Kristina Wolf's House of Design

Interior Design, Accessorizing, and DIY Tips

DIY

What Is Chinoiserie Wallpaper?

Vintage wallpapers have made a massive comeback in interior design, and the classic Eastern-influenced wallpaper called Chinoiserie is no exception. Filled with natural motifs, brilliant tropical colors, and romantic air, chinoiserie wallpaper is the kind of luxurious wall covering you need for a lounge, bedroom, or even a stylish bathroom.

Let’s explore the history of this fascinating and beautiful wall art, its key characteristics, and how you can incorporate it into your home.

History of Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie emerged in the mid-17th century in Europe, gracing the homes of nobles and royalty. The name comes from the French word “chinois,” which means Chinese, and the patterns seen in the wallpaper, fabrics, and porcelain of the time demonstrate why. The artistic and stylish designs are all hand-painted, and the images depicting beautiful flowers and exotic birds of the Far East form a pattern that never repeats.

Chinoiserie was heavily influenced by China, as well as Japan and the Far East in general. When chinoiserie designs gained popularity, Europe was very active in colonizing that part of the world, bringing back the imagery and artistic techniques of those far-off lands. Chinoiserie wallpapers were not a part of Chinese traditions but were inspired by them.

Chinoiserie designs waned in popularity by the mid 18th century but continued through to the 19th century, declining after the First Opium War (1839-1842), which was fought between China and Britain. Chinoiserie re-emerged in the 1920s when the Far East’s style and society gained popularity once again.

Today, chinoiserie wallpaper is once again surging in popularity. Though it is a vintage style of interior design, the look and feel of the wallcoverings lend themselves to both classic and modern interiors. They can complement the current interior design or contrast it successfully. If your interiors need an injection of romance, charm, and the exotic, chinoiserie wallpaper is an excellent choice.

Chinoiserie Wallpaper Characteristics

Chinoiserie wallpapers have many unique characteristics that set them apart from every other kind of wallpaper. First, they are not, in fact, paper but 100% silk material. The backing, made of rice paper, provides a solid foundation and helps stave off deterioration.

The designs of chinoiserie wallpaper are hand-painted using tempera or gouache paints. These silk paints give a luxurious watercolor look to the designs, which are all intricate and unique. Rich colors are used to paint the motifs, depicting the Far East’s flora and fauna.

When on the wall, Chinoiserie creates a mural effect and may encase an entire room in design, working around doors and windows effortless due to the non-repeating pattern.

Modern chinoiserie wallpaper uses adhesive and may even be removed, a great advantage when applying the exotic papers and you need to reposition a portion.

Using Chinoiserie Wallpaper

Chinoiserie wallpaper may be used in a variety of ways in your rooms. The lack of repeating patterns and the ease of removal and reapplication means you can experiment a bit. Here are some ideas for how you can use chinoiserie wallpaper to inject some bold and exotic beauty into your home.

Surrounded By Nature

Chinoiserie wallpapers are made to cover large expanses of walls, making them perfect for creating an exotic bedroom retreat. With a relaxing green or blue background and plenty of flowers, trees, and buds gracing the mural-like design, it’s a quick way to make a room spectacular.

Full wallpapering is also a good choice for a living room or sitting room, and areas of a whole wall in a library or lounge can be wallpapered, bringing the space and air of the outdoors.

Inserts and Accents

If full wall coverage isn’t the ideal choice for your space, you can use chinoiserie wallpaper on an accent wall. Choosing a wall in the room and using this beautiful wallpaper creates a thematic focal point, helping to bring the entire room together. You may also want to limit the wallpaper to a portion of the wall, such as space in a dining room above a chair rail.

Chinoiserie wallpaper may also be used in small pieces. With the addition of some crown molding and careful attention to the pattern, you can create a unique window to the outside world with your wallpaper. The effect is like a series of windows, with flora and fauna of the Far East visible.

Wallpaper designs may also be available in fabrics, allowing you to bring more attention to the design and unite the room as a whole with the addition of patterned accent pillows, table-toppers, or even painted rugs.

Learn More About Chinoiserie Wallpaper

In general, Chinoiserie wallpaper and chinoiserie design are all about adding a touch of the exotic to your interiors. Want to learn more about Chinoiserie and how you can incorporate it into your interior home design? Sign up for Kristina Wolf’s House of Design newsletter to stay in the know with all the latest interior design tips and ideas.

How to Declutter Your Home Like an Interior Designer

If you’ve ever seen a home staged to sell, you know that interior design home decluttering goes beyond most people’s vision for tidying their space. Over the years you’re bound to pick up items you think you need and then never even look at again.

Not only do these items take up space, but they can also lower your mood and productivity. Getting rid of things you no longer use can be daunting, but a few tips from the pros can make the process a lot more efficient.

How to Get Started

Starting is the hardest part of decluttering. If you struggle to decide which items to throw away, first determine whether you really need them.

