In the Oriental Style: A Sourcebook of Decoration and Design

Rating:
Summary: A Must Have For Collectors Of Asian Arts
Review: A favorite of my Interior Design book collection!
Being stationed in Japan for over 10 years with
my husband, I fell in love with Asian Arts and
enjoyed decorating my home with such treasures.
I recently moved back to the States, and more than ever,
I appreciate each piece for it's
craftmanship and beauty. This book shows how much more you can do with treasures from the Orient!

Rating:
Summary: A helpful introduction to different Oriental styles
Review: It is a good sourcebook to get an overview of 'Oriental' styles. You will find an introductions to Oriental traditional living, architecture, furniture and decorative items from Asian countries like Thailand, Burma, Japan, Korea, Myanmar (Burma), China, Philipines, Tibet and Indonesia including Bali. The book shows you as well how Oriental Style can innovate Western interiors.

Rating:
Summary: A helpful introduction to different Oriental styles
Review: Studying this book made me appreciate the great job done by most editors of style and design source books. This particular book falls short of the standard set by Asian style gurus like Tan Hock Beng and Barbara Walker.

While this book is chock-a-block with professional photos of beautiful objets d'art and of sumptuous east-meets-western-interior-decorator homes, it comes off as an unsorted pile of images; the editorial vision never gets far beyond, "hey, y'all, check out this neat-lookin' stuff!"

One way the editor could have improved the flow of this book would have been to devote just one more pair of facing pages to each of the featured homes. Facing pages are used to some advantage to concentrate on one given home, but these photos sometimes seem disjointed together rather than harmonious. And far too much distance is put between the walls and the camera, so while the overall room can be studied, there is often a lack of up-close, detail shots.

Positive elements: the traditional Japanese interiors are gorgeous, and there are nice shots showing how objects can be grouped; there are lots of hints on how to work east and west together.

Negative elements: three categories of Oriental design and decoration as introduced in the preface are never referred to again; this could have been a way to organize the book! Reader is made to jump from a collection of ornate Chinese and Japanese armoirs (pages 104 - 105), to a variety of Asian bedroom interiors (pages 106 - 107), to 3 rooms of a contemporary Philippines residence (pages 108 - 109). ...it's annoyingly random. There are too many photos of antique shop displays (with overwhelming arrays of objects) with (get this) big price tags on the items, in plain view! If you love the cluttered look, this may not be objectionable, but if you want to see more actual examples of putting a design element to its best advantage, this book won't measure up. I found the examples of western homes using Asian artifacts to be odd, & even sometimes quite insensitive to the beauty of the pieces.

To be sure, there are some lovely photos in here, and many of the pieces (individual design elements) are quite nice. I don't doubt that the average reader will find something here to be inspired by. But there is a general lack of order and subtlty, and far too many inappropriate juxtapositions of images on the same page.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent decoration help...esp. for expats
Review: This book is described as a sourcebook and that's what it is. It is certainly not an overview of Oriental furniture since the emphasis is on display and design. It is, however, a great book for those who wish to blend in some Oriental furniture in their Western homes.

The title may be a bit misleading; the main part of the book concentrates on South-East Asian furniture and not so much on Japanese/Korean styles. Most of the furniture comes from Thailand, Burma and China.

For those, like me, who live in that part of the world that is OK. The antiques available in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong are mostly, in the affordable categories, from these countries.

In particular, there is a wealth of Chinese old furniture on the market. And for those who think prices are a problem, forget it. We have picked up many cabinets from Chian around $ 750 and for similar amounts you go to a good furniture shop in BKK and have lovely pieces handmade for you from your own design ideas.

Even if you don't live here, but are here on a visit you can easily buy and have it shipped ( we have done it for friends on quite a few occassions). The shipping rates are quite OK and allow you still to pick up some pieces at good prices.

For amateurs like me, who simply wish to introduce some Asian elements in their homes this book is very valuable and gives many ideas, not in the least through the many photographs.