"Like all art-history appellations, [the term 'rococo'] was created after the fact, around 1836. Nor was it a complimentary term; it was coined by disapproving critics"
However: "The architectural historian Peter Collins has pointed out that Jean-Francois Blondel, the designer of many famous Rococo interiors, never used such ornament on the facades of his buildings, which were always severely classical. Indeed, Rococo features were almost never found on the exteriors of French buildings (although they did appear, later, in Italy and Spain). Rococo was the first style to be developed exclusively for the interior, as opposed to the exterior. This underlined not only that the insides of houses were being thought of as very different from the outsides, but also that an important distinction was being made between interior decoration and architecture. This distinction was not as obvious then as it now seems; previously, the architecture of rooms had been the architecture of facades turned inside out. It was not until the Rococo that architects such as Blondel could specialize in 'interior decoration.'" (also 89)