Home Decor & Design
What Is Japandi Style? A Complete Guide to Japandi Home Decor
There's a particular feeling in a room that has been edited down to just what it needs. Nothing on the shelf that doesn't earn its place. Colors that feel like weather — off-white, warm stone, the grey of still water. Objects that look handmade, or at least unhurried. If you've ever walked into a space like that and thought I want to live here, you were probably standing inside a Japandi interior.
Japandi is one of the defining aesthetics of the last decade in interior design. But it's not a trend in the disposable sense — it's a philosophy with roots in two of the world's oldest design traditions. This guide covers where it comes from, what defines it, and how to bring it into your home starting with the objects that make the biggest difference: the vases, vessels, and ceramics on your shelves.
The Two Roots: Japanese Wabi-Sabi and Scandinavian Hygge
Japandi is a portmanteau: Japanese + Scandinavian. But the real substance lies in understanding the philosophies on each side of that compound word.
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of imperfection and impermanence. It finds beauty in the crack in a glaze, the asymmetry of a hand-thrown bowl, the patina of something old and honestly used. The wabi-sabi home is not a showroom — it's a space that shows evidence of being lived in, but gently. Objects are chosen for quietness rather than display. A single stem in a rough-textured ceramic vase is more wabi-sabi than a full bouquet in a perfect vase.
Hygge (pronounced roughly "HUE-gah") is the Danish and Norwegian concept of coziness and convivial warmth. It's the feeling of a lit candle on a dark evening, of linen, of wooden surfaces worn smooth by use. If wabi-sabi is about acceptance of imperfection, hygge is about the active creation of comfort.
Together, they produce Japandi: an aesthetic that is simultaneously restrained and warm, minimal but never cold. It edits ruthlessly, but keeps the human element — the handmade object, the natural fiber, the quiet light.
"Japandi edits ruthlessly, but keeps the human element — the handmade object, the natural fiber, the quiet light."
5 Hallmarks of a Japandi Interior
You can recognize a Japandi space by these five qualities — and you can use them as a filter when making any design decision.
1. A Neutral, Earthy Palette
Japandi palettes live in the space between white and nature. Warm whites, aged linens, stone greys, mossy greens, terracotta, slate, and charcoal. The rule is that no color should announce itself. Even accent colors — a dusty plum, a celadon green — are chosen for their quietness. If a color makes the room louder, it doesn't belong.
2. Natural, Honest Materials
Wood, stone, ceramic, linen, cotton, rattan. Not faux versions — Japandi has no patience for imitation materials. A ceramic vase that looks like it was thrown on a wheel (even if it wasn't) reads more Japandi than a perfectly uniform machine-made one. The material should feel like it came from the earth, or at least from someone's hands.
3. Functional Objects That Are Also Beautiful
In Japandi interiors, decoration for its own sake is suspect. Objects are kept because they serve a purpose — or because their form is beautiful enough to justify their presence. A vase that holds a stem. A candle that lights the room. A glass that makes the drink better. Every object should be able to justify itself with a sentence that doesn't include the word "decoration."
4. Negative Space as Design
The empty parts of a Japandi room are as intentional as the filled parts. A shelf with three objects and visible space between them is more Japandi than a shelf styled to capacity. This is the hardest principle for most people to maintain — emptiness makes us want to fill. Resist it.
5. Imperfection as a Feature, Not a Flaw
A glaze that bleeds unevenly at the base. A vase that isn't perfectly symmetrical. A surface that shows the marks of how it was made. These are the wabi-sabi notes that keep a Japandi room from feeling like a catalog shoot. The imperfection is the character. It's what separates a curated home from a staged one.
Japandi vs. Minimalism: What's the Difference?
People use these words interchangeably, but they're not the same. Minimalism is an aesthetic defined primarily by reduction — less is more, almost to the point of severity. A minimalist room can feel cold, clinical, and architectural.
Japandi is minimalism with warmth dialed back in. Where a minimalist room might have white walls, a concrete floor, and a single piece of furniture, a Japandi room has the same restraint but adds the handmade ceramic, the softly lit candle, the imperfect surface. It keeps the quiet — it just makes it feel inhabited.
The Japandi Vase: Where to Start
If you want to shift a room toward Japandi without rebuilding it, start with the vessels on your shelves. A vase is the most concentrated expression of the aesthetic: material, form, color, and the space it creates around itself all come together in one object. Get the vase right and the room begins to read correctly.
Here's the principle: a Japandi vase should look like it was made by a person, or by nature. It should not try to be perfect. That's your filter.
The Wabi-Sabi Ceramics: Earth, Fire, and Imperfection
These are the vessels with the most Japanese DNA — forms that honor the making, glazes that move like atmosphere, and surfaces that feel like they've been somewhere. Each one is the wabi-sabi counterpoint to the Nordic side of the collection.
Featured Piece
Kasumi Stoneware Vase
Handmade Wabi-Sabi Ceramic · $89
Kasumi (霞) is the Japanese word for mist — the soft haze that hovers over water at dawn. The glaze on this hand-thrown stoneware vase doesn't so much end as dissolve, shifting color like atmosphere. Every piece varies because it's fired individually. What you receive is genuinely one of a kind.
