How to Decorate Japandi？

japandi is a bit of a blend between japanese zen and scandinavian style and it kind of combines into this just really beautiful serene relaxing space so this is part of a series of my interior design sort of deep dives this is where i go into different specific interior design styles in this case japandi and i talk a little bit about where those styles come from the benefits of those styles who this style is for who this style is not for as well as i give you some of my favorite retailers and different places that i think you can buy uh some of the products that will fit with this design style so that you can bring this all together in your own home and remember like is the case with all of these interior design styles videos just i'm doing these because i want you to draw inspiration uh for your own home so don't ever think that you have to like copy paste everything that you see in this video uh to have something that's like signature japanese uh you can just make it your own take inspiration find something that you can use maybe to combine some of these elements to create your signature space so first in order to understand japandy we need to talk a little bit about what is japanese then and then what is scandinavian so japanese zen really focuses on a few things first of all there is a lot of really simple clean furniture pieces generally things are kept quite low to the ground things are generally quite simple uh basic cubes basic shapes um the color palette tends to be a little bit darker which we're going to get to when we talk about scandinavia in a second um and it tends to embrace like a lot of really earthy tones you're seeing a lot of like beautiful reds or like a rust or browns or beiges a little bit of green maybe some olive jade these types of colors being brought into the space as well as some medium to dark wood tones so this use of dark colors and earth tones is really meant to evoke sort of a feeling of simplicity of really zen very tranquil space that's going to be really really beautiful and relaxing and comfortable japanese zen also really utilizes a concept in japan called wabi-sabi which is basically this embracing of things that are imperfect things that are not permanent things that are maybe broken but then put back together in a really beautiful way so just really seeing beauty and imperfections which i think is gorgeous and wonderful and amazing and something that we should all encourage in our own home because if you think about it mother nature or outside it's generally not perfect right trees don't grow in a straight line rivers don't flow in a straight direction everything sort of moves around and is fluid and it's organic and that's what the japanese style really really embraces scandinavian style on the other hand is similar to japanese zen in terms of the simplicity of the shapes of the furniture this is very modern we're not dealing with a whole lot of ornamentation if you want more in depth on scandinavia and i have a video specifically about scandi but also scandinavian tends to use a much lighter color palette and that's really the biggest difference i think between scandinavian and japanese zen is you're dealing with a much lighter color palette so really light flooring uh light furniture but still using some of those really basic shapes that we saw in japanese zen oh scandinavian what we're trying to do here is create a space that is really light and open so basically scandinavian countries like where i live here in canada it tends to get really dark really early in the day so in order to maximize that light we want you know not a lot of window treatments and just really letting the light coming in and brightening up the space with a lot of white and a lot of really natural tones and a lot of neutrals to basically create a sp a space that feels really light and airy and also if you want to learn a little bit more about scandinavian i also recommend really just diving deep and learning about and i'm going to pronounce this wrong forgive me but it's a danish word and it's called hygge it looks like haiki don't make that mistake it's hygge i think um and that basically just means creating a space that's really cozy and comfortable i don't know if there's necessarily a direct english translation but that's kind of the rough sort of uh take on it i'm going to link to a couple of books by the way if you want to learn more about wabi-sabi a little bit more about hygge because i think these two concepts i can't really do them justice in this video so it's really important just to learn a little bit more because these are not just things that are about design these are things that are also part of cultural traditions uh that i think you really kind of need to respect so there is definitely a lot of depth to these concepts that are not going to be in this video but it's just kind of important to know those two things as we move forward to design the beautiful perfect japanese space for you so the japanese style really sort of combines these two styles in a really beautiful way and the benefits of this is you're creating a really beautiful calming serene place but at the same time it's also usually quite light and quite airy so it sort of borrows from i don't want to say the best of both worlds because both of those styles are beautiful in their own way but it just sort of combines it and it just makes zen feel really light and fresh kind of leaning on the scandinavian vibe but it makes scandinavian also maybe embrace a little bit more of those earthy tones um and a little bit more of that kind of organic imperfection that you see in japanese zen so that's what japandi is known for so now let's talk about who japandi is not for i would say if you're generally a person that likes really big pops of color so if you like bright bright blues and yellows and reds and greens and purples and pinks and whatever um generally japanese you're going to see a much more muted color palette you're going to