling, stand on the floor, window sill or table, it will expressively emphasize the chinoiserie style.
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10. Figurines
Figurines in the form of dragons or Fu dogs can be a spectacular final chord in a pseudo-Chinese interior. True, they need to be arranged with meaning. For example, the Chinese consider figurines of dragons to be symbols of well-being and prosperity, and figurines of Fu dogs are seen as guardian lions protecting the monastery from the penetration of enemies.
Chinoiserie style in the interior - luxury and elegance
In today's article we will introduce you to an unusual and original design trend that harmoniously combines the features of Chinese decoration with classic Western decor. This style has the same interesting name - chinoiserie, which means "Chinese" in French. nine0003
This direction involves the use of the style of art of the Celestial Empire, characteristic of the Middle Ages, in European design, painting, creativity, tailoring, garden and landscape decoration in the 18th century.
Chinoiserie is a design trend that has been an offshoot of Rococo since the 1720s.
After the luxury and monumentality of baroque with open ostentatious spaces, talented specialists began to bring to life chamber and cozy interiors. nine0003
The Chinese style is characterized by the decoration of offices, bathrooms and guest rooms. At the same time, boudoirs and dining rooms were practically not decorated. These premises were equipped not only with original objects from the Celestial Empire, but also with European paintings, works of art, fireplace screens and other elements.
For such decoration, a decorative screen is also used, which can optically change the space.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the talented French masters Marten came up with a multi-colored lacquer coating. From that moment, the style of chinoiserie has developed. In home decor, they began to use not only chests of drawers and wardrobes in a scarlet, black and gold palette, but also headset items in mother-of-pearl, blue, salad and silver. nine0003
A serene, refined and refined atmosphere was complemented by a variety of porcelain and ceramic accessories: crockery, vases, candlesticks, flower pots and other items.
A characteristic feature of the style is the use in wall cladding and upholstery of a set of fabric and wallpaper with amazing symbolic images of two-headed dragons and snakes, eagles and birds. Also, paintings with the theme of feasting and hunting, landscape and exotic sketches were selected to decorate the decoration. nine0003
Ornaments represented auspicious omens. So, for example, the image of a peach tree or a mountain foreshadowed longevity, bats - happiness, a blooming peony - eminence, a dragon - power.
Numerous famous experts of the 18th century worked in the interior within the framework of this decor style: charming Chinese women met in the paintings of Francois Boucher, and furniture from the masters M. Carlena, P. Myjon and E. Mishary was also extremely popular.
Chinese motifs, representing the legs of furniture in the form of bird's feet, encircling the ball, crowned the chairs and tables of the British master Thomas Chippendale. nine0003
Unique and enterprising, the chamber style of noble guest rooms and bedrooms, Rococo easily assimilated various fashion trends.
However, chinoiserie was its complete opposite, although it developed from it.
A striking feature of the style is the elegance of the building materials used. To decorate the walls, decorators selected expensive and chic wallpapers, sewn from silk and hand-painted. In Europe, they were valued among connoisseurs as early as the 17th century. They were brought from the Celestial Empire by employees of the French company Compagnie des Indes Orientales. nine0003
The silk processing technology used to produce this wallpaper was very complex. Soaked in a special solution with the properties of starch, the fabrics were stretched between heated rollers. This process made it possible to glue them together, thereby compacting the threads.
Due to such laborious processing, silk fabrics acquired incredible softness and shine. Subsequently, they were hand-painted by artists with the help of color, which was obtained from malachite, lapis lazuli and various minerals. Later, Europeans began to produce wallpapers in this manner.
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With the advent of the tradition of tea drinking in England, special pavilions called "Chinese pavilions" began to be erected to decorate gardens. Currently, one such attraction is the village in the royal castle of Drottningholm, located near Stockholm.
In the middle of the 18th century, the English architect William Chambers designed and built a huge 50-meter Great Pagoda building in the picturesque botanical garden Kew Gardens near Foggy Albion. nine0003
Another striking attraction is the tea pavilion in the residence of Frederick the Great in Sanssouci, built under the direction of the German architect Johann Gottfried Büring.
In Russia, the passion for this style is noticeable in the design of the Chinese Palace in the architectural and landscape complex Oranienbaum, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland in St. Petersburg. It was designed and implemented by the specialist Antonio Rinaldi, who was a skilled connoisseur of this style. nine0003
In the guest room in the imperial residence built in Tsarskoe Selo, he painted beautiful engravings on the walls.
