Modern Chinese Furniture: Seat for T. by JinR

We found them ! Remember, that my girlfriends and I had lunch at the Green T. House Living in Shunyi, outside Beijing last October and we saw these awesome red acrylic horseshoe shape Chinese chairs (see my post) and wondered ever since if they would be for sale? My friend Yvalie, beside other talents, she is a very talented web surfer, found them at the Green T. House online shop and at an US online shop here.

Quan Chair red acrylic (as seen at Green T. House Living)  

Interior of the Green T. House in Sanlitun, Beijing

The above acrylic chair is also available in clear and in another shape. When you click on the first picture, you will see the price, and this is not so funny anymore... 3,755 USD.

The Ming Chair (left) with a 2,30 m high back, costs even more. What a pity, these chairs are so cool.

The Green T. House(s) is famous for JinR's creative concept offering sophisticated dishes on unique plates in a minimalistic surrounding while sitting on special seats. Now JinR has even launched her "Seat for T." collection.

Sometimes it is difficult to believe that behind all this beauty is just one master mind. JinR, originally a musician, when she became a tea house owner in Sanlitun, later a restaurateur, interior designer of her restaurants and now even a furniture designer. I think she is not only very pretty, but also very smart and has some very good consultants working for her. An allround entrepreneur that I admire!

JinR the creator of the Green T. House

Red Acrylic Chinese Chairs

These traditional Chinese horseshoe shaped chairs are not of red lacquered wood. They are acrylic chairs ! They look super cool in the stylish "Green T. House Living" in Shunyi, Beijing.

My stay in Beijing was fantastic, I still have not figured out where to start. So I am posting two pics my friend took during our lunch at the Green T. House living. She would like to know where to get these acrylic chairs. Anyone can help?

photo source:  N.U.

Beijing: Furniture and Deco Shopping

Shop North of Silk Market

Where to shop for furniture and decorative items in Beijing, beside IKEA... in only a few days, I received this questions from three different readers. Two have just moved to Beijing, like Kata from Vilijonkka & tyttäret (WELCOME !) and want to decorate their new homes - and one is Suzy Annetta from Studio Annetta, an interior designer from Hong Kong who will come to Beijing to decorate show room apartments, meaning that she can shop with her customer's money. How nice!

I am happy to hear that my blog is "extremely helpful" ! And hope that list below will make you even more happy - it includes some of my favourite shops, I have seen them all (in Beijing, you might find the addresses of these shops in Chinese language in the Insider's Guide to Beijing or in urbane magazine):


Western Style:

- COFCO, different shops downstairs, including Bo Concept (Denmark), Ligne Roset (French), and Zizaohshe Design (interesting elegant Chinese)
- Easy Home, many big blue mall style outlets that including many brands of everything from flooring, toilets to furniture
- Boloni Lifestyle Museum, modern Italian style including curtains (also at Easy Home)
- Leslie's Fidelity Interior, modern furniture tailor made (moved to 4th ring)
- Dara (now at Dashanzi)
- QM Furniture (Danish design, Chinese prices)
- Fontainbleau, fabric for upholstery and furniture to order, e.g. Louis XV chairs (small shop, in walkging distance North of Silk Market) <-- exist="" not="" p="" still="" sure="" they="">- Muxiyuan Fabric market for more fabric including cotton, linen, silk, cashmere, fur ... all for your own designed cushions, upholstery, blinds...
- SPIN, hip ceramic (from Melbourne) made in Chinese traditional way (Lido area)
- Kartell, having a sale right now because they are closing (?) - just opposite SPIN in Lido - they also do copies of some designer furniture, but nor of Kartell
and of course
- IKEA for some good designed affordable furniture and accessories
- Ilinoi Home, some good accessories, cheaper than IKEA

East meets West ceramics by SPIN

China Style:

- Chaowai 'Antique' Furniture Market (I bought my daybed, picture below, at Cathay 2nd floor - others like Lilly's Shop, same floor opposite side)
- Gaobeidian (many 'antique' shops in the South of Beijing)
- Zizaohshe Design, contemporary elegant Chinese (COFCO)
- Radiance, 'antique', has two shops now, one specialised in Shanghai Art Deco (in Shunyi)
- Karolina Lehmann, lamps, silk screens, wallpaper, ceramics (Latai Flower market)
- Latai Flower market, downstairs many Chinese ceramics, lamps and more
- Liangma Flower market, ceramic, (also Western style), glass, artificial flowers upstairs
- Emperor, silk cushions, table runners
- Shanghai Tang, classy expensive China Style accessories
- Panjiayuan, week end flea market for decorative items like posters, paintings, brushes, vases, but for furniture not that great
- George, for lamp shades in silk (he can make a lamp out of everything), difficult to find in Shunyi
...

Chinese daybed in Chaowai Furniture Market

... long list... I have to go now and will update if I forgot something important. If you feel like I forgot something, let me know.

Happy Weekend ! Happy Shopping !

Decorating with Chinese Furniture

Let me share with those who have not access to the Beijing based urbane magazine (left: March cover) my latest article about Chinese furniture. There is a brief introduction to Ming and Qing style and how ancient Chinese furnishing could be used to decorate modern homes. Next month an article about 'Shanghai Glam' will be published.





