Home Decorating Trend: Asian Meets Contemporary in Interior Design

Asian accents at Two Buttons Gallery, Frenchtown, NJ

Interior designers are always looking for trends to help guide their clients through the choppy waters of tastemaking. Trends, as we know, can be good and bad. Trends, if they're too "trendy," can come and go quickly, leaving your design project looking dated and so last year. But other trends are strong design currents that may be good to follow because they make good sense and are design-worthy styles. One example is combining Asian accents with contemporary furniture. This makes sense on many levels.

• Asian accents add international flair to interiors, as well as providing decorative points of interest.
• Contemporary furniture oftentimes borrows lines and motifs from traditional Asian furnishings, so there's a definite harmonious blend of new and old when combined with Asian antiques and accessories.
• The West has been fascinated with the exotic styling of Asian decor for centuries, and this trend is a natural carry-forward and fresh update of our decorating heritage. 

Click here to read my latest piece for Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace, where my design partner and I interview bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband Jose Nunez; they own a large import gallery in New Jersey, and you'll like Liz and Jose's advice about how to select good Asian accessories for your home and design projects. To accompany the advice in the article, I've selected a few contemporary furniture pieces that will style well with Asian antiques and accessories. Click on each photo for more product information.

The perfect display of Asian accessories: the Collectors Cabinet from Global Views

Jiun Ho's Hans Night Table is a sleek pedestal to display Asian treasures.

Functional coffee table from BoConcepts - sleek lines, Zen profile, go well with Asian accessories

Shiny metal clads the Terra Console from West Elm, a perfect surface to display accents!

Global Views' Cathay Arm Chair has a sandblasted finish that makes this Asian piece contemporary, ideal for an Asian throw.

If you're interested in learning more about interior design and decorating, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

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10 Decor Favorites: Asian Styling at Bungalow 5

Shanghai 2-Drawer and 2-Door Cabinet

Home goods and furniture companies are preparing their fall collections, and we've been receiving previews of what will be coming your way in the consumer interior design market. Today's collection previews to the professional design trade will trickle down to stores and design clients' homes in the future. One trend we noticed from the new collections from Bungalow 5 Furniture is a focus on Asian influences. In fact, with mirrored furniture like the Shanghai Cabinet (above), we're getting an interesting mash-up of Hollywood Regency glamour injected into more traditional Asian styled pieces.

Legend Temple Jar

This will definitely help designers fit these Asian-inspired pieces into a wider variety of decorating schemes: the mirrored looks will go well with practically anything in the range from contemporary to traditional, while truly eclectic spaces will benefit from a sprinkling of Asian accents. A good rule of thumb: if the colors and forms of the pieces are harmonious and appealing, relating well to other elements in the room you're decorating, then go for it! Here are a few more Asian looks we found in the upcoming Bungalow 5 collections; click on each photo for more product information.

Kyoto Lamp

Roxanne Covered Mei Ping Jar in Turquoise Glazed Porcelain

Shanghai Console

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Lights, Camera, Action! TV's Most Beautiful Interiors - Part I

(Bones' loft)The camera might be focusing on the melodrama between the actors, but I’m always checking out the set design of the television show. After wading through a lot of mediocre sets, these interiors sparked my interest!

(Dr. "Bones", played by Emily Deschanel)Bones, from the Fox network, may have a grisly theme and name, but the set designs are fabulous. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan - played by Emily Deschanel - investigates the skeletal remains of murder victims for clues in the soaring and unique setting of the imaginary Jeffersonian Institute.  The Institute is part museum and part laboratory space – one wall contains from floor to ceiling a display case filled with bones that’s backlit for a ghostly effect. 

But it’s Bones’ home – a renovated loft - that really shows off the design talent of the show’s set designer, Kim Wannop.

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