Wabi-Sabi is defined as a traditional Japanese aesthetic often described as appreciating beauty in nature that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Wabi-sabi encourages us to recognize simple, natural living and to treasure what we already have. Embracing this concept brings a sense of calm and happiness which, in turn, benefits human health and wellbeing

Wabi-Sabi in the Home

A Wabi-Sabi-inspired home is a restful space that nourishes family life and welcomes guests in a relaxed and restful way. It's a place for treasured things that carry love and evoke memories, not just new things bought or purchased on impulse. It's unpretentious styling, done in a perfectly imperfect way.

A Wabi-Sabi approach promotes soulful simplicity. This means decluttering and beautifying, but without the perfectionist tendencies of strict minimalism. Incorporating natural materials and textures, handcrafted ceramics, aged surfaces, and simple but thoughtful details. Wabi-Sabi style can bring a sense of calm and help you reconnect with nature, while adding story and character to your space.

10 principles for a Wabi-Sabi-inspired Home

1. Make the most of your entrance. Tidy-up your entrance, putting items away. Put out some flowers. Invite visitors to leave their shoes at the door, Japanese-style, and try to encourage anyone who lives with you to make it a habit.

2. Decluttering saves you time and money and creates more space to appreciate the things you really love. Think clean, clear and welcoming.

3.  Incorporate natural materials such as wood, clay and stone in your home, and organic fabrics for bedlinen, clothing and kitchenware. See how these bring a sense of calm. The eye and the imagination love imperfection, asymmetry and non-uniform surfaces.

4. Consider how you can bring actual nature into your space, with flowers, branches, seed pods, feathers, leaves, shells, pebbles and so on. Discover the joy of finding and styling these yourself, creating visual poetry with the gifts of land and sea.

5. Keep both light and shadow in mind, noting how the contrast changes your space at different times of the day. Embrace low light and darkness when it suits the season and your mood.

6. Consider the role of the five senses in your space.

7. Curate things you really treasure to decorate your space and nurture it with story and memory. Where possible, be creative with what you have, or repurpose items that have had a previous life.

8. Think about the importance of visual harmony. How do things look and feel in relation to other things in the room and the space.

9. Create the unexpected. Adding a small vase on a windowsill; a framed photograph under the stairs, a book of your favorite poems on a guest-room nightstand.

10. Depending on the season, or time of year, consider how or why you need to use the space differently creating a soulful space in your home that will create memories to last a lifetime.

For more inspiration on Wabi-Sabi, check out these books.

Wabi-Sabi Home: Finding Beauty in Imperfection by Mark and Sally Bailey (2019)  

Wabi-Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton (2019)

Wabi-Sabi Welcome: Learning to Embrace the Imperfect and Entertain with Thoughtfulness and Ease by Julie Pointer Adams (2017)