Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie – The cultural combination between Western and Eastern

If you are looking for styles of home decoration, there are many styles for you to choose from. Suppose you still don’t have any idea. In that case, we would like to introduce Chinoiserie, a unique style with a long history that is the perfect combination between Western and Eastern styles.

Let’s get to know this style

This is a popular home decoration style in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries that combines Western and Eastern art and culture. The word “Chinoi” means “China” in French.

Back in the 17th century, travel was not as easy as it is in the present. As a result, stories from overseas only came from people’s words. Trade routes can help many countries exchange art and culture. A few people have had direct contact with Asian culture, so a lot of Asia’s culture is recorded in the romantic writings of traveling traders.

Eastern culture and art are very popular in Europe because Baroque art had existed alongside Western culture for a long time, and the arrival of Eastern culture like China caused something new, especially Chinese porcelain. Additionally, this trend has spread to furniture and textiles. All of these items were created to meet the needs of European tastes at the time.

However, this style fell out of favor in the 19th century because of the Opium Wars between China and England, and the arrival of Japanese culture, including the revival of Egyptian culture. But in the 1930s, it became popular again until the present day.

China’s unique patterns have been interpreted by many craftsmen according to the changing times. Therefore, it resulted in the integration of Western elements until it became a style called Chinoiserie.

Chinese unique patterns

The distinctive patterns of this style relate to Chinese beliefs and culture, including various ways of life. There are 8 main patterns.

1. Chinese landscape
Romantic and beautiful Chinese landscapes and luxurious flower gardens often inspire art and interior design in the Chinoiserie style. In addition, it is a wallpaper to decorate the house’s walls.

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2. Flowers
Chinoiserie style is inspired by nature, especially flowers. There are delicate floral designs in various products, including furniture, carpets, and wallpaper. If you like the beautiful floral pattern, you can take a look at our ceramic candle cylinder with a peony pattern.

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3. A pattern inspired by cultures, traditions, and lifestyles
Because of the difficulties of international travel during that time, Eastern countries remain mysterious and exotic to Europeans. Therefore, they are interested in Eastern arts, whether they are patterns, designs, cultures, and lifestyles.

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4. Legendary animal – The dragon
The dragon is a symbol of strength and fortune that holds great importance in Chinese culture and mythology. In addition, Dragons appear in all forms of Chinese art, including painting, sculpture, and architecture. Moreover, it can be seen mostly in the Chinese cultural-inspired design.

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5. Shishi
Shishi in Chinese means lion. It is a Chinese guardian lion that appears outside palaces and temples to ward off bad luck, so people often make it into statues to decorate the entrances of homes or residences.

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6. Pagoda
Pagoda is important to East Asian culture. Its design is multi-tiered structures to serve as social and religious spaces. This type of structure originated in India and spread throughout Asia when Buddhism began to arrive in China. Moreover, most pagodas are small shapes which suit to placing on the table as decorations.

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7. Chinese God and Goddess
Chinese God and Goddess are in the form of statues or paintings to decorate homes with Chinoiserie-style wallpaper. It’s not only giving beautiful decoration but also being considered sacred elements. Images of gods include Guan Yu, Sangkachai, Guan Yin, Ji Gong, and Hok Lok Siu.

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8. Tiger
A tiger has long been part of Chinese culture and is as intelligent as a dragon, phoenix, and turtle. So, the tiger plays an important role in Chinese arts and culture, whether in paintings, wallpapers, wood carvings, and patterns on porcelain.

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Elements of Chinoiserie

To decorate a home in this style, we can add many elements according to the needs of decorating, such as…

1. Porcelain
Chinese porcelain plays a huge role in decorating a home in this style because it perfectly conveys the sense of Chinese culture and helps change the atmosphere to be luxurious as well.

2. Painting
Another thing that made Chinoserie so popular in the 17th century was the painting of French artists, Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The name of the painting is The Chinese Garden, which combines Western methods with Eastern elements. Moreover, this renowned painting is used to decorate a home with wallpapers.

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3. Architecture and gardening
Chinese architecture and gardening are mostly in the form of a leisure pavilion, a perfect blend of Chinese pagoda and European tea pavilion. Furthermore, the most outstanding example is the Chinese House, a garden pavilion at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, in 1755.

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4. Furniture
Chinese patterns often appear in furniture designs, with commonly used materials including lacquered wood, artificial bamboo, and brassware. They have various beautiful designs, which can be found on cabinets, tables, and chairs.

5. Wallpaper
Wallpapers have a design to coordinate with other home decorations. Most of them feature Chinese landscape patterns such as mountains, pagodas, trees, and flowers, as well as animals such as cranes.

Chinoiserie wallpaper was expensive in the past because people mostly used it to decorate the European aristocrats’ homes. Moreover, people used bright and attractive colors, which are expensive. As time passed, the development of printing and the demand for Chinese products made wallpaper and furniture accessible to the middle class.

Chinoiserie has a long history and is also a timeless style. No matter how many centuries have passed, it has continued to gain popularity. Furthermore, it becomes a classic style that perfectly fuses the culture of the East with the luxury of the West.

Even in the 21st century, Oriental art and culture are still popular in home decoration.

If you like to decorate your home, we hope that this style will be a good choice that suits your home. And if you want beautiful home decorations in the Luxury Oriental style, you can visit our products at Terminal 21 Asoke 3rd Fl.