Practical Tips and Methods for Beautifying Your Home with Bonsai
As the pace of modern life grows ever faster and the pressure of work and daily life grows ever heavier, finding relaxation at home has become an indispensable part of life. Using bonsai to accent a room lets you look up and feel the delight of "gazing at the vast distance within a foot's reach, and discerning towering heights within a tiny space." Besides enjoying it yourself, you can also invite friends or family to view it together, and in the poetic and picturesque atmosphere, stir up beautiful thoughts and reveries, washing away all fatigue.
When using bonsai to beautify a room, first make sure the overall style and colors are coordinated, and that the number of plants is balanced and proportionate to the size of the room. Generally, for tree-stump bonsai, choose woody plants with thick, short stems, fine, small leaves, gnarled and twisted roots and trunks, and bright flowers and fruit; for landscape bonsai, you can choose stone types such as sandstone, ax-cut stone and Ying stone, carefully conceived and carved, then accented with pavilions, bridges, figures and animals. Generally, a 20 sq m living room should have no more than 3 pots, and the background should avoid clutter and excessive brightness; hanging some calligraphy and paintings as a foil creates the best overall viewing effect.
When using bonsai to beautify a room, after deciding the overall placement, also pay attention to the specific layout: heights should be ordered and staggered in an attractive way. For example, a cascade-style bonsai should be placed above eye level, so that when viewed from below it feels like watching a green waterfall cascading down. Landscape bonsai is best placed with the water surface level with the line of sight or slightly below it, at a 45-degree angle. This gives the feeling, when looking down, of viewing mountains and enjoying scenery in natural surroundings and delighting in playing in the water. Miniature bonsai should be displayed below eye level on a writing desk or tea table, or placed at eye level on a curio shelf, giving the convenient feeling that you can reach out and take it in your hands to admire and play with. In short, strive to match tree-stump and landscape bonsai reasonably, so that with the surrounding environment as a foil, the viewer feels both immersed in the scene and standing outside it.
When using bonsai to beautify a room, you should also pay attention to the artistic conception of the bonsai itself and the combined effect of the pot and the stand. A bonsai with profound artistic conception, whose charm and spirit closely resemble nature yet surpass it, can captivate the mind and leave an endless aftertaste. A suitable pot and stand can make the scene within the scene even better, adding spirit beyond spirit. Generally, cascade-style tree stumps should be placed in a deep-mouthed pottery pot in a tall cylindrical tube shape or another form; graceful, charming tree stumps can be paired with oval, round or plum-blossom-shaped pottery pots; lying-trunk-style tree stumps can use rectangular or oval pottery pots; for water-and-stone bonsai, white marble is best, marble second, and pottery or porcelain pots are also used. Generally, a shallow pot and clear water are best, and the pot and stand must be square with square, long with long, round with round. Strive for overall unity, with soft colors and lines. Antique-style pots and exquisite stands can make tree stumps and landscape stones lustrous, verdant and elegant, with an even more profound artistic conception, becoming a visual highlight in the room.