Currently, the Zen lifestyle is also present in many countries, including Vietnam. In particular, Zen style interior decoration is also quite popular (Modern Japanese Style – Japandi). Zen style uses natural materials, natural light, everything is minimalist and the space is organized. In interior design, Zen reflects balance, harmony and relaxation. A touch of Zen style. Zen interior design is based on five natural elements – fire, earth, metal, water, wood. However, Zen does not mean separating oneself from life but living leisurely, doing the movements of daily life with a natural way. Living Zen also means living slowly, making life’s challenges simple. No matter how busy the work is, the people of the land of the rising sun always value balance in life. The followers of this school no matter how busy they are, they still find time to relax through every activity of their daily life. All those spirits have been conveyed by Ms. Tram Nguyen – an interior designer and the LD studio team into a 60m2 apartment in Ho Chi Minh City. The theme for the living room is: Classic, Tailor-made Comfort. Stylist mixes cedar blue or Woad Blue/green blue (60%) with warm earthy tones such as ceramic orange or terracotta Terra-cotta (30%) and Plum red (10%) for a bold look. , cozy and inviting. Ms. Tram Nguyen shared, this is the apartment of the owner named Linh. In the process of working and interacting, she found that the owner has a very “Zen” energy. Because, the owner loves and lives according to Buddhist principles. The apartment is 60m2 wide with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, so it needs a lot of storage space. Besides, the owner also likes to organize meetings and welcome friends to visit the house. Characteristic in the Zen style are the Buddha statues. With these two main needs, Ms. Tram Nguyen finds Japanese-style furniture to be the most optimal. However, homeowners do not like the traditional style, but prefer Western furniture. In the end, Japandi was chosen as the perfect puzzle piece. Ms. Tram Nguyen added that she worked as a fashion stylist before, then switched to an interior stylist with her husband. The above apartment is made by husband and wife. The interesting thing here is that the couple is trusted by the owner to assign from A – Z, even the selection of style, as long as it suits the personality and needs of the owner. This Buddha statue will absorb solar energy and glow when it gets dark. “Normally, customers who come to design consultations often have ideas and ask us to implement them, but Linh is different. We have to learn the thoughts and preferences of our customers, then fly as we please. It’s like a guest comes in and is ready to make a blank page so that I can dress them up with fabrics and colors and patterns,” said Ms. Tram Nguyen. Agarwood burners, books and some home decor items. Behind the animal statue is the peacock’s tail, which helps to filter air, radiation, magnetic fields and increase oxygen at night. The sofa is 35cm high, but when sitting, the person sitting on the sofa is not taller than the person sitting on the ottoman. The sofa mattress is designed to be softer, while the seat mattress is more inflated. Buddha paintings brought back from Tibet by the owner. Kitchen overlooking the loggia The investor’s kitchen was replaced by a stylist with a white cabinet door with wood grain and mosaic tiles. Spiritual corner, worshiping Buddha statue. The bedroom has a theme: Soft, Safe Hideaway. The room is colored in Slate color dark green (60%) beige and brown (30%) and accented with pastel pink (10%) another green-pink palette. At the end of the bed there is a lazy chair. Initially, the stylist determined to make the seat cushion as the living room, but the owner preferred the lazier chair. Wardrobe in white oak grain to match the room’s tone. Extra bedroom.

Ms. Ly shared, her 2-bedroom apartment belongs to a high-class project in Ho Chi Minh City, has a surrounding landscape, and the price is also financially suitable. This is also a corner unit, with a clear view. The kitchen and living room are connected, making the space look spacious. The project will be completed in April 2021 with a total cost of about VND 250 million. Due to the limited total area of ​​the apartment, the couple used the Japandi style – a combination of traditional Scandinavian and Japanese styles. Japanese style brings simplicity in interior design, helping to optimize living space, “mixing” Scandinavian characteristics and personality. Japandi apartment has a warm earthy orange color. The grout between the tiles is orange, the color “ton-sur-ton” with the overall apartment. The kitchen cabinet system is streamlined with a series of shelves to reduce the heaviness and also help homeowners display many decor items. The kitchen wall is covered with large-format chopstick-shaped mosaic tiles. From the entrance, the kitchen and living room are designed to be open, creating a seamless and spacious feeling for the space. Initially, the apartment had 2 bedrooms, but colleagues often come to Ms. Ly’s house to work in groups, so she designed 1 bedroom into an office. The main color of the apartment is earthy orange mixed with white, bringing a bright and cozy look. Ms. Ly is an Interior Designer and co-founder of a furniture company. This apartment was designed by the husband and wife themselves. Small round dining table, arranged with an extra “chill” shelf next to the window. False fireplace shows a bit of Nordic style. The decorative shelf is very unique in the shape of a water pipe. The walls are painted with an earthy orange effect and are also earthy. The paint area is only 12m2, but it costs 23kg of effect paint. Before doing it, the paint team had to send Ms. Ly to test the sample 5 times to get the right paint color. The bedroom is equipped with a wardrobe that touches the ceiling combined with convenient shelves, optimizing the living area and storing clothes. The extra bedroom is converted into an office. Ms. Ly added that as an interior designer, when designing her own house, she finds it more difficult than working for guests. Because she herself knows many styles, she must carefully consider her taste, not to let the apartment be confused by many different ideas. “Before you repair your house, you need to clearly define your preferences. Then talk to the architect,” emphasized Tong Ly. Some details have Scandinavian colors. Besides, hiring an architect to design is a good and necessary solution. According to her analysis, this cost will not cost too much compared to the homeowner buying things to arrange but not suitable, not aesthetic … immediately leave, replace. Thus, the cost will be more expensive and time consuming.

