Styles and Periods - Ideas for Decorating Your Dining Room With An Asian Inspired Theme
Asian decorating is becoming more popular in the western world, we love it's simplicity and it's subtle use of local materials like bamboo and silk.
The silk fabrics are rich and opulent and tell a story on their own, the highly glossy lacquered furniture appears sleek with simple lines and is always functional.
To create a Asian inspired look for your dining room we wiil follow these basic steps.
Floor - a simple timber floor works best, bamboo is now widely available, if not parquet, or other timber based flooring products.
Bamboo mats could also be used over existing flooring, but be mindful that you will have chairs to place on them, unless you intend to use cushions and sit on the floor around a low table as in the traditional Japanese Styled Dining Room.
Walls - use rice paper wall paper in neutral colors, this way you can keep the space light and airy and use your decorative pieces to make the statement. You could if you want go for red on the walls, but they don't show off your accessories as well.
Lighting - a lantern is wonderful as a pendant or sitting on the table. An inexpensive light fitting is a ricepaper lantern, these look great and are very affordable.
Window Treatments - Depending on the style of dining room, formal or casual, you could use silk for a drapery fabric for the formal look or bamboo roll up blinds for a more casual rural look.
Furniture - richly lacquered usually black with highlights of red or white. Carved timber, highly decorative or Bamboo and rattan chairs for a more casual look.
Decoration - prints or calligraphy on handmade paper, wood carvings of asian scenes, ceramics, asian plants, kimonos, fans, shoji screen. A table cloth in a traditional asian pattern can make a big difference to the room without having to purchase new furniture.
Tableware - there are numerous types of ceramic bowls and plates in asian inspired designs, pick one and follow up with matching placemats, chopsticks, serving ware and trays. Personally I have a blue and white set of bowls for casual asian dining and a strinking black set for formal occasions.
To sum up, decide if you want a formal or casual asian inspired dining room, then start collecting things that will suit, look around second hand stores, it is amazing what people throw away. If not advertise in the local paper or on the internet to find pieces that will complement your scheme.
