Interior Design: Decoration

Asian Interior Design Tips For Decorating Your Home

Asian interior design is a stylish and classy way to decorate your home. There are many ways to use this design influence in your space. Some people, however, are a little lost when it comes to using Asian design in their own home. Here are a few ideas to help you begin.

Using Japanese influence in your Asian decorating theme is a popular choice. There are many different ways to use this style. Japanese Shoji screens are one of the most popular choices. These are wooden frames with a lattice design. The cutouts are filled with rice paper. Some shoji screens are plain and some have beautiful designs. These screens can be used as a room divider or simply as decoration. Another thing to add to your Japanese inspired room is the Kotatsu table. This is a rectangular table in a dark finish with clean lines. Many have heaters in the middle, and are considered in Japan to be the emotional center of a home.

Woven straw mats with colored borders are popular floor coverings in Asian interiors. These mats are called goza mats. In Japan, these mats are used for walking, sitting, and sleeping. They have two separate layers. One is the straw center and the other is the soft reed outer edge covered in cloth. These floor and bench coverings will add an authentic touch to your Asian style room.

Another classic element of Asian interior design is the gong. There are several different types of gongs, and the one you choose may have much to do with the size of your space. Some gongs are very large, so your room needs to be large to accommodate them. A more manageable size would be a hanging gong. These are usually 12 inches or so and come with a mallet to ring the gong. You can find ones with a beautiful scroll design to accent your Asian decor. You can also purchase a classic gong that hangs on your wall as an art piece. These are lovely and help to tie an Asian inspired space together.

Using Japanese and Chinese calligraphy is a classic and elegant way to decorate your walls for an Asian decorating theme. You can purchase these works of art already framed or just the print. If you buy just the print, it is usually most striking to frame them in black. Look for simple frames with clean lines. This will help enhance the Asian style.

As you can see, there are many ways to use Asian interior design in your own home. There are a plethora of websites and retailers that specialize in Asian interior design. You can find the materials and products that you need to create your perfect Asian inspired space with relative ease.

Interior Decoration With Abstract Art

Decoration

Abstract art is one of the best styles to decorate your home with. Abstract art offers many advantages aver representational are such as still life, portrait or landscape such as the ease with which it can be matched to many different styles of interior design. Modern art such as Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting can be matched based on colors and therefore is easier to work into a rooms design. The wide range of colors used in a single piece of abstract art makes it easier to change the color or feel of a room without having to replace the art on the walls.

Abstract and modern art is often non-representational, meaning it does not depict a particular identifiable image, but focuses more on color, shape and pattern. Using abstract art, a room can be created without the subject matter of the artwork used for decoration defining the theme of the design. It allows the interior designer to focus on creating a feel for a room rather than a specific motif.

Artwork created in the style of the Abstract Expressionists and other modern artists has the advantage of not taking too much attention from the other elements of the room, as well. Subjective imagery draws the eye and engages the analytical mind, where abstract art adds to the feel of a place without commanding the critical mind to evaluate the content of an image. This is most likely why abstract art is used almost exclusively in the design of sets for newer televisions shows. The next time you see a popular TV drama notice the style of artwork that decorates the offices and homes of the characters. It is usually abstract, most likely to keep the viewer focused on the action of the characters instead of trying to figure out what is in the paintings behind the actors.

Because many abstract artist work quickly on large canvases, it is possible to find large pieces of abstract art for a relatively reasonable price. A five-foot tall canvas depicting people, landscapes or still-life images will often take much longer to complete than certain styles of abstract painting. This does not make abstract art inferior or less valuable, but it does mean that abstract artists can price work lower than artists working in other styles. Interior decorators can take advantage of this fact and create a unified and cohesive feel for all the rooms in a house or all the pieces of artwork in a room without having to spend a fortune.

Abstract and modern art works best with furniture and accessories that have a more modern design and feel. Clean lines, muted colors and sparseness of placement allow the exciting and busy nature of abstract art to come forth and complement a room without creating a feeling of chaos within the elements.