Versailles Rococo is the apex of European court ornament before the Revolution killed it — the 1700–1760 visual grammar of Louis XV's France. Gilt-bronze ormolu cartouches, asymmetric C-scrolls and S-curves, rocaille shells, pastel cream-and-pink walls hand-painted with Boucher cherubs and trellised roses.

Every surface deserves an embellishment, every embellishment deserves a smaller embellishment, and the whole thing should look like it took a guild a year. Think Petit Trianon salon: cream-and-gold paneling, pastel upholstery, gilt-frame mirrors, hand-painted floral cartouches with deliberately asymmetric scrollwork.