8 Ways To Design Your Kitchen With Asian Flair

Asian-style kitchen designs are steeped in serenity and evoke an exotic sense of foreign yet familiar. Whether you’re a minimalist at heart or have a love for intricate detailing and bold designs, an Asian-style kitchen is flexible enough to satisfy your craving for a brand new atmosphere. Check out our top tips for designing an Asian-style kitchen below.

• Deck out your kitchen in natural and organic materials. The use of wood and stone is a key element of Asian design, giving the space much-needed warmth even if the design is largely skewed towards the more tranquil and serene Japanese aesthetic. Don’t limit your usage of natural materials to structural elements and furniture, either. Small accents like bamboo placemats and earthenware bowls can help tie disparate elements of your kitchen into one distinctively Asian style.
• Go bold with color or keep it subdued. The color palette of an Asian kitchen can vary wildly depending on which Asian culture you base your design on. Japanese-inspired kitchens, for example, typically have subdued, almost monochromatic color schemes. Conversely, Chinese-inspired kitchen designs will almost always have a bold dash of red somewhere in there. Red, after all, is a strongly symbolic color not only in China but in a lot of Asian cultures.
• Shake things up by fusing them together. Take a page from the Asian style and fuse two disparate color schemes together. Although your kitchen may be decked out in Zen-inspired Japanese design and color scheme, you can still add dabs of red to serve as eye-catching accents. Avoid disturbing your kitchen’s sense of serenity by only using the color in accent pieces such as dishware.
• Pay attention to your space’s balance. Asian design places a premium on harmony. Balance visual elements such as color, form, and weight. A lot of Chinese designs, for instance, emphasize symmetry. Since the Asian aesthetic is often a fusion of many different Asian cultures, make sure that each element in your kitchen complement one another.

• Stick to a simple, streamlined layout. Simplicity is the name of the game when it comes to Asian interiors. Clean, uninterrupted lines and a smooth flow are hallmarks of Asian kitchens, especially Japanese-inspired ones. You might want to consider keeping most utensils and small appliances in your cabinets to cut down on the visual clutter.
• Use contrast to add drama. Just because you have a simple kitchen layout doesn’t mean you can’t add a bit of eye-catching elements to your space. We’ve mentioned this before when talking about the Asian color palette, but you can actually introduce more intricate accent pieces to a mostly Zen-like kitchen space. In fact, Asian kitchens often contain a spot of dramatic contrast, such as a black or boldly-colored kitchen island in a sea of stark whiteness. Consider adding something like statement furniture, a hand-carved wood panel, or an intricately detailed island.
• Decorate with Asian accents. You can push your kitchen’s Asian aesthetic further by adding a few accent pieces and fixtures that are distinctly Asian. Lanterns, wall sconces, and art decals that evoke Asia and its myriad cultures can easily be found and ordered online. Calligraphic wall hangings, sumi-e paintings, ceramic tea pots, and even a small paper receptacle that holds some intricately carved chopsticks will go a long way towards setting up an Asian vibe in your kitchen.
• Keep your space open and airy. Asian kitchens usually have very good natural ventilation, not just for making sure that the air inside is always fresh but to let as much natural light in as possible. Large windows and light curtains work well towards keeping the space bright and spacious. You can also make creative use of mirrors to distribute light around the space.