wallpaper designs

Mary McDonald uses African drums with Chinoiserie

Yesterday we looked at #1 of our Top Ten Chinoiserie Trends for 2014 - Mixing Gold, Silver, and Chinoiserie. Today's Trend #2 is Mixing African and Chinoiserie for a great global vibe. I believe that the passing of Nelson Mandela paired with the continued popularity of global decor will bring African arts into the limelight in 2014.

The feathered Juju Cameroon headdresses have been favorites of interior designers like Alexandra Branca for several years. Here are examples of juju hats and Chinoiserie.

Alessandra Branca

Alessandra Branca

Rose Anne De Pampleonne

Lonny

Also in 2014 we will see a branching out into the use of African fabrics like mudcloth. I plan to incorporate a chair upholstered in black and white mudcloth in my upcoming Chinoiserie Man Cave.  I think that mudcloth and Chinoiserie is a great combination. I love its simple black and white palette and its free form patterns. Mudcloth is a perfect graphic juxtaposition to Chinoiserie, like stripes that work so well with Chinoiserie. And like ikat and suzani that have been a popular mix with Chinoiserie, mudcloth adds an ethnic element that is so hot today.

Jamie Meares

Jamie Meares

I also see the emergence this year of African decorative art used with Chinoiserie for a wonderful modern global look.

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Layering a silver Chinese Chippendale mirror over a gilded mirror in my pagoda bedroom

 This week, in honor of the start of a new year, we will be looking at trends for 2014 in Chinoiserie. Let me start by saying that Chinoiserie is a timeless classic. None of it ever goes out of style, so you will not have to throw out your ginger jars! We will be looking at what will be especially popular this year in Chinoiserie in colors, paints, fabrics, new mixes, and hot pieces including the reveal of my Chinoiserie Chic Color of 2014.

#1 is Mixing Gold, Silver, and Chinoiserie. Back in the day, using silver and gold together was considered a faux pas in fashion and and interior design. Not so today. Combining silver and gold is modern, glamorous, and luxe, and never more so than when used together with Chinoiserie. Here is some inspiration.

I am super-excited to have decided on the two rooms in my home that will be getting makeovers in 2014. I have chosen to do a Chinoiserie Man Cave for my husband and an Elegant Garage for our cars.

For the Chinoiserie Man Cave, I am envisioning the styles of Michael Smith and Ralph Lauren - classic and masculine with Chinoiserie. I plan to include black, gray, abstract art, distressed leather, blue and white Chinese porcelain, and of course, lots of books and a flat screen TV. The photo above captures the style I would like. I should also mention that it needs to be very "guy friendly" with indestructible pieces impervious to red wine, newspaper print, and the like.

The garage is something I have had on my mind for a while. My garage has great bones - a wood ceiling, French doors, four windows, and antique brick. Since I have two large garden sheds and a lawn service, I don't need it to store lawn equipment. I would love it to be an elegant and sophisticated space to house our cars. Finding inspiration photos for garages is next to impossible, but this one below is perfect. I have a black Audi and my husband drives a gray BMW, and I love the idea of using black and gray with some black and white photos of classic cars.

So there you have it - my two interior decorating New Year's Resolutions for 2014.

Will you be entertaining at home on New Year's Eve? Here are some great decorating ideas to close out the year with style.

Last December 28, 2012, I did this post about my New Year's Resolutions for 2013 - the two rooms in my home I wanted to redo this year, my powder room and my laundry room. Here is that post -

Charlotte Moss

What would a New Year's Eve series be without New Year's Resolutions? Mine always seem to focus on home improvement projects. I have two rooms in my home I would like to redo this year. The first is a little powder room off the laundry room and the second is the laundry room itself. Here are my inspiration photos that I hope will inspire me to get these done. Of course both have Chinoiserie.

The Charlotte Moss powder room intrigued me because of the draped walls - wonderful if there are no architectural elements or things you need to hide. You will see what I mean when I post before pictures of my room.

The Draza Stamenich laundry room I saw in person at a DC Show House and I have never forgotten it - a tiny little space filled with luxury elements never seen in a laundry room like Gracie wallpaper and a Neirmann Weeks lantern.

It seems that I am always juggling so many balls that these two rooms never get attention. Hopefully this year they will. Do you have an home goals for 2013 that involve Chinoiserie?

Draza Stamenich

If you are a follower of this blog, you will recall that I did actually make over the powder room and the laundry room for this year's two One Room Challenges. Thanks to Linda of Calling It Home for inviting me to participate - nothing like competition and a deadline to keep one on track.

Here is a peek at my powder room. If you'd like to follow the entire powder room process you can click here and the final reveal is here.




I did my laundry room next. Here it is. You can follow the redo of it here and the reveal here.




