Chinoiserie

I prefer to mix and match elements in a room, instead of attempting an overarching theme. Yet for some reason, surprisingly, I am loving this Far East-style living room decorating idea from House to Home. At first glance, you might not notice the Eastern theme; it's very subtle and modern, and the blue palette is a bit nontraditional of the Far East. Look closer, and it's all there: the lacquered Chinese cabinet, the Chinoiserie patterned wallpaper, the Noguchi coffee table.Perhaps you're not loving this room, or simply don't gravitate toward Chinoiserie, but I think you can use it as a template that you can follow to design any interior. Choose a theme, and just a few subtle pieces that emulate the theme. Then, fill in the room with neutral colors, and natural accents (like the sisal rug here). Then, go against the grain of the theme in someway; instead of red for your Chinoiserie-themed room, go blue!

The robin's egg blue of this China Blue Stool ($495) from Jayson Home and Garden has me thinking of Spring. It would be a colorful update to any room in your house, and a pair of these would look great as bedside tables in a chinoisierie -inspired bedroom. I'm imagining some DwellStudio bedding, a cool wall panel, and the Anthropologie chinoiserie bed in white.

I must admit, I am, in most cases, not a huge fan of chinoiserie. I'm also a nonfan of toile, aside from Hazelnut's New Orleans toile and Sheila Bridges' Harlem toile. But, the two styles blended together in this Chinoise Garden Bird Toile Plate Set ($224) is actually quite the eye pleaser. Too pretty to eat off of, I'd hang this plate set on the walls of a midnight gray kitchen with slick, white-lacquered furniture, or place one on my dresser as a jewelry catch-all. Do you love it?

Welcome to this week's Room Therapy post, where users submit questions and you, the readers, help answer them. The questions can be about anything, from a decorating conundrum in your home to a coveted piece of furniture you can't find anywhere.

Deepasood wrote us saying, "I am dying to paint a large wall in my house a deep red lacquer. I want it to look stripey (for lack of a better word), and maybe even textured. Definitely going for chinoiserie. I was thinking you might have some tips, or that your readers would."

The better word that Deepasood was looking for is strié, which is a type of faux finish that we've covered before. To get a strié finish, you apply a glaze over a base color of paint, then run a dry paintbrush over the glaze. A textural variation is not something normally associated with lacquered walls, though. The idea is to sand until the walls are smooth, roll on the paint, and then finish with multiple coats of high-gloss polycrylic. So, I wouldn't necessarily recommend combining textured walls with a lacquer finish. If you're insistent on having a textured finish, you could skimcoat venetian plaster onto the walls before you paint and lay on the high-gloss polycrylic, which will create a shiny, stone-like appearance.

What do you readers think? Have any tips for getting lacquer, strié, or textured finishes? Please let us know by commenting, or create Casa Cravings for any products or web sites that you think would help. Just be sure to tag your Casa Cravings with the phrase Lacquered Chinoiserie. (Here's a post explaining what a Casa Craving is and how to create one.) Thanks! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

The once-stuffy chinoiserie look is getting a trendy update, so for last week's Casa Craving challenge, I asked you guys to put together a modern chinoiserie bedroom built around this Anthropologie Chinoiserie Bed ( $1,898 to $1,998). Thanks to everyone who played along!

You can see all of the modern chinoiserie Casa Cravings here, as well as the lists users created with their items. (Learn how to create your own lists here.) Here are a few of my favorites.

Look #1, designed by Janna890, who paired stunning Eastern-inspired shelves made from dark wood with feminine chinoiserie bedding from Dwell and a great floral lantern she found on Etsy.

Two more looks, so read more