Part 3: The bedroom and the children's room
In the previous remote visit, we talked about the living room and balcony, as well as the kitchen and dining room in Chinese homes. I would say, the kitchen and dining room in China look quite different compared to Western ones, while living rooms sometimes look quite similar to Western living rooms.
This similarity also exists in the bedroom and the children’s room in terms of design, but there are still some typical Chinese characteristics left.
Wooden floors
You might have noticed in photos in the previous articles, the floor of the kitchen, dining room, living room, and balcony is usually made of ceramic tiles.
Ceramic tiles are used mainly for two reasons:
- Costs: Ceramic tiles are cheaper than wooden floors. Purchasing an apartment already costs a lot of money, so people need to assign the money well-considered in terms of furnishing and decoration. The average apartment price per sqm in Beijing is about 6,700 Euro to 10,000 Euro. (Munic: 9,000 Euro)
- Easy to maintain and clean: The living room is the place where a lot of guests will stay and the kitchen, dining room, and balcony will get wet from time to time, making it more practical to have a material that is easy to clean.
The bedroom and the children’s room are places only family members will enter. Comfort is the most important criterion, thus most people will invest in very high quality wooden floors here.
Check out the floors in different rooms (click the green bar below to unfold the post):
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/279865621/?_i=12863197QWETmn
Bay windows
Bay windows can be seen in old European houses (from medieval up to baroque styles). Chinese apartments often have bay windows. They make the room appear bigger and provide views of the outside.
Check out the first picture of the link below for an impression:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/31931188
Please note: The first two pictures show a “real” bay window (真飘窗) which is a window that sticks out from the outside wall while the third and fourth picture show a “fake” bay window (假飘窗) which is a “large windowsill” in the room.
Reasons for integrating bay windows in Chinese apartments are:
- A real bay window offers space to hide the air conditioners in the facade
Check out the first picture of this post:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/34250260 - A real bay window lets more sunshine into the room (mostly the bedroom)
- Both real and fake bay window offer an extra corner space beside the window, which can be decorated as a cozy corner at home
Check out the pictures in this post with real and fake bay windows:
https://redian.news/wxnews/69467
In the next article, we will talk about the bathroom.
Spiegel Institut conducts international consumer research studies, offering insights into the cultural and social background information for a better understanding of the consumer mindset. Feel free to contact us for cooperation: info@spiegel-institut.de
Author: Yue Liu, Spiegel Institut Mannheim