wallpaper borders

oh, i know. it's the holiday season, and very few of us are thinking about the beach. but these clients have recently purchased a beach villa and needed a design plan for their master bedroom that was chic and affordable, and easy to pull together in the next few months before the rental season goes into full swing.



not a SINGLE piece on this board costs more than $300. pretty incredible, right?

interested in working together to create a more beautiful and functional space? i still have a few openings for december! email me today at autumnclemons@yahoo.com to set up a consultation!

interested in working together?
email me at autumnclemons@yahoo.com and lets get started!

Isn't this a great bedroom? I love the mix of patterns and the pops of deep coral red. The show stopper is the Chinoiserie fabric, Robert Allen's Full Sails, a favorite of mine. It is 100% linen and is available in wonderful colorways like Azalea, Chrome, Indigo, Sienna, and Violet. It is not horribly expensive either, retailing at under $50.00 a yard. Horchow used to sell a headboard slipcovered in Full Sails for over $2,000 for a king size - a great DIY! This is a very elegant Chinoiserie toile, with colorways making it perfect for every bedroom from an ultra feminine little girl's bedroom to a sophisticated man's bedroom, and everything in between.

a friend of mine recently asked for some help in pulling together some bedding ideas for her daughter, who will be starting college in utah this fall. she mentioned that she was looking at some options at pottery barn teen, and i immediately stopped her and told her she was about to make a terrible mistake. (you can say mean things like that to a friend....i would have said the same thing to a client, but in a more professional and "nice" way!)

hey, nothing wrong with pb teen. i actually love pb teen, but taking an entire bedding ensemble from their collection can look a little juvenile--especially for a college student. their girl bedding tends to be bright, and more "clear" colors, which aren't as sophisticated as more muted tones.

for instance, yellow is a great color, but at full intensity (think big bird), and mixed with a hot pink AND a dose of turquoise, it can get bad.


(imagine mimi from the drew carey show... as a bedroom. yeah, YIKES.)

now, take that same yellow, but add some gray and brown to it, and you get a muted, pretty mustard color that will mix well with dusty blues, deep plum, lavender, and ALL kinds of neutrals. the palette can still be youthful, but in a controlled and sophisticated way.



here are a few color schemes that i came up with using a few of my go-to places for tween/teen/young adult bedding items: urban outfitters, west elm, etsy, and serena and lily.


so, which one did she end up choosing?
she chose the "dusty blue + black/white" option, and we ended up throwing in some green for an additional dose of color:

i am looking forward to seeing it all pulled together! my friend and her daughter flew in yesterday, and we met at west elm to make a few purchases....i will be sharing some pictures of my visit tomorrow, so stay tuned!

interested in working together?
i still have openings for september and october. 
email me at autumnclemons@yahoo.com to set up a consultation!

This week, I have been celebrating my four year blogiversary that is this coming Saturday. Each day, I have been creating inspiration boards of rooms in my fantasy Chinoiserie Chic house. Yesterday, the New York Times featured a Chinoiserie home just outside of London that would be perfect if anyone is looking for a blogiversary gift for me. London is my favorite city besides Washington, DC where I live, so this would be an ideal choice for me. The Pagoda house is on the market for 2.975 million pounds or about 4.54 million dollars.

"This five-bedroom brick home, a study in Chinoiserie called the Pagoda, has an adjoining annex and sits on a third of an acre in the village of Blackheath in Southeast London. The village has 212 acres of uncultivated common land, one of the largest such tracts in Greater London, and the Pagoda is about 200 yards away, said Robin Chatwin, a director at Savills, which has the listing. The designer was Sir William Chambers, the architect to King George III; the earliest part of the house, dating 1767 to 1769, was used by Caroline, Princess of Wales, the estranged wife of George, Prince of Wales. According to historical tracts cited by Mr. Chatwin, the princess led a rather notorious social life there.

In its current expanded configuration, with more than 5,600 square feet of space, the house has official protection as a structure of architectural importance, Mr. Chatwin said. A pebble drive leads in from the gate; the lobby opens to a large reception hall with a staircase, double-height ceilings, and Arts and Crafts-style oak paneling. Beyond that, the dining room has a fireplace and opens to a glass conservatory; the drawing room, also with a fireplace, has bay windows and Oriental lacquered paneling made of Western red cedar. The kitchen has white-painted wooden cabinets, granite and butcher-block countertops, and an Aga stove. Two other reception rooms complete the ground floor, along with a half bath.

Two of the five bedrooms on the second floor have en-suite baths. The master has a wall of cloudy-blue Chinoiserie cupboards and closets. The third floor has a loft, as well as the so-called Pagoda Room, its large oval and round windows offering views in three directions across London. The pagoda roof has a thistle motif on its lead gables and a Chinoiserie-style curvature at the corner eaves.

The annex, its two stories adjoining those of the main house, has a small kitchen, a living room and two bedrooms. The property has an unattached garage and off-street parking for five cars.

Along with Greenwich, which is nearby, Blackheath has many boutique and designer shops; it is less than 15 minutes from Central London by train, 20 minutes by car depending on traffic. London City Airport is about 20 minutes away; Gatwick Airport is reached in 45 minutes to an hour."

(Courtesy of Alison Gregor and The New York Times  - full article here.)












Below is my new inspiration board for my fantasy bedroom. The walls are papered in my absolute favorite Chinoiserie wallpaper, Enchanted Forest by Grey Watkins. The bed is my very own gold leaf pagoda bed by Anne Selke that has been discontinued. The curtains are trimmed in navy blue Greek key. The bed has pink velvet pillows trimmed in navy fretwork. The bedside chests are vintage Dorothy Draper topped with foo dog lamps. A pair of pink cashmere and wool egg chairs and an antique Chinoserie black and gold lacquer coffee table provide a sitting area. The chairs are topped with a Dana Gibson pink leopard pillow and a Jonathan Adler black zebra pillow.

Don't miss the announcement of my blogiversary giveaway tomorrow.