As Good as It Gets

    At the couple's wedding Zhong Li's father Zhong Mengqin recalled bringing home his newborn baby three decades before. At that time, the Zhongs lived in an apartment assigned by the workplace. The decor was as simple as a cement floor and whitewashed walls. "Nowadays home decoration is quite different. A cement floor is seldom seen. The floor base is covered with either wood flooring or ceramic tiles."

    Since the homes were undecorated, people paid more attention to furniture. "It was difficult to buy furniture then. Sometimes you could only get a hold of furnishings through 'back door' relations. Most people hired carpenters to make furniture."

    "My wedding and reception were held at home," continued Zhong Mengqin. Nearly 40 years ago, on the wall of the bridal chamber hung a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. On an old desk passed on by their workplace were plastic statues of Chairman Mao, thermos bottles and wash basins. "These were all gifts from my colleagues and friends," he explained. "The wardrobe was the most eye-catching thing we owned. It was made by an elder of my clan, and pyrographed with floral patterns and varnished. Our double bed was bought on sale. At the wedding, my bride and I wore new clothes no different from our ordinary wardrobe. But each of us wore a big red flower on our breast." As the wedding ceremony began, the newlyweds bowed to a portrait of Chairman Mao.

    Later, they bought an iron bookshelf for several yuan, and asked a relative to make a five-drawer chest inlaid with a glass mirror. "They were durable and practical, without any aesthetic value," said Zhong Mengqin.

    In the early 1980s Zhong Mengqin was assigned a previously occupied apartment from their workplace. "My wife and I whitewashed the walls, and painted the lower potion of the wall green. I asked someone to install a toilet and a shower nozzle. I also installed some electrical sockets and bought some new furniture. That was as fashionable as interior decoration got," said Zhong Mengqin. At that time, people were content with having their own apartment, as only a small number of senior employees would be assigned one. Numerous young newlyweds often had to live with their parents in quarters of no more than a few dozen square meters.

Home Decoration Fever

    Gradual improvement in people's incomes and living conditions turned the attention of the relatively prosperous to feathering their nests. Only six years later, Zhong Mengqin was assigned a bigger apartment, and by then they could afford a fashionable home makeover. "My wife and I both felt excited about our new home and lit up with determination for this to be the 'last interior decoration adventure of our lifetime'," he recalled.

    In the beginning, people's understanding of interior decoration was limited to what they saw in foreign home decor magazines and their experience of well furnished public buildings. "Quite a number of neighbors and colleagues thought that home decoration meant painting or wallpapering the rooms. They may have preferred European or Japanese styles, but many blended in Chinese characteristics," said Zhong Mengqin. He remembered clearly that most people emphasized the maximized utilization of every inch of their precious space. Therefore, in addition to moldings on ceilings, they often had built-in cabinets that crowned the top part of an entire wall.

    Those who got rich earlier than others tended to decorate their homes in a Western style. No matter the size of their rooms, they used Roman columns and complicated ceilings. Ordinary families, on the other hand, usually used paint instead of limewater on the walls. They also tended to use untreated wood to frame doors and windows and to build windowsills. Aluminum alloy doors and windows combined with this "natural look" became a fad for interiors. In new, build-it-quick residential neighborhoods the fixtures, appointments and colors were depressingly uniform. Some people began to register weariness over the monotony on offer, and came to realize that what was good for others may not suit them at all.

    This was the 1990s scenario for home decoration, when the concept entered the popular vocabulary, however naive the public's understanding of it was. At the extreme end we saw extravagant home settings, and personalized interior designs that accommodate special needs. The pendulum of interior decoration swung faithfully with the extraordinary changes of the times.

New Trend: Simple and Savvy

    Nowadays, home decoration is not merely a fad, or a personal statement; it is part of life – improving the quality of one's surroundings, satisfying aesthetic needs, and making a more comfortable and cozy home.

Eany-meany: Choice of interior decoration design plans exhibited in a home decoration market.