The Cleanest Room in a Very Dirty Show
Coupang Play’s Newtopia is—on paper—a zombie apocalypse K-drama. But in execution, it’s more like a moodboard of existential despair, blood-stained corridors, and exhausted lighting setups. It is, in short, extremely post-apocalyptic. Korean Interior Design Trends
So you can imagine the surprise—mine included—when midway through this grim spectacle we are shown a room. Not a bunker. Not a hideout. Not a blood-soaked warehouse. An actual room. A clean one. With coordinated bedding.
And it belongs to BLACKPINK’s Jisoo.
It’s a small, tidy, taupe-toned space that seems to have arrived from an entirely different production—a Pinterest board accidentally dropped into a survival thriller.
Naturally, I became obsessed.
2. Calm, Beige, and Slightly Threatening: A First Look
The room is… well, nice. It’s the kind of nice that makes you nervous, like when someone shows up to a casual brunch in a three-piece suit.
Everything is neutral, in both color and emotion. The bed is made, which is already suspicious. There are precisely two plush toys on display, posed like diplomats at a summit. The lighting is soft and diffused, the furniture has no corners to speak of, and there’s a noticeable lack of human debris—no socks, no phone charger, no half-eaten rice balls.
In the context of a world being devoured by zombies, this room is terrifying in its composure.
3. How Korean Interior Design Got Here (and Why You’ve Seen This Room Before)
This isn’t just a Jisoo thing. Or a Newtopia thing. It’s a Korean design thing—specifically, the trend sweeping across Seoul’s apartments and Instagram grids in 2025.
Korean interiors right now are a masterclass in intentional absence. They’re built on the philosophy that if a space looks quiet, maybe your brain will be quiet too.
- Muted color palettes
- Natural wood
- Soft lighting
- Absolutely no visual noise
The furniture is low and unobtrusive. The colors are pale but not cold. The materials are tactile, like someone looked at a concrete floor and said, “What if this were made of cake?”
It’s not minimalism so much as polite invisibility. And Jisoo’s room? It nails every one of these cues.
4. A Design Mirage: Real or Ridiculous?
Let’s be honest: no one actually lives like this.
People try. They buy the beige sheets and the glass lamp and the throw blanket that’s supposed to look like you just “happened” to toss it there. But then they spill coffee. Or trip over a power strip. Or start leaving water bottles on the floor.
Jisoo’s room has no cords. No dust. No clutter. No signs that anyone sleeps there, let alone hides from zombies in it.
It’s beautiful, but in the way an art gallery is beautiful—you’re not supposed to sit on anything, and if you breathe too hard, you’ll ruin the vibe.
5. How to Recreate This Room Without Becoming Emotionally Numb
If you now feel a deep desire to live in this room (or at least cosplay as someone who does), here’s the recipe:
- Beige bedding. More beige. Beige on beige.
- A single, rounded wooden table. No sharp corners—you’re not an animal.
- A lamp that emits the kind of light you think your skin deserves.
- Two plush toys. Not one (lonely) or three (chaotic).
- Hide all electronics like you’re expecting an Apple product audit.
This isn’t a living space. It’s a visual performance of stability.
6. Why This Room Matters (Even If You Live in a Mess)
Jisoo’s room in Newtopia is not the most dramatic set piece. It’s not where the climax happens. No one dies there. But it’s the room that stayed with me, and maybe with you, too.
Because in a show full of screaming and survival, here was a pocket of calm. Artificial, yes. Unrealistic, definitely. But comforting in the same way all highly controlled things are.
It was aesthetic escapism disguised as character development.
And maybe that’s what good design does—it makes you forget the world is on fire, even if just for a few square meters.
