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Starting to renovate the kitchen, each of us wants to see it as a comfortable, ergonomic space, where it is pleasant and convenient not only to prepare food but also to dine, to gather with friends over a cup of tea. If you are not a supporter of the ordinary, we suggest considering the option of decorating a kitchen in the Japanese style, which will perfectly “fit” into any size of the room, make it a special room that you will not want to leave.
Features of the Japanese Kitchen Design
The inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun have always been able to appreciate beauty and rationalism. However, numerous cataclysms forced the Japanese to furnish their homes with a predominant share of minimalism, where ergonomic functionality prevails over lush decoration, cluttering up space with many unnecessary things. The national philosophy also played an important role in the ascetic arrangement of Japanese dwellings. Everything that happens in the environment is just vanity, and you need to take care of the inner world.
The main features of interior design can be distinguished such as the use of natural materials with a natural color palette (wood, stone, bamboo, silk, rice paper), squat furniture of regular shapes, the absence of bright light and decor, as well as the replacement of interior walls with original ones.
In the conditions of modern European interiors, of course, some details are slightly simplified: natural rice paper is replaced by frosted glass, plastic, and MDF is often used instead of wood. Shoji partitions are also less and less common – their installation is applicable for large spaces. However, in a small kitchen, they are reflected in the decoration of the facades of the headsets, décor. Despite this, the Japanese style is recognized as one of the most aesthetic, combining restraint, simplicity, and, at the same time, the immutability of the traditions of ancient culture.
Color Solutions for Japanese Kitchen
The color palette of the Japanese-style interior was greatly influenced by the desire of the people to live in harmony with nature, so the main tones in the kitchen will be beige, brown, green, gray, cherry, and black. In addition, there are amber blotches comparable to the color of honey and shades of the water element – blue and light blue. The white palette, unacceptable for Japanese interiors, is replaced by creamy, milky shades. In the design, no more than three tones are used, among which light ones have the prerogative. Thanks to this color scheme, the Japanese style perfectly suits any room, regardless of its size and location relative to the cardinal points.
Japanese Beige Kitchen Design
Beige is a basic neutral shade that can be combined with many colors. He has a calm energy and is considered close to the color of a person’s skin. Therefore he is not able to concentrate on himself. In the kitchen’s interior, it can be present in large quantities in finishing materials or headset facades. Best of all, a beige palette is combined with a brown one, but the presence of contrasting tones is not excluded.
Red Japanese Kitchen Design
The Japanese associate red with strength and masculinity. Even in the Middle Ages, people honored the element of fire, which gives warmth and life, considering it a symbol of peace and family prosperity. In the interior, the red palette can significantly revive the atmosphere, highlight the most important areas. The red palette with wenge and ivory tones will be perfectly combined.
Brown Japanese Kitchen Design
The color creates stunning contrasts in the tranquil setting of Japanese culture. It evokes associations with reliability. The warmth of the wood mass makes you focus on making the right decisions. However, an overabundance of it in the interior can cause depression and disappointment. Therefore it is important to choose the right shade and companions, among which the most successful will be golden, sandy, green tones.
Green Japanese Kitchen Design
The olive palette in the Japanese interior looks quite organic. Color is associated with nature, has a hugely positive effect on a person’s emotional state, calms, helps to distract from pressing problems. But it would be best if you used it in the interior in dosage not to cause a passive state. The olive palette will look even more expressive, surrounded by woody textures close to it, and the main background can be milky or light gray.
Black Japanese Kitchen Design
The gray palette of the Japanese is considered a symbol of nobility and, therefore, any. Therefore, any colors will play expressively and elegantly against its background. Since the Japanese are not inclined to decorate the walls in dark colors, black will be present in the facades of the headset, and red, pearl, olive tones will become its best allies. It is also used for drawing pictures, hieroglyphs.
Finishes and Materials
As we said earlier, natural materials are preferred in Japanese-style kitchens. However, it is worth considering that today’s interiors are endowed with modest closed areas, unlike the original Japanese buildings with an almost complete absence of partitions. Moreover, not every finishing material can cope with high humidity conditions temperature extremes. Therefore, we pay attention to the most moisture-resistant, easy-to-clean finishing methods.
