The formal style retains a strong hold in Chinese interiors, in particular for the main living space. This is a place to entertain guests, converse with acquaintances and host formal affairs inside the home. Design involves a wide assortment of seating and display areas, together with decoration that reflects the owner’s personal style. In the contemporary Chinese house, luxury living space is being redefined, with elegance becoming increasingly sought. Meanwhile, apportioning traditional design values to this entertaining space while saving the informalities for the family room is always a key issue. A formal living room is, furthermore, designated in the philosophy of Feng Shui as a room of opportunity. When an old friend or neighbor arrives unexpectedly, the living room will be one of the first rooms they are able to enjoy. This is a place of potential, the room linked to several aspects of life, including career and relationships. From a more practical standpoint, a well-designed living room will provide your guests with distinct feelings of security about you and about the time they spend inside your house.
Strict symmetry focused on the fireplace confers formality on this spacious first floor living room. The pearl and gilt strand table decoration on the low Chinese lute table is by designer Cyril Gonzalez.
The living room, looking through to the dining room, of gallery owner Elisabeth de Brabant’s 1930s Xuhui house. Symmetry of armchairs, cabinets and paintings work a similar formal effect as in the room at top left.
The living room of Grace Wu Bruce’s Hong Kong home, featuring an important collection of Ming furniture. A pair of calligraphy scrolls by Wang Shixiang flank a landscape scroll painting by Hong Kong artist Harold Wong. The table is a late Ming daybed. In the foreground is a pair of barrel stools in huanghuali with upholstered seats.
A large late seventeenth-century Chinese carpet dominates this living room, which looks through to a dining room, flanked by two modern mountain/water landscapes by Fu Bao Shih, 1940.
A Hong Kong Mid-levels apartment in the grand style, home of renowned collector and jewelry designer Kai Yin lo. An eighteenth-century nan mu seating platform in three sections functions as a coffee table.
The living room of a contemporary Hangzhou villa that incorporates traditional elements is raised above the entry level. Antique birdcages flank the entrance, and three walls are screened with wood latticework.
The living room of a Hong Kong apartment owned by a collector and designer with a passion for fine Ming furniture and stones. In the foreground, a yellow lashi river stone with a typically waxy polish symbolizes nature. Behind is a classic Ming lute table and cabinet, with scroll paintings and calligraphy.
Another Hong Kong Mid-levels apartment living room, combining a contemporary cream sofa with a Ming daybed, and collections of jade, Tibetan silver, ironwood figures and antique beads.
Restrained tones and natural colors are the hallmark of this small but elegant living room. A dark camphor wood trunk from Macau with table runner abuts a contemporary white-upholstered sofa.
A combination of Ming and Art Deco furniture on a contemporary carpet inspired by traditional Chinese motifs. In the foreground is a circular 1930s Shanghai maple wood table with stools. Behind is a Ming huanghuali table and two chairs with ‘cracked-ice’ backs.