Sensuous Style from the Heart of Asia -

by Mariana Nashaat Youssef

The sway of the East is palpable as you open your eyes and look around your bedroom. Your walls glitter in the morning with a metallic stencil (ABC Home, stencil from India, 50$) sitting subtly on top of your cream paint. The sunlight flirts with your curtains, dressed elegantly in sheer silks of gold and crimson with a classic recurring hand stitched border of flowers and sparkling stones (ABC Home, brocade sari, 325$). Your honeymoon to India and China has colored what you find beautiful and unique, what colors you are attracted to, what you consider to be peaceful and pleasing. You cannot ignore the notion that a harmonious dwelling, in terms of the flow of energy, affect how good you feel and what you attrac t into your life. And you are not alone. The influence of those two cultures can be easily discerned in so many homes in our western world.

You move slowly between your sheets of simple white cotton. Your bed sits low to the floor, a basic platform with a low headboard of dark wood. It is placed in a very intentional position giving you a full view of the doors leading into the room so as never to be startled in the place where you rest. India has brought you the appreciation for saturated colors that all exist together. Purple is mixed with mustard and a thread silver running throughout. Tangerine is paired with turquoise and gold. These fabrics traditionally worn as dresses called saris, are now fashioned into a duvet that lives on your bed and a throw that sits right on top of it for a decadent layered look. You sit up, moving the embroidered pillows away from you, each one with its own intricate design shades of amythyst and plum, red and fusia. (ABC Home, small embroidered pillows, 65$-125$). The colors red and pink are said to add strength and passion to the love and relationships in your life and you brought them as close to your bed as possible. You turn your head to look at the clock sitting on top of your bedside table.

It is a small Tibetan antique cabinet with two doors painted in greens, reds and yellows that have now become a bit muted (ABC Home, Tibetan chest, 2,500$). Your husband’s is a four door aged red cabinet from the same region. You impulsively make sure they are similar in size and shape. Balance and harmony in partnerships is fostered through the symmetry of these two pieces of furniture that embrace the place where lie with your mate. They tie in perfectly with the tall seven drawer cabinet your husband fell in love with, black in body but with those same muted green, reds and yellows (ABC Home, Tibetan long chest, 1.295$). Throw pillows sit carelessly in a small alcove under your windows. They boast tones of orange and yellow with an overlapping oriental motif in gold (ABC Home, 225$ each). Across the room lives an armoire made of a dark grained wood. It has been inlaid with both a lighter wood grain and a polished white stone. Every surface has been touched with a confident artistry carving history into it and you now add your own story to it (ABC Home, Indian hand carved chest, 2,895$).

You find your slippers, wrap your robe around you and get out of bed. You walk slowly through your hallway and as you turn into your living room, you run your hands along the hand carved stone statue of Ganesh, the Hindu god for removing obstacles (ABC Home, Ganesh, 2,800$). He takes the shape of an elephant with a smiling countenance and plump belly and you can’t help but smile at him this morning.

You spot your husband sitting on your couch reading the newspaper. It’s a low grey sofa, neutral with clean lines that are so common in asian interiors, low arms and a low slanted back. Its matching ottoman is proportionately long and wide (ABC Home, Grey Sofa, 11,995$, Ottoman, 3,000$). Grey is the color of kind natured, helpful people and you both thought that it would be a good idea to bring that into your entertaining space. He has poured himself a cup of coffee in a cup and saucer from the dinnerware set that was his only contribution to the bridal registry. The cup is white with a bold red coral detail on its edges, a red handle and a gold line running the interior edge. The saucer has a radiating coral motif on a white background. You look from the cup to him and think “Mmmm, that man has style” (Bloomingdales, Cristobal Ninnerware by Raynaud, pieces from 45$-409$). The couch compliments an elaborately carved black and gold folding arm side table (ABC Home, Asian folding side table, 2,995$). Two black arm chairs flow seamlessly into your space, the back upholstered in an electric blue and a solid fushia on the seat (ABC Home, 3,035$ each). A long wooden antique serves as your entertainment center. Hand carved details fill in the spaces between its many drawers and doors and a proud orange color still fights its age (ABC Home, Asian Long Buffet, 2,595$).

You walk past all this and your husband as well, right into you dining room. A large satisfied smile spreads across your face as you look at your dining table, a sleek rectangle of light wood sitting on an inset metal frame (ABC Home, Metal and Wood Table, 4,695$). Your buffet, engine red lacquer with a hand painted motif on the two front doors adds just the right amount of fire and energy to the room (ABC Home, Asian sideboard, 2,995$). You pick up the wine glasses from last night’s dinner party, crystal molded with a recurring pattern Indian in inspiration (Bloomingdales, Michael Aram for Waterford, from 20$-800$). Looking at the numerous five piece place settings sitting there, you decide to leave those for later.

In your kitchen, you put the crystal on the counter and pour two glasses of water in tall glasses of the same family. You cut up some slices of apple and put them on top of that beautiful coral print. Walking all of that back over to the living room, you sit close to your husband, give him a long kiss good morning and pick up your section of the paper.