25 Japanese Interior Design: Vast Space, Little Furniture, and Enough light

Japanese style interior design is all about Feng Shui Environment,  Zen interior, cultural artifacts, antiques, clean atmosphere, vast space, hanging lamps and little furniture. Their homes may have everything from a sectional couch to a rocking chair, but they seem empty compared to homes in Europe, Germany and America.

Characteristics of Japanese Interior design

Japanese love to follow the balance in life, in architecture, in jobs and in every aspect of everything that they do. They believe in Yin and Yang, so everything must sit right, balancing the darkness with the light. The same goes when it is about Japanese interior design. The rule is to make the space beautiful without overcrowding or overloading it with tons of accessories that are not even needed.

Uncluttered Look

Japanese style interior design involves a neat look when it comes to decorating the room. Not to mention that setting up an indoor or outdoor relaxation tabletop would set the right mood by making you feel more connected with nature.

Water Element 

You will find Japanese bamboo  fountain and several other centerpieces decorated inside the rooms. The pictures of Buddha and other cultural figures are used for decorating the walls of bedrooms and especially living rooms. Adding fountain, water features, aquariums and quadraphonic are traditions of Japanese interior design. How would not love the sound of water in their home, it’s somewhat relaxing, isn’t it?

Natural Material

Why make the room appear messy and cluttered?  Japanese interior design revolves around simplicity of the space.Therefore, natural material is used for the homes. In other words, Japanese homes are more about the building, never about adding accessories, furniture and items in the home.

Notice that this bedroom does not have any type of king or queen bedding set, the mattress is on the floor and the doors and windows are featuring shoji screens. There are red floor pillow around the room, a large window pane in Japanese room allowing the sunlight to come through the glass.

Minimized Accessories

They love connecting with nature, so they keep their room space as minimally utilized as possible. You’d notice that in Japanese interior design you don’t get to see a lot of heavy accessories within the bedroom or television lounge.

The details, accessories and items are minimal in this Japanese meditation room. These floor pillows are for comfortable seating for those who love doing Yoga and meditation to relax their body muscles, brain and soul from deep within. Notice that there’s nothing crowding the space, therefore, this Japanese style living room is the best place to spend your time in.

Shoji Screens, Doors and Windows

They love glass work and art in the home. Japanese interior design also involves the use of shoji screens, they are designed with different types of lettuce work, hand painted crafts, sculptures, and floral patterns.

You might be asking yourself where is the coffee table, where is the television wall unit and where are other accessories associated with the theater room. Although it’s a Japanese entertainment room but it is more about connecting with the world outdoor, with those trees, with those green leaves and with the changing of seasons that human beings must witness even when living inside their homes.

There’s just a small round table just in case you wish to have Japanese tea in the living room. Moreover, the design of sofa so is to unconventional, something you might have never seen before.

Personalized Shoji screens

Some Japanese homes are designed with passion and dedication by adding personalized shoji screens, not only to the windows, but also to the doors.  To adorn the walls of your home, you can make the use of 8×10 inches or 12×12 inches Japanese calligraphy printed posters . Just in case you don’t want to keep the walls simple.

It can be noticed easily that this is a Japanese tea room with the doors all around and personalized Japanese calligraphy on the walls. Nothing is taking any space more than it should. In order to have your tea or drink, you need to sit down on the cushion. And put the drinks on these Japanese style low lying table.

I would say that Japanese style interior design focuses more on beautifying the structure of the building than anything else.

Tatami Mat

Whereas in western homes you get to see more of hardwood, cherry wood and gray wood flooring, the Japanese style interior design usually includes tatami mat as the flooring.  They come in all kinds of different colors, designs and styles.

Some showcase the Japanese culture and symbols like katakana and hiragana.  Finding a six inch katami mat at the entrance of a  home is just a norm.  At entrance, you can place a ceramic vase carrying a scripture, sculpture or any painting defining the culture. Anything that defines their culture would set the essence of the room in the correct way.

You will find tons of masterpieces to decorate the room in Japanese  interior design by adding cutlery of marble katana swords on the walls. Either use the set as it or have it framed.

Martial art

Since Japanese people are known for their love and passion for martial arts.Japanese style interior design is never complete with a carpet without martial art embroidery and artwork on them. They hang the decorations relevant to it on their walls to make the room pleasant..

This room is simple with the details, small cabinets, and Katami mats on the floor, displaying Japanese interior design to its fullest with no overcrowded accessories and a few items.

Tokonoma Alcove

In any Japanese architecture, it is a place where they decorate family heirlooms and decorative items that have significance in their culture. The heirlooms could be family photos, frames, and sculptures that are important for family.

Hanging Plants and Indoor Plants

Use of plants and hanging planters is massively popular in Japanese interior design, they use bonsai plants and hang them near the doors or windows.  Their living room may be without furniture but their homes are never decorated without plants.