That doesn’t mean you should get rid of anything that doesn’t have a practical use. Souvenirs from past holidays have sentimental value, so if they make you happy, they’re still useful. Similarly, if you look at an item and it brings up bad memories, throw it away. You don’t need it anymore.

Before starting, plan a decluttering route around your house. The key is to be as organized with the as possible. You also to keep things manageable and motivate yourself. Many people choose to work from the farthest corner of the room back to the door, but other methods may work for you.

Take Your Time

You don’t have to declutter your whole house in one go. In fact, sometimes it’s better if you don’t. If you dread clearing out the clutter, taking your time can make the process less daunting.

Try tackling one room each day, and when you are done, treat yourself. Giving yourself that incentive over several days may draw out the process, but it will keep you motivated.

Meanwhile, if you burn out after decluttering a few rooms in a day, you are less likely to finish the job. Understand how you work before you start interior design home decluttering. You’re probably not staging your home, so make the process work for you.

Keeping it Clear

Nothing beats the feelings of a decluttered home, so try to keep it that way. Consider investing in baskets and boxes you can use to put things away so that the clutter doesn’t build up again.

Give every item its own place. If you know where to put something once you’re done using it, it’s less likely to end up back in the middle of the floor.

To keep your house clear throughout the whole year, every time you bring something new into your home, throw away or donate something you haven’t used in a while. This can be a challenge, as once you’ve decluttered, you won’t have as many excess possessions. But by keeping a consistent flow of items into and out of your home, you’ll keep your home from overflowing with stuff you don’t need.

Everyone has their own method of decluttering. If you don’t love the task, you may benefit from more efficient methods. Using these tips for interior designer home decluttering can get the job done fast, so you have more time to do what you love.

Wallpapering Tips for Beginners

No one starts off applying wallpaper perfectly. It involves a more complicated technique than painting with brushes and rollers, and any mistakes become permanent. If you paint a wall wrong, you can always paint over the problem. It’s harder to hide air bubbles in wallpaper.

While wallpapering is tricky at first, you can do it yourself. Following these wallpaper tips, you can get that professional look without hiring a professional.

Prepping the Room

Before you start applying the wallpaper, decide where each of your wallpaper strips will go. Using a measuring tape, work your way around the room and draw a line to mark where each strip ends.

Measuring and marking the wall will also help you determine how much wallpaper you need to buy. Multiplying how many strips you need by the height of your room will give you an approximate amount. It’s better have some left over than to not have enough, so buy around 15 to 20 percent more than your calculations say.

Finally, remove all fixtures like light switch covers and heating vents and fill any gaps you have with non-shrinking joint compound. You want the wall to have as few imperfections as possible when you start wallpapering.

Prime the Walls

Prime your walls using a wall sizing product. This product will make the walls smooth and slippery. This might sound like the opposite of what you need when sticking on wallpaper, but it helps you move the wallpaper around. You’ll rarely apply it straight the first time, so having the freedom to adjust means a lower chance of imperfection in the finished product.

This movability is particularly important when applying wallpaper to drywall. Without proper priming, you can’t get the wallpaper off if you decide to redecorate later.

Applying the Paste

Always apply the paste to the paper, not to the wall. Don’t be tempted to paint the walls with paste and stick on the wallpaper. It might seem more efficient at first, but you’ll create more work for yourself when it dries and ruins your priming.

Find a flat surface—preferably a worktable—and apply the paste using a paint roller. This technique gives you a more even spread than a paintbrush and speeds up the process. Check your wallpaper to find out which type of paste to buy.

You then want to book the paper. After you’ve applied the paste, fold the paper back on itself to soften it.

Where to Start

If you have chosen a wallpaper with a repeating pattern, it is likely that wherever it ends, the patterns won’t match. There is no perfect way to resolve this, so your best option is to start and end in the least conspicuous spot.

If you know that you plan to put a cupboard or another large piece of furniture in a particular spot, start there. Still, consider that you may want to rearrange your furniture at some point. To keep your options open, you may want to start around or above a door.

If wallpapering your home makes you nervous, don’t worry. With these wallpaper tips, you can avoid beginners’ mistakes and make anyone think you knew what you were doing from the start.

Daily and Weekly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

kitchen cleaning checklist

There’s no denying that the kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where we prepare hearty meals, making it easily one of the most used rooms in the house. Then again, it also happens to be one of the dirtiest areas of the home. Studies show that there are many contaminated parts of the kitchen, including sponges, towels, sinks, and refrigerators.

Given this information, your approach to keeping the kitchen clean needs to be strategic. In our post on ‘House Cleaning Tips’, we previously noted how it’s best to work in blocks, and while it still rings true, it’s also recommended to work in accordance with a schedule.

To help you out, here is a breakdown of tasks you can rely on to keep your kitchen spotless every day and every week.


Daily

Clear the clutter

It’s a fact universally acknowledged that no matter what you do, the clutter in the kitchen just keeps piling up. Make it a point to clear the counters of clutter and put back anything that is not in its proper place.

