According to interior designer Jeremiah Brent, Japandi's core characteristics are “craftsmanship, texture, balance and tranquility.” Think uncluttered spaces with natural wood, rustic materials, a neutral color palette, and functional accents. Objects such as vases and mugs rather than decorative ones. Natural light is also a priority and is often used in an almost Vermeer-like artistic manner. “Furniture and objects are kept to a minimum,” says King. “Specific objects are made for specific tasks and have a strong sense of appropriateness, order and place. Japandi designs emerge from a close relationship with nature and are determined by a combination of materials, techniques and uses. The Japandi room looks and feels honest.
Which Japan Day Space should I pay attention to? Aman in New York City, the L/Uniform store in Saint-Germain, and Roman & Williams' RW Guild & Gallery, which specializes in exhibiting products from Japanese and Scandinavian artisans.
Japan Day style photoshoot for RW Guild, all styled by Colin King, with furniture and lighting designed by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch. “Japandi's design was born out of a close relationship with nature and was determined by a combination of materials, techniques and uses,” says King. Photo: Gentl & Hyers
According to Laila Rietbergen's Japan Living, published by Lanoo, the origins of this style date back to the 1860s. Lieutenant William Carstensen of the Danish Navy sails to Tokyo (then called Edo) to explore the country whose borders had been opened just ten years earlier. He became attached to their culture. Upon returning to Denmark, he published a book summarizing his research entitled “Japan's Capital and the Japanese''. It piqued the interest of Copenhagen's creative crowd. “Danish designers traveled through this new and interesting world and discovered that the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi celebrates the same principles as the Danish concept of Hygge. ™: an appreciation for minimalism, natural materials and simplicity,” writes Rietbergen, who also runs his Instagram account @japandi_design. “From that time on, Scandinavian design began to be influenced by aesthetics.”