It is hard to escape its influence, either directly or indirectly. Almost everywhere we look we can find furniture that has some trait of chinoiserie.

Chinoiserie is a term coined in the 17th century by the arbiters of style, the French. Chinoiserie describes furniture of Chinese origins, but primarily decorated in a Chinese style. Travel and trade incited the French's curiosity of all things from the Orient, and its appeal has been adopted globally. Much of the furniture in the chinoiserie style was done with a great deal of imagination and fantasy. The influence of chinoiserie is seen in everything from architecture and painted furniture to blue and white porcelain and even wallpaper. These are just some of the items that have endured the tests of time and taste to become classics of design.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, inspired by highly lacquered Chinese furniture, fine European furniture was often painted with imaginary scenes and landscapes to represent a magical Oriental world. Today these types of painted furnishings are considered valuable antiques. World-renowned furniture and cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale used chinoiserie design as a feature of some his fine furniture. Chinese Chippendale furniture is known for the fanciful fretwork around the top of tea tables and lattice backed chairs.

In the late 1880s through the early 1900s, in the finest estates and palaces, the fashion was to design entire suites in the chinoiserie. This was especially popular as travel became easier for those with financial means, and as homage to or a souvenir of a voyage taken to China. Chinoiserie design was also integrated into 19th-century European garden design. Pagoda pavilions and latticed bridges intermingled with formal and informal garden schemes, where follies and garden furniture took an elegant architectural and exotic air.

Today, the use of chinoiserie is still quite popular. Designers love to use chinoiserie as backdrop to the most lavish rooms. In living rooms, bedrooms or libraries, coromandel screens lend an air of luxury and can give instant architecture. Similarly, chinoiserie hand-printed silk panels are applied in high-end projects, such as in foyers and dining rooms as wallcoverings for impact. Other types of wallcoverings that are Chinese themed and more affordable are printed toiles and grasscloth wallpaper.

You might be asking yourself whether you can incorporate chinoiserie into more modern interiors. The answer is: Of course! Contemporary chinoiserie does exist, in Zen-like minimalist interiors, as well as glamorous Hollywood Regency interiors. Due to global trade today, present-day furniture markets are filled chock-a-block full of authentic Chinese furniture. Selecting the most streamlined pieces is the key to an updated version.

Designers today incorporate the more geometric aspects of Chinese design as contemporary detailing. This is exactly the trend we have seen in the hotel industry for the past couple of years. The simple and sophisticated lines of pagoda chandeliers, architectural fretwork, faux bamboo, straight legs ending in blocks and lattice back chairs are just some of the iconic design features that are current and just so chic.

Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an award-winning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. To find out more about Joseph Pubillones, or to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: at Unsplash