A Very Chinoiserie Christmas – It’s a Colorful Life Home Tour
A very Chinoiserie Christmas home tour inspired by Rose Medallion porcelain with whimsical florals, pink and green decor, and grandmillennial style!
Welcome Friends! I’m so pleased you’ve stopped by my very Chinoiserie Christmas home tour with the It’s a Colorful Life Blog Hop!
These ladies are such a joy to tour with, and I am always blown away by how creative they are. If you are coming over from Sara’s beautiful home, didn’t you love her snow villages? The links to the full home tour blog hop are at the end of the post.
Come in! Come in & Merry Christmas!
I cannot wait to show you my home all decked out for the holidays. This is literally my favorite time of year, and I do go a bit nuts decorating. If you’ve been following along, you know that I couldn’t decide on one direction to take my Christmas decor this year, so I let each room dictate the colors and style. However, my main inspiration was CHINIOISERIE!
Learn about what inspired me here.
Since I decorated in different colors and motifs based on the room, my house looks like it has multiple personalities. But it sure does feel festive! LOL!
For the home tour today, I’m sharing my formal living room and dining room decorated in what I’ve nicknamed the Georgian Chinoiserie Garden look! It is pastel explosion filled with bright pink, green, and blue. Grandmillennial all the way!
I pulled inspiration for this Christmas decor theme from three things: Rose Medallion porcelain, Gracie Chinoiserie wallpapers, and the new film version of Emma. I wanted the decor to feel vibrant, whimsical, and of course festive. So I pulled motifs, patterns, and colors from these inspirations to reinterpret in my very Chinoiserie Christmas decor!
Like the other ladies on the blog hop, I don’t believe Christmas decorations have to be red and green. You can decorate in a way that feels bright and merry to you and coordinates with your existing room decor. My formal living room is totally grandmillennial with wicker accents, loads of chintz, needlepoint, and bright happy colors, so I choose to play to those elements. I amped up the pinks, added more sparkle, and multiplied the florals!
Don’t get me wrong, I love traditional Christmas decor too, and in fact our family den is all red, green, and plaid for the holidays. You can see that room in this post.
A Very Chinoiserie Christmas Mantel
Rose Medallion temple jars, pagoda lanterns, white paper branches, luxurious ribbons, and pink florals decorate my mantel for Christmas.
Back in the late spring of this year, I nabbed this pair of Rose Medallion ginger jars off of Facebook Market, and they have been waiting for their staring role on my Christmas mantel ever since. Rose Medallion is my favorite Chinese porcelain pattern. It is vibrant, whimsical, and intricately detailed. Learn more about collecting this porcelain in my collector’s guide!
Using it for inspiration, I pulled the color way of pink and green with accents of pale blue, the florals, the birds, and the Greek key pattern. The florals had to bring the drama, and I was so inspired by the fanciful pastel creations in Autumn de Wilde’s Emma from earlier this year that I started imagining a Chinoiserie garden in winter à la the Georgians.
Sculptural white paper branches cascade off the mantel bedecked with pink and green plaid ribbon which is further accented by pale blue and emerald velvets. I snagged a bunch of these paper branches by chance and they pop up throughout my Christmas decor. They are wire covered with paper, so very easy to mold and bend. I have a few left that I’m offering for sale in the shop!
A central arrangement of faux camellias and peonies with pink ostrich feathers adds an exotic, luxurious feel. Feathers were a popular adornment for Regency ladies, and I just adore the movement and fanciful feeling they add to this arrangement.
Finishing out the very Chinoiserie mantel are emerald green stockings with a subtle Greek key pattern and a pair of pale blue pagoda lanterns. Candlelight is such an important element to add to a fireplace for ambience in the evenings, especially if you cannot have a fire.
Look who snuck in to take a nap during my photo shoot…sweet Henry!
Why, yes! I regularly put bows on him!
I’m so pleased to be showing off my refurbished wicker day bed. This is another estate sale find. The cushions were hideous, and I had been covering them up with a white sheet to make do. But I finally got them into the upholstery shop and had them recovered in this beautiful celadon green moiré fabric.
The pillows were a labor of love from my dear mother! The Waverly chintz I had put on my valances is now retired, and I had been diligently watching for some yardage to become available on eBay or Etsy. When a yard popped up on Poshmark of all places, I snatched it up immediately. Since I had so little, we came up with the idea to back the pillows in the green moiré, so we could get two pillows out of the yard.
Shop the Look:
A Very Chinoiserie Christmas Tree
A flocked white Christmas tree bedecked with pink and green ornaments, ostrich feathers, cherry blossoms, birds, camellias, and bold plaid ribbon.
With a tree this flamboyant, I just had to do my best 60’s posing! ?
Perhaps I should have titled this section…if Rose Medallion came to life as a Christmas tree…?
When using my inspirations to decorate the tree, I didn’t want to be too literal, using mini Rose Medallion ornaments for instance. Instead I took a more deconstructive approach, incorporating the decorative elements to style a whole scenic tree.
Cherry blossom branches and white paper leaves form the base layer of my white flocked tree just like they do in Chinoiserie scenic wallpapers. Then Greek key trim and green velvet ribbon add some structure. Next flowering camellias with golden magnolia leaves and twittering birds frolic across the branches. The final layers are tufted streamers of that pink and green plaid ribbon and more pink ostrich feathers.
There is no doubt this is a bold Christmas tree, but I love it!
Want to see how I made my camellia and magnolia sprays? Tutorial is here!
Tune in to my December 3rd sale on Instagram to shop this fabulous Party pillow, the pagodas, and lots of other Chinoiserie decor!
These overstuffed arm chairs are where my hubby and I love to sit, drink our coffee, and twinkle gaze!
A Georgian Chinoiserie Dining Room
Wedgwood Jasperware, vintage jewelry, bright pastels, and Georgian themed tableware decorate my elegant dining room for Christmas.
The last stop on my very Chinoiserie Christmas home tour is our formal dining room. In here, I went a little softer on the Chinoiserie themes and played up the Georgian vibes, using classic Wedgwood Jasperware as the main ornamentation.
The table is laid with a mint green jacquard cloth, capiz shell placemats, and Georgian inspired china, featuring floral garlands and Greek key patterns. A blue Wedgwood Jasperware compote with white paper tree adorned with vintage jewelry steals the show!
I’m so excited to share this first peak at a collaboration I’m doing with Veronica from Vintage Meet Modern, a chic female owned vintage jewelry company. Veronica and I have teamed up to showcase ways to use vintage jewelry in your holiday decor and to curate this special selection of vintage jewelry and tableware for sale.
Just look how amazing these vintage brooches and earrings look as unique ornaments and sparkling napkin rings! And did you notice the pink brooches adorning my green stockings?
You can view the full tablescape here! Our sale is scheduled for December 10th on Instagram at 8PM EST.
Speaking of unique ornaments, I went a little Wedgwood crazy and decorated a table top tree with Jasperware trinket dishes for this room. Learn about how I made them here.
I hope my very Chinoiserie Christmas decor has inspired you to go bold, embrace whimsy, and decorate in a way that makes you happy. This year has been such a doozy for all of us, and we need bright, happy home decor for a festive season.
Continue on the It’s a Colorful Life blog hop by going to Melissa’s home on her blog Home with a Twist, which will be available tomorrow. Here is the full tour schedule: