From my western point of view I find that as well. There can be nice furniture items in Korea but they are put with things I don’t think match at all.

Hugh can not understand when my mum and I go to furniture shops and look at furniture and discuss where we’d put stuff if we bought it. I feel a type of calmness looking at fake display rooms in furniture stores, but for him it’s so boring.

This is true.

Dare I say it… I think Japan is better at the minimalist thing (don’t kill me Koreans!) Korean homes really lack storage and are usually very cluttered. They don’t actually have very good storage devices. A lot of furniture is big and bulky and doesn’t use the best of space – like those big stone beds or traditional cupboards. I think the rapid changes in Korean society cause this because in the past people didn’t have much so they didn’t need much storage but now people are wealthy and have lots of things but not the space or storage.

ummm if you see the clutter in many korean homes you will see its not really minimalist. haha. i just think it comes from the tradition of having very small homes or rooms. you would eat, sleep, sit on the floor – of course it would be impractical to have all this furniture around. But unfortunately the one thing i wish more korean homes had was storage. if there was enough storage, you wouldnt see the clutter, and it would look nice and clean and minimalist.