Read my version prior to editing:

China Decor goes Global

While lots of young Chinese turn towards IKEA or Boloni to decorate their modern homes with western style furniture, China style is popular in the West more than ever.

The history of Chinese furniture dates back over 2000 years. The ancient Chinese knelt or sat cross-legged upon woven mats surrounded by various furnishings including low tables, screens, and armrests.

The development from sitting on the floor towards high seating was influenced by foreign customs and the migration of Buddhism. Chairs and raised platforms began to appear as the status enhancing seats of great masters. In the 12th century the use of stools and chairs was widely spread in China.

The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was considered as the golden age of Chinese furniture. Most Ming furniture feature clean lines and have a system of assembly without the use of nails. The timeless simplicity and perfect proportions of the Ming style allow these pieces to fit even today in contemporary homes around the world.

Later, during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) more ornate carvings, bright lacquering and inlay work become common. Traders exported along the Silk Road blue and white Ming porcelain, Qing furniture and textile to Europe. European craftsmen soon caught on the exotic motifs, which movement was called Chinoiserie in the 18th century. This is also when Chinese hand painted wallpaper and screens became popular.

In the same century the influence of Chinese furniture and porcelain spread over Southeast Asia, due to Chinese merchants travelling and settling in the region. In the 18th century in Thailand was a vogue for all things Chinese. Courtiers wore Chinese slippers and jackets, Chinese furniture found its way into noble mansions and temples.

The blending of artistic form with practical functionality can be seen as a common thread running throughout the long history of Chinese furniture and is the reason why it is still popular today. For everyday life, you can convert the original function of Chinese furniture and adopt it to your home needs. An altar tables can serve as console table behind a sofa. A small opium bed can be used as coffee table. A wedding cabinet might store a TV while a pharmacy cabinet can store CDs and wooden rice measure containers serve as magazine stands. And finally, accessorize your home with some blue and white ginger jars. Or hang framed hand painted wallpaper panels in your living room. This is a less expensive and flexible alternative to wallpaper a whole wall or room as you can move with your wallpaper.

Another very decorative style developed in the glamorous 1930s in Shanghai. A fusion of Eastern and Western styles including both Chinese bright colors and Western Art Deco elements created the famous so called 'China Chic' or 'Shanghai Chic' (1930s) style.

To achieve a bit of this style and vivid atmosphere in your home you can paint your walls in bright lime green or lemon yellow like it was chic at that time. Shocking pink and lime green silk cushions freshen up dark Qing dynasty chairs in Hong Kong’s private China Club. It comes in handy that the man behind the China Club, David Tang founded Shanghai Tang, an exquisite shop for China Chic where you can find some matching accessories.(more about Shanghai Chic in urbane's April edition and here on my blog)

In the 21st century China style is hotter than ever! Today, you do not even have to travel to Asia to get Chinese decorative items. Interior Design shops around the globe offer Chinese lamps, vases, wallpaper or the famous wedding cabinets. But not only interior designer are focusing on China Style. Hollywood celebrities are wearing qipao, form-fitting Chinese silk dresses. Chinese modern artists are best sellers. Stylish Chinese restaurants, bars and courtyard houses are en vogue among foreigners and Chinese.

And if you feel your Chinese furniture look 'too Chinese' give them a contemporary face lift! You could lacquer a chair or cabinet in clean white or colors like bright orange, pine green, lemon yellow and Prussian blue. You can add cushions with a cotton print or striped pattern to a Chinese daybed instead of using silk. Combine pieces of Chinese furniture with contemporary Western furniture and colorful Western oil paintings for an eclectic mix.

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Photo Caption: In Rome, not far from the Spanish stairs, in a beautiful park of palm and lemon trees lives Mafalda Princess of Hessen with her family in a red colored villa. This villa has a Chinese Salon decorated with an impressing over 100 years old Chinese hand painted wallpaper. The construction of the villa was influenced by the taste of the Nobles of the 18th century. This was when Chinese Salons were en vogue. ‘Such a room used to express that you were well-educated and widely travelled’, tells the Princess.

other photo Caption: Take a look into today's interior design magazines. Pictures of beautiful modern houses with blue and white ginger jar on a chimney or a horse shoe shaped Chinese chair in a hallway are never missing.

Treasure Hunt: In Beijing you find lots of treasures by exploring Panjiayuan Antique Market, Gaobeidian Village, Chaowai Furniture Warehouse, Liangma Antique Market or some local decorating shops like Dara or Zizaoshe. Others more pricey: Radiance, Shanghai Tang (Remark: These and more addresses can be found in "urbane" magazine and “Insider’s Guide to Beijing”.)

Beijing: Panjiayuan Antique Market

This Must visit antique market is known under many names: weekend market, Sunday market, antique market, flea market and some call it the 'dirt market'. The Chinese name is Panjiayuan market and it is not only on Sundays, even not only on weekends and it is not dirty at all. Last Saturday morning when our son went to school, we had that desire to browse once again that huge market of thousands of treasures (on about 45 thousand sqm).
I have taken my new 'toy' and made some pictures to share:

Porcelain and Shanghai poster girl in front of an antique shop

Chairman Mao and military stuff (I hope the hand grenades are fake)

Brushes for Chinese calligraphy and painting

Chinese cyclist in traffic jam from sheet metal

Browsing is part of the fun

'The difference between crap and treasure is luck, hard work and arriving early.', says the Beijing LUXE city guide.

