Asian Aura

by Dan Maynard
(Texas)

I have travelled extensively around asia and gathered many ideas for my "future" game room theme - Asian.

It is not in existence yet as I am still partly finishing my basement but I have envisaged what it'd look like. Since I have lived for a period of time in Japan I will use accessories, pictures that I have collected there. It makes decorating easier plus I have real knowledge of details to use.

I would use a mustard yellow for the walls. It is a good warm spicey color. Although my wife also suggested a calm sage green color.

Lighting would of course be paper laterns. These you can find in any home furnishing stores. I happen to have a string of little ball lanterns from Japan as well as large globe shaped ones. Although I may also use some floor standing ones that I have seen in IKEA.

In a corner I am planning to have a large white vase and inside I will place bamboo canes or sticks of various types. My wife would like me to place a fake cherry blossom tree also somewhere in the room.

I have a sake set - really beautiful from Kyoto and I am going to mount this on one wall using those square bracket frames.

As this is a game room, I will mount a pachinko machine on another wall - I figured a mini one, so as not to be obtrusive to other wall pictures/decorations.

I have masks which I also purchased in Kyoto and these will go up as well as some fine pieces of Japanese art. I also have a magnificent "Samurai" sword which I will also display on the wall.

Since karaoke is a huge past time in Japan, this is a must for my basement. I will purchase a karaoke machine and download songs American and Japanese.
In addition I was lucky enough to have been given a kotatsu table (low heated table) from one of our Japanese friends and this will be perfect for us to sit around and drink our sake!

Flooring will be bamboo wood as this is hardwearing but also cheaper than normal hardwood floors.

These are ideas of mine which I will implement once our basement is finished.

If anyone else has some ideas along this theme, please let me know.

Thanks.