Wash dirty dishes

If at all possible, you should wash dirty dishes as they happen so you won’t be bombarded with a huge pile at the end of the day. If you’re using a dishwasher, it’s best to use a quality detergent, as that can save you some time and allow you to skip pre-washing.

Disinfecting the sink

Your sink is the place where you prepare most of your food, so it’s only right that you prioritize cleaning it. The best way to keep your sink clean is to naturally disinfect it every day. To naturally get rid of stains, grime, and bad smells, HomeServe recommends pouring boiling water, white vinegar, or baking soda down the drain. If you want to go the chemical route, you may also opt for bio-enzyme or ready-made drain cleaners. These will be more effective if there is a blockage causing the water to drain slowly.

Empty trash and recycle bins

Of course, you need to empty the trash and recycle bins at the end of every day. To make things easier, keep extra trash bags next to the bin so replacing the bag is quick and easy. You will also know when you are low and won’t have to overfill the last bag.

Weekly

Clean the coffee maker

According to an NSF International report in the New York Times, the coffee machine is the fifth item in kitchens and bathrooms in terms of the number of germs, less than the pet bowl but more than the bathroom faucet handle. You don’t want your beloved java maker to be plagued with bacteria, so even if it’s tedious, make sure that you hand wash all detachable components with hot water, dishwashing liquid, and a clean sponge every week.

Clean the microwave

As one of the most used appliances in the kitchen, it’s not surprising that the microwave is packed with all sorts of gunk every week. Consider cleaning it with white vinegar and water to get rid of the grime easily.

Sanitize sponges

A study published in Scientific Reports notes that while cleaning sponges don’t help get rid of bacteria, it does wonders killing germs in between replacements. Clean the sponge weekly by mixing bleach with water, soaking the sponge for five minutes, and then rinsing it. Don’t forget to replace your sponges every month too.

Sort out leftovers

The FDA Food Code notes that all perishable foods that are opened or prepared should be thrown out after 7 days. You’ll be surprised at just how much uneaten food is stuck in your fridge if you allow it to go unchecked for too long. Every week, ensure that old leftovers are thrown out, as well as any food that is past its “best by” date. The best way to do this is to label your food on the date it goes into the fridge. Much more accurate than the smell test.

Mop the floors

Since your kitchen is a high-traffic area, it should be wet mopped at least once a week. To make the process a tad bit easier, start at the far corner of the room and work backward towards the exit so you aren’t forced to walk on newly mopped surfaces.

Wash dish towels

Studies show that multipurpose towels used for wiping utensils, drying hands, holding hot utensils, and cleaning surfaces contained more pathogens than single-use towels. It would then benefit you and the rest of your household to wash them weekly, so as not to spread bacteria further.

Filed Under: DIY

How to Choose Different Room Flooring

It’s easy to spend more time choosing the color of your walls than different room flooring. But don’t ignore the importance of the right type of flooring.

Style, color, and material matter on your walls, but your floor is much more likely to be the victim of spills and stains. You want to choose flooring that works for your lifestyle and holds up in high traffic areas.

Choosing Colors

A room’s flooring can bring a room to life. When choosing different room flooring, the colors can trick your mind into thinking the space is larger or smaller than it is. It can also affect the room’s mood and how you feel when you spend time in it.

If you have a room that feels too large, try using darker colors and warmer tones. These colors can make the room seem smaller and cozier. Conversely, lighter tones can make a smaller space feel more open.

If you’re looking to impact a room’s mood rather than its size, start with colors here, too. Different colors make people feel different things.

Whites and beiges feel open and clean, while yellow feels bright and optimistic. Browns create a rustic atmosphere. Blues make people feel calm, and red brings energy into the room.

Matching and Coordinating

If you don’t know the difference between matching and coordinating, you may want to when considering your room’s flooring.

Matching your flooring means keeping the same type throughout your home. However, coordinating means using complimenting colours and styles that work with the aesthetic of each room. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The Right Flooring for the Right Room

Choosing your flooring shouldn’t only be about color and style. You also need to think about the practicalities. Consider how you’ll use the room, and even who will use it.

Your children might love the idea of carpet in their bedrooms, but a hard surface that’s easy to clean may work better. The same goes for the kitchen where you have a high chance of spillage. A floor that you can easily mop rather than scrub functions better in these spaces.

If you’re stuck on whether to go for style or practicality, think about how much traffic each room sees. Rooms everyone in your home uses daily would benefit from harder surfaces like tile cork or slate. Consider carpet for rooms you use less often, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning them.

Transitioning Between Floors

When deciding on different room flooring, consider when and how to transition between the different types from room to room. You can ruin your home’s aesthetic with an awkward change in flooring.

You usually see floor transitions between different rooms. But you can get more creative than that. You can have one kind of floor surrounding another, like tiles surrounded by hardwood. Try switching your flooring around a corner, too.

If you’re choosing different room flooring for each room of your home, remember that the rooms may not be level with each other. In these cases, use a transition strip to even them out. This will make the transition look better, but also makes you less likely to trip.