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Blue Green Works illuminates de Gournay’s Shanghai showroom

For Shanghai Art Month, the storied hand painted wallpaper house opens its 1920s Bund apartment to showcase Peter B. Staples' sculptural lighting alongside freshly renovated interiors. The collaboration runs through January 2027.

By Jordana LynchTuesday, 3rd of November 20262 min read
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A room with hand-painted terracotta wallpaper depicting a pagoda and tree, with a sculptural brass pendant hanging above. Below, a plum-coloured velvet pouf sits on a geometric patterned rug beside a low black table holding a tall green vase. A bed with cream upholstery is visible on the left, and a brass floor sconce with a pale green vase stands to the right.
de Gournay (@degournay)

Warm ochre walls envelop an apartment that breathes with intention. The 1920s building on the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic waterfront, has undergone extensive renovation to reveal what de Gournay does with singular mastery: hand painted wallcoverings that narrate entire rooms with the patience of artisanal craft. Scenes of pagodas and delicate trees emerge from terracotta grounds, their outlines rendered in soft sage and pale cream, while hand embroidered details catch the light with quiet refinement.

Close-up detail of hand-painted wallpaper showing a pagoda building with intricate wood grain details and sage-green foliage. A brass wall sconce with frosted white globe lights mount on the wall beside the painted architectural scene.

Into this carefully restored space steps Blue Green Works, the New York studio founded by Peter B. Staples. His lighting sculptures arrive as deliberate counterpoint, their brass and wood forms suspended throughout the apartment with architectural precision. A sculptural pendant hangs above the room’s centre, its vertical lines echoing pagoda silhouettes below, its spherical frosted globes casting warm diffused light across de Gournay’s painted panels. Wall sconces mount beside the windows, their gleaming brass catching the Bund’s afternoon glow, their presence as sculptural as any object in the room.

A second room view showing the same terracotta hand-painted walls with pagoda scenes. A sculptural brass pendant with multiple rectangular elements hangs from the ceiling. Below, a black daybed with magenta upholstery and patterned cushions sits by tall windows dressed in cream moiré. Two plum velvet poufs and a brass-based floor sconce with a green vase complete the composition.

The pairing works because both practices share an uncompromising reverence for handmade authenticity. Each Blue Green Works piece is fabricated with the same deliberation that guides a de Gournay artisan’s brush. The lighting absorbs and amplifies the wallcovering’s narrative: a room becomes less interior and more installation, where tradition and contemporary craft engage in quiet dialogue. Beneath the sculptural pendant, plum moiré from Marvi London upholsters a window seat, its deep wine tone catching the warm brass light. Daybed fabrics by de Darmilano layer textures across geometric rugs, creating a scheme that shifts between residential comfort and curatorial precision.

A room with hand-painted terracotta wallpaper depicting a pagoda and tree, with a sculptural brass pendant hanging above. Below, a plum-coloured velvet pouf sits on a geometric patterned rug beside a low black table holding a tall green vase. A bed with cream upholstery is visible on the left, and a brass floor sconce with a pale green vase stands to the right.

Since its launch in 2020, Blue Green Works has cultivated a design language that moves gracefully between residential, hospitality and retreat spaces, and this Shanghai presentation demonstrates that fluency. The lighting remains on view within the de Gournay showroom until January 2027.

Imagery courtesy of de Gournay (@degournay).

Close-up detail of hand-painted wallpaper showing a pagoda building with intricate wood grain details and sage-green foliage. A brass wall sconce with frosted white globe lights mount on the wall beside the painted architectural scene.
A second room view showing the same terracotta hand-painted walls with pagoda scenes. A sculptural brass pendant with multiple rectangular elements hangs from the ceiling. Below, a black daybed with magenta upholstery and patterned cushions sits by tall windows dressed in cream moiré. Two plum velvet poufs and a brass-based floor sconce with a green vase complete the composition.
A room with hand-painted terracotta wallpaper depicting a pagoda and tree, with a sculptural brass pendant hanging above. Below, a plum-coloured velvet pouf sits on a geometric patterned rug beside a low black table holding a tall green vase. A bed with cream upholstery is visible on the left, and a brass floor sconce with a pale green vase stands to the right.

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