Two colorways: Earth & Plum (warm terracotta bleeding into slate and dusty violet) and Sage & White (matte white dissolving into celadon). Both are extraordinary with a single dried stem. Both are beautiful empty.
Shop the Kasumi Vase →Also in the Collection
Jomon Stoneware Vase
Ancient-Fired Wabi-Sabi Ceramic
Named for Japan's oldest ceramic tradition, the Jomon vase carries the weight of that lineage in its surface. Raw, tactile, earth-fired. It's the kind of object that makes a room feel like it has memory.
Also in the Collection
Japanese Coarse Pottery Big Belly Vase
Sculptural Zen Vessel
A generous, rounded form that channels the wide-bellied tsubo vessels of traditional Japanese ceramics. Coarse, unrefined pottery with the kind of sculptural presence that anchors a shelf or sideboard. This one works especially well with a single branch — the form is strong enough to hold its own with almost nothing.
Shop the Big Belly Vase →The Nordic Cluster: Clean Glass, Architectural Form
These are the Scandinavian half of the equation — vessels where the material itself is part of the statement. Mouth-blown glass with subtle color. Porcelain with sculptural geometry. Ribbed surfaces that catch light and hold it. Where the wabi-sabi ceramics lean into texture and imperfection, these pieces bring precision and clarity.
Featured
Silverband Nordic Glass Vase
Hand-blown glass with a delicate silver accent band — the kind of object that makes a dining table feel considered without trying too hard. A Nordic centerpiece in the quietest sense.
Shop Now →Featured
Nordic-Japanese Glass & Porcelain Vase
This piece does the most literal Japandi work: it is — by design and material — a conversation between Japanese form and Nordic craft. Sculptural, minimalist, and quietly commanding.
Also in the Collection
Nordic Vinterflor Glass Vase
Vinterflor — winter flower
Vinterflor is Swedish for winter flower — and the name earns itself. This is a glass piece designed for single-stem minimalism, the kind of vase that makes a winter branch or dried grass look intentional rather than sparse. It's Scandinavian restraint at its most beautiful.
Shop the Vinterflor →
Explore the Full Vessels & Vases Collection
11 pieces. Two design lineages. All ships worldwide.
Shop All Vases →One More Layer: Scent
A Japandi interior engages all the senses — and scent is the layer most people forget until they smell a room that has it right. The principle is the same as the visual design: quiet, natural, purposeful. No cloying sweetness, no artificial brightness. The right candle in the right space is as much a design choice as the vase on the shelf beside it.
At Brooklyn Wax, we make hand-poured soy candles in small batches in our Greenpoint workshop. Scents like vetiver, sandalwood, and smoked amber are the olfactory equivalent of the wabi-sabi ceramic — earthy, unhurried, and distinctly themselves. Pair one with the Kasumi or Jomon vase and a single dried eucalyptus stem and you have, more or less, a complete Japandi shelf moment.
The Japandi Home Ritual
A curated vase + a Brooklyn Wax candle is the simplest version of a complete Japandi moment. Start there.
Explore Candles →Frequently Asked Questions
What colors are considered Japandi?
Warm whites, aged ivory, off-white, warm grey, charcoal, stone, terracotta, sage green, celadon, dusty slate, and muted earthy browns. The rule: nothing should announce itself. Even the deeper colors in a Japandi palette feel recessive rather than bold. Avoid bright primaries, high-contrast patterns, or any color that makes the room feel louder.
What's the difference between Japandi and wabi-sabi?
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese philosophy and aesthetic — specifically about finding beauty in imperfection and impermanence. Japandi is a design style that draws on wabi-sabi as one of its two primary influences (the other being Scandinavian design principles). Wabi-sabi is the root; Japandi is a contemporary aesthetic that builds on it.
What kind of flowers work best in a Japandi vase?
Single stems. One branch of cherry blossom, a dried pampas stem, a sprig of eucalyptus, a single white tulip. The Japanese practice of ikebana — the art of flower arranging — prizes restraint above density. The Japandi vase is designed to make one stem feel like an event, not a filler. Avoid packed, dense bouquets.
Is Japandi going out of style?
No. Unlike purely trend-driven aesthetics, Japandi is grounded in philosophies — wabi-sabi and Scandinavian design principles — that have been around for centuries. What has happened is that the word Japandi has become more mainstream. The underlying aesthetic continues to gain followers, particularly as people move away from maximalist interiors and toward more intentional, quieter spaces.
Can I mix Japandi with other styles?
Yes — and in practice, most people do. Japandi plays especially well with organic modern, Zen, coastal (in its quieter forms), and biophilic design. The key is keeping the palette restrained and avoiding anything visually loud. Japandi objects will elevate almost any interior; they just need the room not to fight back against them.
Brooklyn Wax Co. makes hand-poured soy candles in Brooklyn, NY, and curates Japanese whisky glasses and home decor from artisans across the globe. We believe the objects in your home should do something — elevate a moment, deepen a ritual, make Tuesday evening feel considered. Browse our full collection at brooklynwax.co