That apartment building is very old, looking up from below, I think I’m in the center of Saigon because the walls are peeling off, revealing the light red brick color, sad; iron color rust, color time coating thick layer; the old, very old color, the color of opaque eyes witnessing many changes, kept secret in the heart and did not tell anyone. Going inside, what impressed me was not the rows of electric meters dotted on either side of the wall or the clotheslines fluttering in the wind, but the covered outdoor-style stairs that I’m sure. that the roof could not block a heavy rain and wind. The old-fashioned staircase, only seen in movies, features French architecture, crossing two blocks but not the main way up, but I don’t think it’s an exit because it only stops to the second floor, and leading up to some houses. This place has a cool breeze, so I guess it might be the stairs to get some fresh air. From here I can take multi-angle pictures of a historic Saigon. Opposite the apartment I am standing in, built in the French period, is a building with 70s architecture, temporarily called the American period, with most of the straight lines, the iron frames have almost no unique patterns. Saigon book, nostalgia roaming. Photo: Chi Books. On a small wall there is a frame of barbed wire reminiscent of a time of war and beyond is the Bitexco tower, a modern icon located in the heart of Saigon. I moved the camera a little and found in the bottom corner a wire clothesline with small clips attached. All in one. In the heart of a modern Saigon, there are things that are a bit messy, messy, lazy, and sloppy. On a patch of red brick, ferns emerge from an empty square. On another wall, in addition to ferns, there are strange trees or huts emerging from between the bricks, which cling tightly as a symbol of strong vitality. I descended the outdoor stairs and entered the main stairway. There are stairs with traces of mosaic tiles, stair handrails with typical patterns of French architecture. The elevator room looks old, the mooring lines are tangled. Everything is too old. More than a hundred years ago, this place was once a place for people with a standard lifestyle like civil servants, for example. The higher I go, the more the past opens up in front of me, an old Saigon in the French colonial period. And it’s surprising that next to the old, bold doorways of that time, there are cafes, colorful clothing stalls. Strolling around the floors of the apartment building, I entered a cafe on the top floor. I walked through a small, cozy space decorated with old objects as reminiscent of such a time. I chose to sit on the balcony overlooking the Bank building on the other side. The river below the boats moved slowly up and down. On a wall with many ventilation holes, sparrows chirped, naughtily dropped in a little and then flew away. That day, at that corner of the shop, I felt time stopped, as if I had left the noisy space below and was busy pursuing my own thoughts…

Location The bathroom near the bedroom and the main traffic path is usually the bathroom shared by the whole family. More advanced is the bathroom designed in the bedroom. This design is often found in the master bedroom or room for the elderly. The bathroom and hygiene have gradually been more interested in design and decoration by the owner. (Illustration) In today’s modern house, the bathroom is also designed in combination with the dressing room to increase the convenience of use, and at the same time “free” the huge wardrobe in the bedroom. Make use of open space The bathroom is a relaxing place, so if possible, design the bathroom with the side exposed to the outside space. Bathroom windows are wider and facing open spaces such as gardens, courtyards, skylights … and to ensure privacy, use blinds, blinds, or blurred glass with decorative stickers. mind. Should make the most of open space for the bathroom. (Illustration) In case the bathroom is located in a private bedroom, to create a feeling of open space for the bathroom, some homeowners use the bathroom door with transparent glass. Functional subdivision Bathroom is divided into two separate zones, that is, the dry area and the wet area. The dry area is where the lavabo – washbasin and toilet are located. And the wet area is the bathing place. The dry and wet areas are usually separated by a glass wall or nylon curtain. The bath tub has been gradually replaced by cabins, either standing or standing baths, either ready-to-buy or custom-designed. Colors and materials Natural colors and materials are now very popular in bathroom design and decoration. To avoid the boredom of conventional paving bricks, designers tend to use granite, marble, natural sawn stone, wood, gravel… more. Mosaic tiles are used to decorate walls, as accents in the bathroom. (Illustration) On the market today, there are glass mosaic tiles with many colors, which can be used as accent walls for bathroom decoration very aesthetically. In addition, in the dry area of ​​the bathroom, homeowners can use oil-painted walls, lumpy paint to decorate. Phuong Anh (synthetic)