Find more pictures and map and an American Journalist about Beijing's Dirt (cheap) Market.

Part of the market is open every day, but the real thing happens on Saturdays and Sundays from about 7am to 5pm at the 3rd ring road East. Every taxi in town knows the market.

Remark:
Ask your concierge to write the destination in Chinese language for the taxi driver. And even more important: make sure you have the address of your accommodation in Chinese language otherwise you might not find your way back.

Photo Source: all mine !

Chinese Furniture in Modern Life

While Chinese people run to IKEA to decorate their modern homes with western style furniture, China style is popular in the West.

Furniture in Asia has Chinese roots. Thais as other Asians used to live on the floor (sleeping, eating, sitting). While in China in the 12th century the use of stools and chairs was widely spread. The Ming period (1368-1644) was considered as the golden age of Chinese furniture. Timeless simplicity and perfect proportions of Ming furniture allow these pieces to fit even today in the most modern homes around the world. Later, heavy ornate carvings were the style of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Take a look into today's interior design magazines. Pictures of beautiful modern houses with blue and white ginger jars on the chimney or a horse shoe shaped Chinese chair in the hallway are never missing.

A piece of Chinese furniture can make you dream of far away countries and can be functional at the same time. Chinese altar tables serving as console tables, opium bed serving as coffee tables, wedding cabinets serving as TV storage, pharmacy cabinets serving as CD storage, wooden rice container serving as magazine stand… the list is long.

Living in Beijing and exploring Panjiayuan Antique Market, Gaobeidian Village or Chaowai Furniture Warehouse I can find lots of examples. I will keep you posted!

And if the Chinese furniture looks 'too Chinese' lacquer them in white colour!

Remark: Funny, the nicest Chinese furniture we saw was in Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong and not in Beijing.

Photos: from different magazines showing from top left clockwise: white lacquered daybed, bedroom with two wedding cabinets in pastel colour, bedroom with wedding cabinet Ming Style, bedroom with storage boxes and Chinese door serving as paravent.

China Style

China is conquering the world with style.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are the two famous styles that influenced Chinese furniture, pottery and art. In the 1930ies another style developed in Shanghai, the Paris of the East. A fusion of Eastern and Western styles including both Chinese bright colours and Western Art Deco elements created the famous so called 'China Chic' or 'Shanghai Chic' style.

In the 21st century China style is hotter than ever! It was never out of demand. Today, you do not have to travel the Silk Road to get Chinese decorative items. Interior Design shops around the globe offer Chinese lamps, vases or the famous wedding cabinets. Hollywood celebrities wearing qipao, form-fitting Chinese silk dresses. Chinese modern artists are best sellers. Stylish Chinese restaurants, bars and courtyard houses are en vogue among foreigners and Chinese. A copy of the private China Club in Hong Kong has opened in Berlin in 2003.




All pictures are from the book CHINA STYLE(photos by Michael Freeman, text by Sharon Leece, printed in Singapore by PERIPLUS). The small pictures above represents 'China Modern' Style. The larger pictures above are taken at the China Club, Hong Kong decorated in 'Shanghai Chic' Style and at a private residence in Shanghai, French Concession. (I love the lemon green painted wall!)

Remark: I own this book and love to look at the pictures. After this post I think it is time to also study it as Sharon Leece has done a great work. Here an extract from her table of contents:

'China Style Goes Global, Ming and Qing Elegance Redefined, The New Mandarin Style, An Eclectic Mix, Chinoiserie Old and New, The New Orientalism, Brilliant Baroque, The New Shanghai Style, Retro Modern, Art Deco Decadence, Shanghai Chic, The New Jazz Age, China Modern, Stylish Minimalism, East West Fusion, Zen Sanctuary, Decorating China Style, Ming and Qing Furniture, China Country Style ...'

Doesn't this sound interesting? At Amazon.com you can search inside the bookfor more pictures!

Beijing Shopping: DARA

DARA is offering elegant Asian and Western home decor. It runs its business since 1998 and has now three stores and an art gallery in Beijing. The product range inculdes chinese and western style furniture, 'antique' accessories, dishware, cushions, lamps, lush fabrics, mirrors, pottery and more. The art gallery in Dashanzi Art Zone 798 shows contempory art. It hosts as well the DARA club, a unique showroom space. DARA is appreciated by chinese and foreign customers. In their high glossy brochure they claim Hollywood director Oliver Stone to be one of their customers. Not only have they private customers but also real estate projects asked them to furnish their showrooms. DARA products are pricy in comparison to the home decor price level in Beijing. However they have been cultivating their brand when brand consciousness was not formed yet in China - and now they belong to the top addresses when it comes to interior decoration in Beijing.



Unfortunately the website is only for Chinese customers in chinese language and taste: see DARA.com.cn