When my husband and I decided that we were sick of the flea market-shamble of our thrown together apartment's decor and figured that we would try and have a themed apartment or at least theme one room. It took us almost a year to decide on our bedroom. We both loved the design of the orient. So, it only seemed natural to design our bedroom to suit this theme. We started with an easy and low cost fix - the comforter set. We found wonderful prints all over the Internet and in local stores. We first started with a black satin set and purchased a burgundy satin set. However, we found that with having two cats (one in which decided that she liked the texture and began sucking on it - yuck) that this was a poor choice.

We decided to start over choosing wall decor. We have some wonderful second hand stores around and the department stores seemed to carry this style readily. So, the first things we purchased was a Chinese lettered plate. Now, we have several fans, oriental style jars and vases, Chinese figures and one of our favorite pieces is our rice paper room divider screen that stands a little over 5 feet and we used as a headboard (sort of). We have a new comforter set that is brown and aqua (oriental design) and love it. Our color scheme of our room is all different colors or red, burgundy, black, brown, aqua and a little gold mixed in.

My husband was a bit skeptical about the colors mixing together, however, it has worked out great. One thing we had to remember about the asian design is Feng Shui. I did a bit of research to make sure that we kept this in mind as we wanted the comfort and easy energy of this style.

What is Feng Shui? Feng Shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of any given space to assure the health and good fortune for people inhabiting it. "Feng" means "wind" and "shui" means "water" (pronounced fung-shway). In Chinese culture gentle wind and clear water have always been associated with good harvest and good health, thus good feng shui came to mean good livelihood and fortune, while bed feng shui came to mean hardship and misfortune.

Feng Shui is based on the Taoist vision and understanding of nature, particularly on the idea that the land is alive and filled with chi or energy. The ancient Chinese believed that the land's energy could either make or break the kingdom, so to speak. The theories of yin or yang, as well as the five feng shui elements, are some of the basic aspects of a feng shui analysis that come from Taoism.

The main tools used in a feng shui analysis are the Compass and the Ba-Gua. The Ba-Gua is an octagonal grid containing the symbols of the I Ching, the ancient oracle on which Feng Shui is based. Knowing the Bagua of your home will help you understand the connection of specific feng shui areas of your home to specific areas of your life. (About.com)

First, we removed the clutter and made sure everything had its place. If it did not fit, away it went or we moved it to the appropriate room.

Second, we tried to make sure we kept to natural items and added some nice fragrances that were soft. This is essential to make the room stay true to the Feng Shui. We also enlisted a co-worker of mine that only recently came to America from Asia to answer questions about keeping true to this theme and not to anger anything we did not understand.

We are going to be purchasing some new Asian style bureaus and a platform bed soon. I can not wait for these are the last pieces missing from our Asian bedroom. It has taken us two years to purchase and come up with what we wanted and did not want for our new themed bedroom. I am sure that it would not take that long with others, but we wanted to be frugal and picky about what we placed in our room.

There is a lot of information and sites to check out when designing any type of theme. Doing all this homework has paid off. We have also started in other rooms with other themes, enjoying every minute of shopping and figuring out what we want and what we do not want.

Tchi, Rodika; Feng Shui Guide. http://fengshui.about.com/od/thebasics/qt/fengshui.htm