The Japanese furnishing style: How to furnish a Zen-style home

One of the most popular, sophisticated options on the contemporary interior design scene, the Japanese furnishing style, with its multi-faceted appearance, resulting from centuries of evolution and cultural cross-fertilisation, is more than a trend: it’s a whole philosophy. A discreet, unique furnishing style able to shape simple, inviting, regenerating settings, thanks to its characteristically simple, functional style.

Typical elements of a home furnished in Japanese style are large, open spaces, inviting areas conducive to meditation, tidy rooms, continuous references to nature, simple yet functional furnishings, large windows, soft, relaxing colours, natural materials and floor lamps. Interior design with a Zen-style inspiration focuses predominantly on natural materials and fabrics in soft colours, including white, cream, pearl, grey and brown, while black is a suitable choice for tables, chairs, and small furnishing elements.

Another feature of this Japanese design style is the chromatic harmony achieved by monochrome settings.

You can start by choosing the colour of your floors and walls and then coordinate the furnishings and textiles accordingly. The wood-effect, stone-effect, concrete-effect and metal-effect tiles by Casalgrande Padana are perfect for creating settings inspired by the ancient Japanese culture, with living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, and even gardens able to transmit a sense of calm, balance, peace and harmony.

The garden has an essential, integral role to play in Japanese culture, and is typically composed of small beds of sand, gravel, or pebbles, red maple and a variety of bushes, with walkways connecting the interior with the exterior and leading to areas with running water, an essential feature for a Zen garden.

How to furnish a home in Wabi-Sabi style

An integral part of Japanese culture, Wabi-Sabi is founded on the concept of transitoriness and deliberate simplicity. The true beauty of Wabi-Sabi lies in acknowledging the value of a simple, natural style, seeking absolute beauty in the authenticity and uniqueness of imperfection. This aesthetic sensitivity can be savoured in the creation of a furnishing style that is gaining growing popularity also in the western world.

Like Japandi style, this trend features a balanced look, with simple settings in which the preference is for natural materials and objects crafted by hand, with irregular, asymmetrical shapes. The main materials featured include organic cotton, natural wood, with its characteristic grain and unique gnarls, bamboo, stone, clay, raw linen and paper. Clay in particular, used since ancient times for firing into bricks or tiles in porcelain stoneware, is non-toxic and has excellent thermal qualities, making it an excellent construction material.

In the Wabi-Sabi décor style, neutral tones can be joined by dashes of all sorts of colours that range from sage green to sky blue and pink, allowing you to team tone-on-tone plain colours or distinctly contrasting shades.

In relaxing colours, with imperfect veining effects, in neutral and grey shades with a concrete effect or warm earthy and sandy shades with a stone or wood effect , Casalgrande Padana tiles offer the outstanding qualities of porcelain stoneware to cover all kinds of floors and walls, both indoors and outdoors, giving living spaces that sense of serenity and natural simplicity characteristic of Wabi-Sabi style.

How to furnish a home in Japandi style

Japandi, derived from a blend of Japanese (‘Jap’ – Japan) and Scandinavian (‘Andi’ – Scandinavian) style, teaming wabi-sabi – the search for beauty in imperfection – with the wellness principles of Hygge, the art of finding contentment in the small things and life’s simple pleasures, strikes a perfect balance between the simple elegance of oriental style and the simple, minimal Nordic look.

With a design approach that takes little account of fashions, Japandi embodies timeless elegance, with the accent on functional, orderly spaces and comfort: light, neutral colours alternating with darker shades, and low furniture with straight or rounded lines are perfect for this style.

Embracing Japandi style means saying goodbye to strong, bright colours and choosing muted shades that can be coordinated with natural materials such as wood to create a warm, sophisticated, inviting atmosphere.

Combining the simple shapes of oriental décor with the neutral tones of Nordic style, with minimalism as the common denominator, the Japandi furnishing style favours floor and wall coverings in warm shades, with a wood or stone effect able to shape a delightfully enveloping atmosphere, or the soft, simple, neutral textures of concrete-effect tiles, to design more original spaces.

Casalgrande Padana porcelain stoneware tiles are made of exclusively natural elements, free from plastics and harmful substances. They are non-allergenic, antibacterial (thanks to the innovative Bios Antibacterial® treatment that can be applied on request), fire-resistant, eco-compatible and fully recyclable, making them ideal for creating appealing, regenerating living spaces.