A Guide to Interior Design Styles: Asian Zen

A Guide to Interior Design Styles: Asian Zen

Dec 15th 2021

Asian Zen design is an interior design theme that focuses on finding serenity, harmony, simplicity, and balance in your home. The design concept draws inspiration from the idea of Zen seen amongst Asian homes. Zen describes a state of self-awareness about one’s place in the world and inner peace. You can easily incorporate this unique interior design style when remodeling your home by following these essential design tips.

Pick a Palette

The preferred palette for Asian Zen design is a neutral and natural color. These colors enhance the theme’s sense of tranquility and connection to the world around you. The light grey of rocks, pale blue of the sky, natural green of plants, and superb beige of the sandy beach are great color palettes to consider.

Soft whites and pale pinks are other excellent Zen shades to add to your home. Blend them up by selecting complementary colors that go into various rooms in your home. The natural colors need to present the floors, walls, and furnishings.

Choose Natural Textile and Textures

A great way to achieve an Asian Zen design for your home is by picking natural fabrics instead of impersonal synthetic ones. Natural textiles help to promote the feeling of relief or lightness and achieve relaxation in the comfort of your home.

Woolen, silk, linen, or satin fabrics for cushions, sheets, curtains, and carpets are great additions to a Zen-themed home. Spread these natural textiles and textures for calmness and proper uniformity throughout the house.

Use Actual Natural Products

Natural elements like stone and woods bring a sense of nature to Asian Zen-designed homes. These natural products also enhance the natural texture of your furnishings in a brilliantly subtle way.

Green leafy plants are trendy in the Asian Zen interiors. Instead of high-maintenance flowers, you can go for resilient potted plants that effectively give off soothing scents. Plants also provide refreshing oxygen for your home while reinforcing the home’s natural green palette.

A few popular plant species that give off the needed Zen vibe in a home include

  • Snake grass
  • Dracaena plant
  • Bamboo
  • Bonsai trees
  • Sedges
  • Creeping ground covers
  • Rhododendrons
  • Azaleas
  • Japanese maple trees

Pebbles and water features are amazing additions that promote serenity while increasing connection to mother earth. You can creatively combine these natural elements by creating the ultimate outdoor or indoor Zen Garden. You can still go for a small gravel or sand raking table if there’s limited space. Raking lines or patterns into the gravel is a popular Zen custom for calming nerves and finding inner peace.

Find Appropriate Lighting

Asian Zen design emphasizes celebrating the ambiance that natural sunlight offers a lot. Avoid harsh and direct light sources like large bulbs, fluorescent tubes, or strip lighting sources. Large windows and wide-open spaces are simple yet ingenious ways of promoting illumination by natural light.

You can opt for thick or thin curtains to meet the Asian Zen standards for the curtains. Thick curtains lower outdoor noise while creating a sense of intimacy. Light curtains that are kind of see-through promote entry of the sun’s gleaming rays.

If these features aren’t available, you can have a few small lights sources. You can achieve different moods depending on your needs by adjusting the intensity of the small lights. Floor lamps, candles, Japanese lanterns, and small table lamps are excellent Asian Zen lighting ideas. Strategically place them at corners or on up-lighters on walls for the optimal Zen feel.

Keep It Simple

Asian Zen design follows a minimalistic approach. It is impossible to achieve balance and serenity when distracted by clutter. The lifestyle of a minimalist involves stripping your home to the bare essentials.

Avoid filling the need to feel every available space with ornaments or pieces of furniture. Meditate and spend some time in your living space to see if there are any items you need to include. The more spacious your room feels, the more relaxation it offers.

Heavily patterned textiles, furnishings, and wallpaper have no place in Asian Zen design. Choose plain patterns to achieve an overall simplistic feel. If you must sneak in some pattern, go for a simple geometric design or Japanese florals.

Choose Barndoorz

To achieve the proper Asian Zen vibe, you need to add are a few signature elements to your home. These include:

  • Sliding barn doors
  • Room dividers or screens
  • Platform beds and other forms of low-lying furniture

At Barndoorz, we offer a wide selection of designs and styles in rolling barn doors. Our collection of classic and functionally unique barn doors are an excellent match for your Asian Zen design style.