Floor
The traditional finishing material for Japanese-style kitchens is a wooden board. Nowadays, this type of decoration is relevant for private houses, and in the conditions of apartments, it is replaced with linoleum, parquet board, or laminate. In addition, you can choose porcelain stoneware floors, including wood-like textures or stone. Finally, a tatami mat near the work or dining area will be a great addition.
Walls
To decorate the kitchen walls in the Japanese style, you can choose decorative plaster or plain wallpaper in a neutral color. To determine the accent zones, wooden panels are used and plastic ones that imitate wood, bamboo, and thematic photo wallpaper. It is quite possible to arrange one wall under the shoji partition by installing overhead PVC panels in the Japanese design.
Particular attention should be paid to an apron, which often becomes the main decorative element – it can be decorated with stone mosaics, artificial stone, or skins with images on Japanese themes.
Ceiling
The simplest design option for the ceiling surface is painting or whitewashing. But, if you want to bring the design of your kitchen as close as possible to Japanese originality and the height of the ceilings allows, you can build a more complex structure. To do this, the entire ceiling area is divided into squares, and wooden beams are attached. Then, the interior can be painted or decorated with a matte, fabric stretch fabric, and the beams must be left in their natural form.
The Armstrong ceiling system looks amazingly beautiful. To build it, it is necessary to attach longitudinal and transverse profiles to the rough ceiling, dividing the area into squares. Subsequently, the planks can be painted with dark paint or pasted over with a self-adhesive film imitating a tree. Then, lamps are installed in the resulting cells and covered with plastic plates, which can also be decorated with paper, cloth, or pick up images in muted paints on a Japanese theme.
Japanese Style Kitchen Furniture
It was customary to install low furniture in old Japanese houses, use rugs and squat tables to equip the dining area. But, of course, such furniture will cause many inconveniences for a European inhabitant, and the Japanese themselves no longer adhere to such traditions. Therefore, to bring the situation as close as possible to the Japanese, we choose furniture from unpainted wood of the correct strict form.
Household appliances, including a refrigerator, are best hidden in the bowels of the headset. The dining table is often equipped very thoroughly, has a stone or wooden tabletop. It is better to choose lockers that are narrower and lighter, with little or no handles. Frosted glass inserts with a crate imitating shoji will look beautiful.
Lighting and Decor for Japanese Kitchen
In Japanese interiors, diffused lighting is preferred, so the interior lighting of the ceiling, in this case, will be a very profitable solution. In addition to it, you can install central pendant chandeliers, arrange furniture lighting, place spots around the kitchen’s perimeter. Lamps with shades of wicker bamboo, rice paper, straw look beautiful because the Japanese respect regular geometric shapes. Lighting fixtures are characterized by clear, rectangular, or spherical outlines.
Although the Japanese style rejects lush decor, the room must take on a themed design, not seem boring and deserted. To do this, use such details as wall scrolls with wise quotes, photomurals with images on Japanese themes, engravings. The decoration will be ceramic and porcelain figurines, vases, which are installed in narrow niches. You don’t have to make a recess in the wall to do this – leave one of the kitchen cabinets without a door. Purchase authentic tableware: a tea set, a sushi set, fruit and sweets dishes. The living flowerpots, which the Japanese associate with naturalness, especially the traditional bonsai tree, will look harmonious in the interior.
Small Japanese Kitchen Design
The principles of Japanese interiors are ideal for small spaces. Only light-colored finishing materials are used here. You should not build complex structures on the ceiling that will “steal” part of the vertical space – it is easier to do with painting or, if you really want something special, build decorations from plasterboard.
The furniture set should be lightweight – have open shelves or imitation of Japanese partitions in the facades, which give certain weightlessness. The principles of lighting design remain unchanged – there should be a lot of dim light. Therefore, both general ceiling lamps and local ones that illuminate important areas should be installed. Vases, wall paintings, photo wallpapers with thematic images, dishes will become the decor for a small kitchen in the Japanese style.
The peculiar aesthetics of the style never ceases to amaze with the combination of minimalist notes and the splendor of natural motives with elements of the identity of the Land of the Rising Sun. We believe you’ll like our examples of Japanese-style kitchen decoration featured above here, and feel free to choose the option you like.
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