watercolour artist diane hill holding Chinese paintbrush to paint chinoiserie wallpaper design with gouache paint on silk paper

The Making Of: Rebel Walls 'Chinoiserie Chic' Wallpaper

By Diane Hill

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5 min

Diane Hill painting the design for her 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper in collaboration with Rebel Walls

Modern ‘Chinoiserie Chic’ Wallpaper


Finding affordable chinoiserie wallpaper that can fit into a modern space can be a challenge, but a few years ago I collaborated with Rebel Walls to create the perfectChinoiserie Chic’ wallpaper with that exact challenge in mind. 


Related page: Chinoiserie Wallpaper Diane Hill x Rebel Walls


chinoiserie wallpaper featuring foliage, leaves, and willows
'Lush Foliage' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls' 'La Chinoiserie' collection

Inspired by traditional chinoiserie scenes I set out to design a wallpaper that is strong yet elegant and can easily bring a sense of luxury and opulence into the room.


Chinoiserie wallpaper featuring birds trees and flowers in maximalist room
Image by At Charlotte's House featuring Diane Hill's 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper for Rebel Walls

Where To Start?


I started my design process by sketching out my initial idea on a smaller scale. I created a sketch featuring intertwining branches, blossom flowers, fruits, and exotic birds to really capture the essence of a traditional chinoiserie scene. 


Related blog post: Learn To Paint Chinoiserie Art


Diane Hill
Initial drawing of Diane Hill's 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper design for Rebel Walls

I scanned this design in digitally to ensure I perfectly captured the wallpaper dimensions, before projecting it onto the wall and tracing it onto a full size wallpaper panel. 


Side by side progress photos of Diane Hill
Left: My design projected onto a wall with a wallpaper panel. Right: Digital scan of the 'Chinoiserie Chic' design with the wallpaper dimensions

Bringing My Design To Life 


Once I had my design sketched out onto my wallpaper panels it was time to get painting! I started by painting the base colours of my leaves and flowers as they helped to guide the rest of the design. 


Related page: Learn To Paint Chinoiserie Art


Wallpaper panel with chinoiserie leaves and flowers part-way painted by Diane Hill with a paint palette laying on top
Chinoiserie leaves and flowers on silk wallpaper panel

After I had my initial colours down I moved on to painting the beautiful birds and fruits, using chinoiserie brushes to add the fine line details onto the leaves and flowers.



My chinoiserie Brushes were designed with this exact style of painting in mind, ensuring you can achieve a smooth blend and exquisite levels of detail!


Related blog: Why Choose Chinoiserie Paintbrushes?


hand holding Chinese paintbrush painting details onto chinoiserie style flower
Flowers with fine line details and shading
hand holding Chinese paintbrush painting chinoiserie style birds flowers and fruits onto silk wallpaper
Finished fruits, birds, and butterflies

A Match Made In Heaven 


As I was designing a wallpaper mural I had two separate wallpaper panels to work on, so I had to ensure the design matched up perfectly


Side by side photos of original painted wallpaper panels by Diane Hill for her Rebel Walls
Painted wallpaper panels 

I did this by periodically hanging my designs up as I worked to ensure everything was aligned and to also add any more shading or detail where necessary. 


Diane Hill painted a wallpaper panel for her
Diane Hill adding details to one wallpaper panel for her 'Chinoiserie Chic' design

The Final Result


The final design is a perfectly modern adaptation of a traditional chinoiserie wallpaper mural, I absolutely love it! 


'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

From bold and beautiful yellows to gorgeous greens and relaxing neutrals, there is a colourway that suits every home interior


'Chinoiserie Chic, Jade' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls
'Chinoiserie Chic, Powder Beige' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

A Fabulous Feature


This wallpaper has gone from strength to strength and is now one of Rebel Walls’ top sellers, even going as far as being featured on TV in programs such as Channel 4’s ‘Sarah Beeny’s New Life In The Country’, BBC’s ‘Your Home Made Perfect’ and ‘Interior Design Masters’, and it even got a feature in the blog of one of my favourite designers; Em Henderson


bedroom featuring Diane Hill
Image by Em Henderson featuring 'Chinoiserie Chic, Jade' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

When I first painted the design I had no idea how big it would become (especially as this was my first ever collab!), the response it has received is just incredible!  


