Customer Reviews

Chinese Style: Living in Beauty and Prosperity

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"Lacquer is a natural sap from a sumac tree...growing in southern and central China between elevations of 1200-1500 feet. Applied in layers over logs, beams and furniture, its protective qualities preserve the wood over time. And, its transparent sheen enhances surfaces, while reflecting light." ~pg. 33

Chinese Style is a mingling of ancient beauty with modern functionality that still embodies a spirituality evident in the rich symbolism within the designs. Camphor wood cabinets, apothecary chests, softly rustling silks, intricate screens, fragrant teas, exquisite porcelain and richly colored lacquered antiques fill the pages with beauty.

You can imagine yourself wandering through an Antique store filled with warm colors, rich crimson accents and comfy soft fabrics covering chairs in which you could read for hours. The details on the chair on page 44 are very intriguing and the complexity almost becomes serenity.

The main chapters include:

What is Chinese Style?
China's Export Trade
Recognizing Authentic Chinese Antiques
Poetic Imagery as Design Symbols
Rooms that Welcome and Entertain
Rooms that Nurture and Heal
Rooms that Celebrate Memories
Beauty in the Details

The pictures throughout are the highlights, but each section describes the designs and gives a deeper understanding to the furniture's purpose that goes beyond simple form and function. The bathroom with a fireplace looks very inviting and the author explains how a statue of an elephant gives the room a sense of peace and prosperity.

Sunamita Lim also explains the meaning of bats, bees, bears, butterflies, cranes, dragons, eagles, fish, dogs, lions, goldfish, horses, ducks, roosters, peacocks and tigers. The next time you see a rug with various fruits like cherry, pomegranate and persimmon, you may think of a long life instead of just a display of fruit. Foods also have deeper meanings as do plants and symbols from the natural world.

"Bamboo, in symbolizing nature's purity and steadfastness, is most significant for the higher ideals that scholars seek, such as integrity and noble action." ~ pg. 72

If you are decorating, you might want to consider a beautiful moon window that gives a room such a nurturing quality. If you love reading poetry, the symbols from nature will be enlightening all on their own. This book can be enjoyed for its spiritual and aesthetic dimensions.

~The Rebecca Review

Chinese Style: Living in Beauty and Prosperity hold lovely illustrations to demonstrate the possibilities of redecorating an entire home or a single room in a Chinese fashion. Think 'China' and you'll think of silk, tea, porcelain and lacquer furniture: these and other elements can be combined with modern styles for maximum impact. Home interior design collections will find this focus a popular reference.

Beautifully photographed Chinese style design book for the "eyes." Elegant and thought provoking, brings the viewer into another world. I would recommend this to anyone interested in understanding restraint in decor.

It's not a bad book if you like pictures depicting oriental furniture, it just misinforms. It talks about how beautiful the style is, how to decorate appropriately and how to alleviate clutter among other things. But when you see the photos, despite how they were true in talking about the mentionables, the photos don't reflect on that at all. There are much better interiors that these reviews and topics can reflect on. The items/furniture although maybe unique individually, don't make a statemnt due to misplacing, unbalance and clutter of other objects/furniture. While the book does mention what they promised (like alleviating clutter), The photos dont showcase minimal interior, they are cluttered with asian furniture and often with country finds and items that seem odd placed there. Realistically, if people read what they mention in the book, they expect the photos to reflect on that. Overall if you expect to see what your reading, look somewhere else. If you like photos of Asian furniture or simply want the book for what they talk about then maybe this is a good buy. But if you truly want an asian book about/photos of true balance, harmony, prosperity, beauty, antiques, clutter-free & powerful statements in its most natural, raw and simpless form...then purchase 'Axel Vervoordt: Wabi inspirations', if you truly are open minded enough to accept true Asian with objects that have a powerful art and pressence.

This book has no worthwhile information and the photography is not of the highest quality. I would definitely not recommend it.