Chinoiserie Rug

February 21, 2025

My vintage rug

My fascination with online rug shopping started in 2016. Rugs are intriguing to me because their price ranges are extremely variable, ranging from $50 to $50,000, and there are lots of things that factor into that: size, material, pile, pattern, time period, region. As I’ve been taking interior design classes and learning more about the field, I’ve learned there is a whole world of manufacturing and production regarding rugs that I have yet to explore… but for now… I like to think of rugs as art for the floor, so I don’t mind splurging a bit to live with a piece of art, much like I would a painting.

My favorite interior design style is Chinoiserie, or rather… modern takes on Chinoiserie, because I dislike chintzes lol. Chinoiserie started in the 16th century as an offshoot of Rococo. I like the color and opulence and appreciation for beauty and globalism in this really idealized way (no matter how outdated the notions are). The idea of admiring something, taking the best of two completely different things and incorporating them together into something new is great. Today, Japan does this better than anyone else, appropriating American culture and elevating it.

(As an aside, I’ve been reading Elsie de Wolfe’s “A House in Good Taste”, where I feel she tastefully develops a more modern take on Chinoiserie, albeit the book is 100 years old lol. And she IS really into chintzes.)

(As a second aside, when I bought Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I decorated my house in the game to be as close to Chinoiserie + fruit furniture as possible and then never touched the game again. The Chinoiserie house WAS end game. >:) )

I feel like the ’90s had a similarly utopian view of globalization wrt fashion. I immediately go to Galliano’s iconic 1997 FW collection for Dior, featuring Chinoiserie decor, French takes on Qi Paos and quentisentially 1990’s rave music soundtrack. Kind of crazy that it only has 40,000 views, but I guess that makes sense. Not to toot my own horn, but I went through a very involved phase of watching runway shows basically as my sport. :PPP

For years I’ve browsed eBay for Nichols rugs, otherwise known as Chinese art deco rugs, and even had a trial period where I bought one in late 2016/2017… only to unroll it and immediately discover it clashed horribly with my cherry wood floors in SF. It was a huge pain to roll the 10x12 ft (iirc) rug back up and return to the previous owner. I was extremely grateful for the return policy the eBay seller had lol.

While my first Chinese art deco rug didn’t work out, I held hope that I could eventually find one for my current apartment in NYC. Lo and behold, I found this one on eBay. The color was much bolder than other ones I had considered, but I loved it. And the size was perfect. And they had a return policy.

Needless to say, it’s perfect in my eyes, which is nothing short of a miracle. Buying rugs online is so risky: people lie about sizes, photos mislead how prominent any stains are, how thick the pile is, and it’s impossible to gauge most key aspects: the texture and material.

The rug is lush, soft, and was taken care of. Someone before me loved this rug, just like how I love it now. I think the blue ties the whole room together, and I hope I can continue to use it in future apartments too. My credit card recklessness and eBay addiction were rewarded~!