see a lot of whites and a lot of neutrals with little pops of sort of toned down color choices especially earthy tones so if you want those big wow pops of color probably look elsewhere also if you tend to be a big fan of traditional design things that have a lot of ornamentation a lot of detail i would generally avoid the japanese style i mean look you can get creative and add your own things if that's what you're looking for but the japanese style is really working with both scandinavian and zen uh generally really love sort of clean modern stripped down pieces of furniture so it really is creating that relaxed serene sort of room in order to do that you sort of lean on really simple basic shapes so although i love like metallic geometric wallpaper um i'm not necessarily sure that this is the design style that's going to embrace that now having said that like i said at the end of the video you can do whatever you want in your space but i'm just saying that's probably less likely to fit in japanese style okay so let's get to how you can design your beautiful japanese home okay so here are my five tips the first tip i have for you is to really keep it simple so this means that we're using simple furniture with basic shapes it also means that both of these styles tend to be minimalist styles so that means generally we're not going to see a whole lot of clutter uh furniture is going to be fairly simple we're trying to just keep it really clean and modern we're not trying to do anything that's super traditional or super sort of crazy with lots of ornamentation right so i would say keep it simple both in your furniture but also just in like the amount of space that you have or the things that you're putting in your space think more like a minimalist in order for this style to really work for you be really really intentional in the decor pieces that you're gonna bring in okay so tip number two is use of woods and neutrals in your space so wood tones as i kind of mentioned earlier i think is one of the biggest differences between the japanese zen style and the scandinavian so i think you can really play with contrast here what's really cool about japandy is that i would say the color palette or the woods tend to be a lot lighter so if typically favor a little bit more of a scandinavian look in terms of the wood choices uh so things like oak and things like that so generally things like playing with like light oak floors but then maybe adding in more earthy tones bringing in sort of reds or greens or blues just really sort of bringing those into the space can provide a really lovely contrast with really light oak flooring so definitely although the scandinavian side of this style typically favors more on the lighter side um feel free to bring in some more muted earth tones as well to bring in that little bit more of a japanese feel and don't forget to really layer in those neutrals so neutrals are just a fantastic way of creating a space that's really kind of maybe not doesn't have those big pops of color like we were talking about earlier um but what neutrals can really do especially if you layer on different tones it creates a space that's really calming and relaxing i think sometimes we don't realize that we're dealing with really big pattern or really big color it can be quite draining on the senses and i think this is something that japanese does really really well is this just makes a space that evokes that feeling of calm and comfortable because generally you're layering in lots of different tones of neutrals and that sort of again is borrowing from both of those design styles okay tip number three is to use muted colors so what i think is really interesting is and you're seeing this evolution in the scandi style as well is that we are seeing more of an introduction with japan d being so popular now of bringing in those earthy tones and bringing in just like really muted colors so again we're seeing like those soft pastels of greens and blues because you don't want anything that's too too saturated because again that saturated pigment that you're going to get from those really bold colors um is quite energizing to the eye and so it can really like kind of give you a lot of energy but what we're trying to do with this space is create something really calming so you're going to see yes you can use some color you can use beautiful greens or blues or reds or oranges again leaning more into the earthy tones this may be ideal because to borrow from that sort of japanese influence but at the end of the day you're really looking for muted color choices things that are really toned down because through those muted color choices you're still going to create a space that's visually interesting that's got those colors but at the same time is sort of quite muted and calming so it's kind of that connection of adding in color but doing it in sort of a really subtle way okay tip number four is the frequent use of natural materials now i love this i'm a big fan of natural materials myself in design and you're definitely seeing this in japan because again you're borrowing from both styles that favor natural materials so so things like rattan caning um stone concrete uh wood obviously i mean lots and lots of wood that just makes sense but even like cotton and linen things that are just really natural yeah i would stay away from things like plexiglas or lucite um just any of the plastics like just generally stay away from those things big bold mirrors like this is not the time to bring out that glam mirrored furniture right that is not the feeling of calm serenity that we're trying to create with japandy so i would say any of the really kind of loud especially man-made materials throw those aside we're bringing in lots of natural materials because you're trying to bring that really natural calming relaxing atmosphere into your space okay tip number five and i think this is my favorite tip to be honest with you is it doesn't have to be perfect so i love this about the