The sliding wooden door is amazing, the table is unique itself and the wooden floor is making a nice combo with overall theme of this Japanese interior design.

Furniture simplicity

In most Japanese homes you won’t find leather couches, big sofa sets and coffee tables. Instead they believe in using Tansu, Kotatsu and hibachi furniture.  When you have no idea for their cultural accessories such as Japanese bamboo folding hand fan, it comes in different colors and to make a simple statement you can hang it on the wall.

Simplicity of Japanese interior design is adorable for the most part as it soothes the eyes. You never get bored of sitting in a room lacking the furniture but allowing you to connect with nature somehow. The customized sliding screen is amazing, there’s one futon bed, nice modern rug and a standing white hammock chair. The television is at the right proximity of the bed.

However, in Japanese bedroom you may find futon, just like western interiors are used in decorating their master or single bedroom.The bed however comes with a special type of cover and mattress, completely different from the ones used by the western people, and it is known as a kake button.

It’s a Japanese bamboo waterfall, suitable for indoor as well as over the table decoration in home. It helps with meditation as well as Yoga, in addition it is considered a good omen when it comes to decorating the home. Allow more nature in your home than most people to feel refreshing and spiritually uplifted.

Unconventional Design

Although the interior has to be really nontraditional but not without natural objects. Incorporate centerpieces of Zen garden indoor and outdoor to make the interior classy and beautiful.

Not to mention Japanese interior design is more unconventional and looks wise, giving enough space to the people who live inside it. The wooden flooring is matching the natural wooden ceiling, there’s just one table with a pottery bowl sitting on top. The light is in ample, coming through the glass window pane. This is a perfect example of Zen style Japanese living room with the fireplace and normal furniture.

More importantly, it has nothing to do with high-end bedding sets,  furniture accessories and a particular theme. Instead, Japanese homes are just inspirational spaces, designed for people who love to live a simple life.

Japanese Interior design

As for the color scheme for Japanese living rooms, they believe in harmony, creating a balance between dark and light.

Although Zen is the best word to describe their culture when it comes to decorating the living room, bedroom and lounge, there’s another thing they follow. Yin and Yang and Notan, it means Japanese style interior design incorporates uses of dark color with a modest amount of light color.

Color Schemes

Following the rules of Yin and Yang Japanese interior decor,  their rooms may have white color but some other hues as well such as brown and black.  Even in simplicity the Japanese rooms are never boring, dull and colorless.

Ambiance of space

Most times antique and classic artworks are added to the Japanese decoration during a room renovation to enhance its beauty and ambiance. You can do the same, even if you don’t follow Buddha but you may wish to keep some Japanese antiques and artworks in your room to make it appealing.

Minimalist Japanese decor

Following the philosophy and ideology of Zen, the Japanese interior design process is done with the best intent to make the look as simple and as natural as possible.  Instead of relying more on low hanging pendants on suspended ceilings, these people love the natural lighting to touch their room’s floor. Suffice to say Japanese style interior is mostly minimalist in its genre, setting the inspirations for those who don’t like to live in congested rooms for being close to nature.

Natural Material

Another characteristic of Japanese interior design is that it focuses more on using natural materials such as incorporating wood, stones, and natural lighting. I would not suggest you remove your lighting features to adapt to Japanese interior decoration, but you can surely limit their use to the night time and open the curtains during day time to create a nice and fresh aura inside the space you are living in.

Serenity and Peace

Living in a home means getting in touch with the serenity, that’s what most of Japanese interior designs and architectures are all about. Even the most expensive homes are decorated with the simplest details and accessories, keeping the usable space as much available as possible for the members of the home.

This is a Japanese tea room and dinner room, the guests sit right on these cushions when invited for lunch, dinner, tea and snack parties. Looking at this picture I would just say that it’s nice way of staying humble in your home by eating food in the most comfortable way, sitting on the floor. In some ethnic cultures such as Asian and Arabic culture, eating wood on while sitting on the floor symbolizes gratitude, humbleness and friendless.

You will notice that Japanese interior design is not only about simplicity but also about gratitude, by living in a modest way they also appreciate God in all the ways possible.

Moderate Furnishing

Like westerns, Japanese style interior design does not incorporate furnishing, wall hangings and paintings everywhere because they want to make their room bright and peaceful by adding minimal details. However, this does not mean they lack the taste in interior or don’t love colors, they try to make the space usable by allowing enough brightness to come through the window panes and doors.

No sofa side bed, just a simple futon in a Japanese bedroom and sliding doors with Shoji screens around the bathroom. For sitting arrangements there’s one dark wood bench with the low table. Just in case you wish to read a book or eat something, this Japanese decor is the best setting for two people.

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