Japanese Style. Explore creative design ideas, tips and inspirations for this classic architectural design style.          

A neighborhood Shinto shrine at the end of an urban back alley. A monumental Buddhist temple alongside skyscrapers and neon-lit pachinko parlors. A Traditional post-and-beam farmhouse tucked behind a suburban neighborhood. Even in the hodgepodge industrial landscape that has sprung up in Japan in the past few decades, places of startling beauty -- both sacred and secular -- abound.

Traditional Japanese design style

Traditional Japanese design, shaped by the animistic tradition of Shinto, prizes natural materials like stone, wood, and rice straw. From Buddhism, it takes a sense of worldly impermanence, expressing life’s ephemerality with ikebana flower arrangements and cryptic Zen rock and gravel gardens, raked in concentric circles to represent the ripples of time.

Japanese style can run the gamut from sophisticated to rustic, but it often creates a pleasing mix of both extremes, with an emphasis on minimalism and natural materials. Refined teak and bamboo chairs alongside a roughhewn timber post exemplify the blend of earthy and elegant that characterizes Japanese design at its best.


Japanese design style

Even the most modern Japanese homes frequently incorporate Traditional rustic elements: wooden posts and beams, ceramic or copper roof shingles, bamboo, tatami, and delicate rice-paper shoji screens. Irregularities are prized -- a chip in a teacup becomes part of the object’s history, rather than a flaw -- and everyday objects like handmade brooms or an earthenware food jar are often works of art.

Japanese design style

polished venetian plaster

Lithos Venetian Plaster

Finishing Venetian Plaster with natural polished marble effect

In Stock

Lithos is the contemporary version of the famous ancient Stucco Veneziano. It is a beautiful and highly refined decorative finish for hotels, offices, shops, exhibition halls, living rooms, etc. Ideal for all types of interior surfaces such as cement renders, Gypsum plasters, prefabricated panels wood and its by-products, as long as sufficiently smooth. With the range of colours and the applicator’s capacity and inspiration, it is possible to attain a variety of designs and chromatic effects. The resulting coating, in addition to being highly attractive, is abrasion resistant and washable.

Spread rate: 35 to 45 sq. ft. per quart.

0.8 - 1.0 kg/m² (for a recommended dry film thickness of 1,0 mm)

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Japanese design bonsai garden

Nature is always kept in sight in Japanese design, whether with a formal bonsai garden or simply a loosely-constructed wood or bamboo fence enclosing cedars, Japanese maple or cherry trees. Indoors, bird, flower and tree motifs appear on painted scrolls and screens.


Japanese design style

Sacred elements can create a special atmosphere even in the most mundane context. A simple Shinto temple washbasin can imbue an everyday space like the bathroom with a tranquil air.

Japanese design wish doll

A daruma or wish doll, which represents the Buddhist saint Bodhidharma, makes a colorful accent (to make a wish, you paint in one of the pupils in black ink; if the wish comes true you paint the other and discard the doll).

Japanese design style

Stone temple lanterns, bells, and incense-holders are also wonderfully evocative. For the diehard Japanophile, a torii gate, which marks the beginning of sacred space in a Shinto shrine, can be a stunning garden element.


Japanese Style Inspirations

Japanese design styleTraditional rustic timber homes and roof supports.
Japanese design style

Contemporary materials, right, mimicking Traditional stone craft.

Japanese design style

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