japanese zen style again we're bringing in that kind of wabi-sabi sort of interpretation of design so we're seeing things like uh bowls that are maybe cracked and had to be kind of mended back together so beautiful lines and cracks that exist in those things things like if you're going to put a pot it doesn't have to be a perfect beautiful ceramic pot it can maybe be one that's a little bit lumpy or misshapen it's beautiful in its own way i think here what's key is looking at quality not quantity when it comes to and we're going to get to the retailers that i really enjoy in a second here but the quality not quantity is the japanese way so you're talking about you know you're not getting a whole lot of clutter like i mentioned earlier you're keeping this really simple and really serene but you are embracing hand pieces things that are not necessarily perfect because they're not coming off of a manufactured assembly line these are things that if possible are handcrafted things that are hand woven things that kind of feel special because although they might not be perfect they're unique and interesting and there's beauty in that and i think that really sort of feels very japanese right so bring in those kind of broken pots bring in those sort of misshapen bowls things that doesn't have to be perfectly round uh things like if you're going to bring in wood like bring in things with knots or things that have maybe splits in them and you kind of have to sort of bring them back together or anything that is imperfect is beautiful so that's something that you see a lot in the japanese zen style that is definitely brought in and really internalized here in the japanese style too okay so now let's get to my favorite places to buy japanese style where are the retailers that you can shop now this was actually really really hard if you've seen my other videos um it's generally easy to find like where to find mid-century modern pieces or scandi or whatever but japandia i find is really interesting because again there's that focus on quality not quantity so the first thing that i would look for is supporting local artists in your area that have really gorgeous beautiful handcrafted pieces that you can bring in so i found one here where i live in vancouver her name is jannika larson she doesn't really know i'm doing this but there you go and she does these really beautiful ceramics she does these gorgeous bowls and different mugs and plates and all sorts of things and they're just gorgeous and they're not necessarily perfect right this is not the ikea 365 plates although there's nothing wrong with those either these are the plates that have been done handcrafted by someone who really has taken the time and attention and care into producing something that might not necessarily be as perfect as a machine can pump out it's beautiful because it's handcrafted because it's unique and interesting and different than what you're gonna see from an assembly line also by the way if you're more skilled than i am feel free to make this stuff yourself if you think that you can take a local pottery class at uh your local community center and you can make your own pots like go have at it because again you're not gonna make something perfect that's okay that's in the spirit of what japanda is all about okay my second choice for retailers and again this is tricky because i do think that this is not necessarily a style that makes sense for mass market products but i would say focusing on really sort of local businesses those small local stores are more likely to shop or to buy products and carry items from your small local artists as well so a really good example here in vancouver uh there's a shop called old faithful it's in gas town if you're from vancouver um they also ship throughout north america but you know find a place that maybe works uh in your local community uh but old faithful just as i just love their stuff and it produces a lot of stuff that's really kind of japanese it's kind of in this sort of hipster neighborhood you know the one like you know those types of shops i'm sure you've got one fairly close maybe to where you live and they just have really beautiful exquisite pieces and again they work with smaller retailers or they work with smaller producers uh that are not going to necessarily be in the west elms of the world but that's okay because again you're spending a little bit more but you're buying a lot less and you're really supporting sort of local artists that are in your own community okay but i do have another couple of like retail options because i understand i'm just like going into all these sort of handcrafted small local places and that might not be helpful so i do want to give you another couple one that really comes to mind is muji so muji is sort of a japanese retailer it's very strange because they sell like housewares but then they also sell clothing um which sort of weirds me out but i do think that their housewares or their home decor really feels very japanese it's very very light they do have a lot of things that maybe have they're not necessarily perfectly round or perfectly shaped but there are lots of muji's around i have a couple that are in my local area you might have some near you uh specializes a lot of japanese wares and pretty much everything is neutral like it's hard-pressed to find a color in that whole shop uh everything is very like white or cream or beige or brown and it probably fits with the color palette that you've designed for your japanese space so definitely really cool retailer for you to check out and then my last retailer that i want to talk about is rove concept so rove concepts is a retailer that they i believe they ship all over north america it's online only um but they specialize a lot in things like really low beds things like the wishbone chair things that just really sort of uh fit with the japanese style they sell a lot of beautiful furniture and i think they're a really really solid option for a japanese space