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 !

The Beijing Peony

The pink peony is Chinese painters' favorite flower. And the pink peony is in a famous Beijing pattern. The pink peony often comes along with a blue rose and some exotic bird on red, blue and green background. Although it is a beautiful pattern, the business man and woman of the souvenir shops focus more on silk. I know only one shop selling peony pattern pillow cases (in Liangma Flower Market, stand 23, one case for 15 yuan). Some shops sell peony pattern notebooks. I personally own about a dozen pillow cases with the peony pattern and bought peony pattern fabric in blue from Miyuan Fabric Market to make a table cloth. Recently I discovered the peony pattern on a postcard (picture above).

However, Philippe Starck, him again, seems to have discovered the same interest in the peony pattern (maybe while designing the interior of Lan restaurant in Beijing). I was well amazed to see his Ghost chairs padded with 'my' Beijing peonies.

Again: China Style goes gobal...

Photo: retromodern.com

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!

Chinoiserie

In Rome, just 5 minutes by motorino from the Spanish stairs, in a beautiful park of palm and lemon trees lives Mafalda Princess of Hesse with her family in a red coloured villa. The Villa Polisena was featured as ‘La Dolce Villa’ in the Architectural Digest Magazine of April 2007 (German Issue). What caught my eyes was the Chinese salon with an impressing Chinese painting style Wallpaper.

The Princess was interviewed about the story behind the house. Her grandfather Prince Philipp von Hesse came from Germany to Rome in the early 20ties to study architecture. On a party he met her grandmother, Mafalda of Savoy, the daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III. of Savoy and Queen Elena. When they got married in 1925 they were given a piece of land - the land the villa is now located. It was the former vegetable garden of the Italian Royal Family. The construction of the villa was influenced by the taste of the Nobles at that time, the style 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. The Chinoiserie-wallpaper was repaired by three generations. Some mandarins become blond nevertheless.

Chinoiserie was the style of European art in the 18th century modelled on Chinese art. Chinese products such as silk, porcelain, paintings and artifacts came to Europe via the famous Silk Road in the 17th and 18th century.

Photo: Oliver Mark, AD