Traditional Japanese Decorations for Modern Homes by Rikumo

Modern homes are places where neutral colors and spare furnishings create spaces that feel open, clean, and comfortable. It's an aesthetic that's found in everything from post-WWII-era homes to current construction and everything in between. The overarching goal is to live in a home that's welcoming and avoids the clutter that makes a room feel small. Yet it also presents the challenge of adding decorative goods for personalization and character. That's where borrowing from the Japanese interior decorating aesthetic comes in handy.

Japanese design is known for its spare and elegant elements that balance the desire to keep the home visually neat while accommodating personal touches. The decorative home goods that are found in a Japanese home goods store blend well into a modern home without disrupting the clean lines of the modern home.

Accents for Every Room

Japanese home goods typically combine organic materials with spare designs and minimal color. This is true of decorative objects and soft goods. They intend to introduce a touch of whimsy or bring in geometric lines that catch and hold the eye. The following are some ideas to help you introduce Japanese home goods into your home and create visual harmony.

Picking a Simple Vase That Stimulates Interest

A turned blonde wood vase with carved horizontal lines that intersect with the vertical grain of the wood brings gentle color and texture to the room while its sinuous shape interests the viewer. Looking for some color contrast? Consider a turquoise-colored vase that's made to look like a rustic water jug and provides a pop of color without being overwhelming.

Using Novel Wall Art

Japanese wall art focuses on using spare shapes and forms to break up the flatness of a wall while nicely accenting the wall. Consider a wall vase with a design that lies flat against the wall for an organic feeling. Use the vase to hold an artificial flower or plant to add color and enhance the organic design.

A textile known as a tengui allows you to decorate a wall to your personal taste and design sensibility. A tenugui is a rectangular piece of fabric that has multiple practical uses, including towels, washcloths, and table runners. It also works well as a wall hanging, making it easy to introduce color and pattern to a wall that needs a little something.

Making the Bathroom Feel Welcoming

The bathroom features hard surfaces of tile and drywall due to the fact it's naturally a damp and humid environment. The atmosphere minimizes the use of wall art, but it opens up the room to using decorative textiles such as Japanese hand towels and bath mats. Bath mats and towels feature earthy neutral colors, comforting textures, and use traditional Japanese fibers for their construction.

These textiles are made from high-quality fibers and are dye-fast, which means that they last for a long time and hold their color without risk of fading. You get to enjoy the look and feel of a cotton ribbon rug without worrying about it falling apart before its time. The same goes for a set of textured towels made from cotton or linen, or a bath mat made from kumazasa plant fibers and washi paper.

Find Your Japanese Home Goods at Rikumo

At Rikumo, we focus on bringing you a curated selection of Japanese home and personal goods that elevate your daily life. We feature products made by little-known Japanese artists who use centuries-old techniques to create home goods that embody traditional Japanese design while looking forward to the future. Not only do these artists get the recognition they deserve, but you get to enjoy their creations in your home for years to come.