Mission accomplished. I have decided on the next two rooms I will make over and both will be a decorating side of me you don't usually see. I will reveal them in a post soon so stay tuned.

If you have a room you would like to tackle, Linda of Calling It Home is hosting round two of the One Room Challenge Linking Party starting April 3, 2014. Perhaps you'd like to participate. A deadline is a wonderful way to keep a New Year's Resolution - trust me!

Thank you Desiree for having me on your blog for this guest post! Let me introduce myself. I'm Iris, Interior designer and also a blogger at C-More. Since I love to visit cities I took the opportunity to show you around in the city Arnhem, where I studied Fashion Design at the Artez Academy and still live nearby. I visit this city often, but for a lot of people out there it's a bit of an unknown city...and that’s a pity!

Arnhem has a lot to offer on Fashion and Design. For example there is the Fashion Hotel Modez, every two years the Fashion Biennale / MoBA, there is a special neighborhood named “Mode Kwartier”  in Klarendal, with a lot of little shops and studios where you can actually meet the designers. 

In the city itself there are a lot of high quality, creative and inspirational shops as well. It isn’t a big city, but you definitely can fill a couple days with, fashion, design, nice café’s and restaurants, great green surroundings for long walks in the park, and beautiful houses. So, I’ll show you around!


First we visit Fashion Hotel Modez. The hotel is up and running since September 2012. It’s a unique concept, where fashion illustrator Piet Paris invited 30 fashion designers to design the 20 rooms, breakfast area and reception. All designers have some connection with Arnhem and every room has a unique design. It’s a very nice place to stay when you are visiting Arnhem. I'll give you a sneak peek in a few of the rooms. Don’t forget to mention your wishes for a specific room when booking the hotel :-)
1st picture is the hotel Modez from the outside, 2nd is a hand drawn sketch by Piet Paris, from the room he designed.  3rd and 4th are the rooms by VLKRO by Rob Velker, also a very masculine room, with a lot of black and white and dark wood. 
1st picture is the reception, with the golden desk and wallpaper designed by Piet Paris. He designed this aria as if it was a beautiful woman with long golden blond hair. The 2nd en 3rd pictures are of the room by fashion Designer Francisco van Benthum. The wallpaper is based on one of his own designs. The whole room is in black and that gives it this very nice and masculine feel. The 4th picture is the staircase. Here you can see the 3 segments: the front is a redbrick, the middle is all glass with steel stairs and hallway and the last part is black wood.
1st picture is the dark green room by Sjaak Hullekes with a travel theme. You find old suitcases transformed into a cupboard  2nt the room by VLKRO again. The 3th is the room is a suite by Spijkers and Spijkers,  the famous fashion design twin sisters. In the last picture, the stunning steel stairs which bring you to al the floor, in case you don’t take the elevator, which is also the tiniest fashion design museum in the world!
Jones | Fashion concept store 
Then we go in to the city. First stop: Jones. This fashion concept store “avant la lettre” started in 1988 and moved tot this industrial space, once an old printing factory, at “het Eiland” where they sell the most stunning fashion and design items from known and unknown designers.

By not following any trends but always use intuition, high quality materials, seeking for the story behind the collection, that are mostly from small labels, Jones has managed to create a unique and personal shop where you immediately feel that its not just a shop. Iconic is the big wooden birdhouse, right in the middle of the shop. I recently interviewed Jones. You can read it here on my blog Jones | Fashion concept store | Arnhem
Coming Soon | design conceptstore 
Next stop: Coming Soon. This concept store filled with a mix of new, some of them just graduated, and established designers. They always arrange the items beautifully and it’s almost impossible to walk out of the door without buying a nice present for yourself or for a loved one.

Dudok Cafe
Time for a break. Arnhem has a lot of nice coffee bars, restaurants and café’s all over the city and also in the Fashion district “Het Modekwartier”. This time I’ve picked Dudok, just around the corner from Coming Soon. In the old bank building, you'll recognize the famous “Dudok-café” feeling imidately. Firm dark furnishing combined with a lot of black steel and industrial lamps. Here you can take a coffee with the wellknown “appeltaart” or an nice bite and sip.
Humanoid Fashion store
Then last but not least, we visit Humanoid. A fashion label with it’s roots in Arnhem. Started in 1981 in a shop and studio just across the beautiful church they are located in now. I love the clothes they design and wear them since they started.
Since then the grew a lot and are internationally loved by many loyal fans for the high quality of fabrics and always matching shades. This particular building is an old church witch you must go and see when visiting Arnhem.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk trough the city of Arnhem and I can tell you, it’s definitely worthwile to visit this town
More tips you can find here:
Uit in Arnhem | Museum of modern art | A more alternative scene: eat and drinks on the roof-terras