Mid-Century Chinoiserie Rustic Eccentric PARTY TIME

If you’ve seen my home (or my blog, or my Instagram, or my Pinterest…), you know I love me some color. If I didn’t exercise some degree of restraint, I swear, my house would look like one of those massive 120-ct. boxes of crayons that your friend Ashley had and you were always really jealous of because you only had the 64-ct. box and it didn’t even have a good LILAC option. UGH. I digress.

Recently, though, I’ve discovered that you have to draw the line somewhere. My living room is chock full of brightly-colored pillows, super-saturated art, blue and orange lamps, and even an apothecary jar full of fake fruit. But when I brought in our new rug, all of a sudden, it was too much. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Lalita. But this girl is a Diva with a capital “D.” She wants to be a star – a STAR! She must have all the attention, and if anyone else tries to capture the spotlight, well … she’ll cut a B. Look out for Lalita. I’ve learned a lot from living with that crazy chick.

So, when Chairish asked me if I’d like to pick one of their bold accent chairs and e-design a bright, colorful room around it, I jumped at the chance to try out my new color wisdom. All of the choices were gorgeous, but I fell for the hot pink and warm teak of this Danish Arne Vodder chair.

I think this chair likes attention, don’t get me wrong – but she’s OK to share it with her friends. She just wants to have a good time, you know? So, I figured it was safe to include some other color, but not too much. This chair deserves to shine.

My style lately has been skewing a bit ’70s, but this chair has such classic mid-century lines that I figured I’d pair it with a few other MCM pieces.

(Click image to view larger)

This mock-up is full of items I want to buy, so this isn’t very healthy for me, but let’s move past that.

I started with a large-scale piece of art, as I often do. This vintage watercolor incorporates all my favorite colors, including some great pinks, so I kept the palette in mind as I looked for other pieces. I knew I wanted to use a cognac leather sofa, because that’s all I can think about at this time in my life, so the West Elm Hamilton was a no-brainer. I brought in some brass and a rustic element with the live edge table, which I’ve had pinned for months (and will never be able to afford). To continue the mid-century vibe, I included my favorite side table ever, a Saarinen in black marble. I just love it so much. Some day, when I have a spare $700 … it will be mine. Then, I had to add in some character with a vintage lamp, because I feel like every room needs a little chinoiserie. The dark drum shade keeps it from skewing old lady, in my opinion.

The old me probably would have thrown multicolored patterned pillows into the mix, along with some kind of bright yellow vase or lamp, but this is me showing restraint. I think the black elements ground the design a bit, lending a little bit of maturity to offset the rainbow-tasseled pillows and pops of pink. I was tempted to use a Beni Ourain – I’m only human, for goodness’ sake – but I needed just a little bit more color, so I found this fabulous aqua Moroccan-esque area rug instead.

So, how do you use color in your home? Do you try and keep it under control, or do you embrace the crayon box?