Blogger Joy Green and her new baby in a nursery decorated in Diane Hill
Image by Joy Green featuring 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

I love seeing how you all style this design, so if you’ve used this wallpaper in your own home I would love to see it. Make sure you tag me in your beautiful home decor photos on Instagram @dianehilldesign


 

Side by side images of instagram screengrabs featuring
Left: Image by @preppybohemianathome. Right: Image by @ashleyobradovits. Both featuring 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls
Side by side screenshots of Diane Hill
Left: Image by @reneecusano. Right: Image via Rebel Wall's customer. Both featuring 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

La Chinoiserie 


This design was one of three I created in collaboration with Rebel Walls for their gorgeous ‘La Chinoiserie’ collection. 


Lifestyle photo of Diane Hill
'Lush Foliage, Sage Tint' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

Lush Foliage’ is another dreamy feeling chinoiserie wallpaper mural featuring wispy willows, winding flowers and tendrils, and of course, hanging foliage! This design is perfect for framing a room and giving it a little extra height.


'Brushstrokes, Jade' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

Brushstrokes’ is a lot more modern and minimalistic. This design is all about texture and adds depth in a stunning and simple way when used on its own, or it can serve as an add-on to compliment other chinoiserie wallpaper designs. 

 

Image by Brit & Co featuring 'Chinoiserie Chic' wallpaper by Diane Hill for Rebel Walls

Make Your Home Chinoiserie Chic 


These chinoiserie wallpaper murals are super easy to install yourself (I’ve tried and tested it in my mum's bedroom!). Each order comes with powdered wallpaper paste or there is a peel-and-stick option too.


Peel-and-stick chinoiserie wallpaper is a great choice for those that are renting, or for decorating children's rooms (because we all know how quickly they need to be redecorated!).


Diane Hill
Diane Hill's 'Chinoiserie Chic' peel-and-stick wallpaper for Rebel Walls

Each length of wallpaper is numbered so you can simply hang them in order from left to right, it really is a breeze!


This wallpaper is printed completely on demand so you can scale it up or down to perfectly fit your space (top tip: if you have extra high ceilings you can combine your chinoiserie wall mural patterns with 'Brushstrokes'!)


Dining room with white table cloth, flowers, and tableware featuring Diane Hill
Diane Hill for Rebel Walls' 'Brushtrokes' wallpaper combined with 'Chinoiserie Chic'

If you love these designs but would like something even less permanent than the peel and stick wallpaper option, then creating wall art panels from this wallpaper is a great option!


Instagram screen shot of living room featuring Diane Hill
Diane Hill's 'Chinoiserie Chic, Jade' wallpaper for Rebel Walls as three wall art panels. Image by @annmdennis

Chinoiserie wall art panels are perfect for creating that deluxe and wordly feel in your home without committing to one pattern or design in just one place. This is also a super fun way to give the room a more affordable refresh!


Bathroom featuring Diane Hill
Diane Hill's 'Chinoiserie Chic, Powder Beige' wallpaper for Rebel Walls as wall art panels. Image by @smuffet.li 

This affordable chinoiserie wallpaper is an easy and gorgeous way to bring a touch of luxury to your home, with such a wealth of colour and scale options it's sure to suit any home style!


If you love chinoiserie home styling then be sure to sign up to receive tips and tricks, plus receive a free set of mini art prints when you spend £50 on art!


More Chinoiserie Home Decor...

Comments

I love your work! Are you planning to include this in your upcoming online course ? I would love to learn the technical part of how to design wallpapers+murals using Photoshop, including how to create the repeats. This part I am not so clear. Using two wallpaper panels and then create an entire mural on the wall. I hope you will create a detailed step by step video course soon…I would be the first one to sign up! Thank you.

Zsuzsi

Thanks for sharing your fascinating design process!

Lynn Payne

Just love your art!

Anjana

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