Chinese Living Room Furniture

A pair of red and green Chinese wedding cabinets found in Belgium fit perfectly into Lina Kanafani's living room alcoves. Their colours are a source of warmth and add playfulness to the general ambience of the room, she explains. In practical terms, they are used to store the music system, speakers, CDs, books and magazines. For Kanafani, aesthetics is more important than value hey may not be important' pieces as far as Chinese furniture is concerned, but they have perfectly achieved the effect I was after.

Clean lines, lack of ornamentation and a subtle colour scheme characterize Kai-Yin Lo's living room, where Chinese art is hung on the walls with architectural precsion. A pair of window panels features the persimmon in a four-petal design.

In the library, a 19th-century Anatolian kilim hangs on the wall; to the rear is a 17th-century Huanghuali painting table and a 16th-17th-century southern official's armchair. In the foreground, and Elmwood and red lacquer 19th-century ladder rests against the bookcases. The occupants prize the form of the furniture over the media used to create it as the most important feature in their collection.