Southeast Asia is theinspiration for the house of an IT couple

A home befitting the tropics of Southeast Asia is just the ticket for some residents of cold weather-mired Beijing. Yang Jun and Xuan Xiaoqi, a married couple who both work in the IT industry, redecorated their flat six times before they were satisfied with their dream home.

Their apartment of 129 square meters sits in a combined residential-office building in the Yaojiayuan area in the Chaoyang district near the southern Third Ring Road.

When the company's staff leave an office in the building every dusk, Yang and Xuan retreat to their home. It's as quiet and spacious as a lonely beach in the summer.

They bought the apartment in 2004 as an investment and moved from their home in the Daxing area in 2007 when the subway Line 5 opened.

"The transportation is much more convenient now," said Yang. "The residential office building is actually hardly different from a regular residential building. All the basic utilities, such as gas, are all installed."

The two-bedroom apartment is as lively as it is cozy.

With lemon yellow paint on one wall of the living room and Chinese red on the other, the room offers a splash of color. Wood furniture - doors and beds - contrast sharply with the shell of the building itself, creating an oasis in a building of steel and concrete.

The television cabinet, which the sofa faces, is done up in nattier blue, a light shade of the color. The bed, which is burgundy, is roughly hewn to resemble a tree in the tropical rainforest. All the window frames are brown to complement the furniture.

The wooden pointed arch door, which is blessed with a strong fragrance, is Yang Jun's favorite feature of the home. Yang said the door reminds him of the woodlands near his hometown in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The wooden doors in the hallway, bedrooms and the living room give the apartment a sense of indepth and privacy.

"I have traveled to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia," he said. "The scenery there is very appealing. And because my wife is also a huge fan of Southeast Asia, the furniture she has chosen are all take on a strong Southeast Asian hue," he said.

Divided spaces define the apartment, said Yang. The couple removed a wall between the bedroom and the bathroom to create a dining hall.

"I am an IT engineer," he said. "I like to have everything modular. Every room has a clear function and a regular shape, making the house look like tofu cut with a knife."

To avoid any squabbling during the refurbishment, Yang and Xuan assigned each other particular responsibilities beforehand. Xuan picked the furniture while Yang handled the rest.

"My wife only checked the design paper before the decoration began," he said. "Then everything went smoothly. The redecoration turned out perfectly."