The story behind - Dark Japandi
While it may seem like an unusual pairing at first glance, the fusion of Japanese and Scandinavian interior design aesthetics, often called “Japandi,” reveals undeniable similarities despite the geographical distance. What began as a trend has now taken root, offering a timeless design approach that continues to captivate.
Introducing Dark Japandi, a bold evolution of our beloved Japandi collection. Deeply rooted in traditional craftsmanship, it draws inspiration from artisanal techniques such as clay molding and wood carving. Here, ceramic, wood, and fabric intersect to celebrate the pure and rugged beauty of natural materials.
The Japandi style is defined by its commitment to simplicity and a strong connection to nature. Honoring this, we’ve chosen to emphasize the raw, organic textures of these materials, staying true to a soothing, earthy color palette. The collection centers around soft neutrals—such as warm beige—while also incorporating deep, contrasting shades of black and brown. This restrained yet expressive color scheme, characteristic of Japandi, invites reflection, quiets the mind, and evokes the tranquility of natural settings. These qualities reflect the essence of Japanese culture as well.
This collection mainly draws its inspiration from the handicraft technique used when carving clay. A highly creative procedure with a bundle of different tools used to carve out lines, make shapes, and mash different colours of clay together to create organic patterns and interesting colour shifts. During the design process, we had the advantage of picking the brain of the talented ceramicist, Fanny, who had a huge inspirational impact on how the collection turned out. You can read more about our collaboration our magazine here.
Even though the majority of the inspiration for this collection came from the art of ceramics and clay carving, there are a few other exciting crafttechniques we felt deserved a few rays of the limelight. One of which is the ancient Japanese coloring method Shibori, dating as far back as 238 CE. This tie-dyeing technique recently had a resurrection within the fashion industry and is now making its way into interior design. The pleasure of seeing the imperfect patterns emerge is just immense and makes you embrace the whole wabi-sabi mentality. And last but certainly not least, the amazing craft of woodcarving. There’s something existential about it. To see different shapes, lines, and patterns being carved into the stern surface, knowing that since the beginning of time, man’s been taming the elements presented in nature as a way to communicate and express themselves through art.
This collection is meant to be the second chapter of our Japandi interpretation, one that really takes the clay art to the next level. Instead of digitally producing the patterns, all the designs in this collection are made by hand using the different techniques mentioned above. This brings out the geometrical asymmetry, further embracing the trademark of the wabi-sabi worldview, where acceptance and beauty are found in the imperfect.
The Japandi aesthetic is all about finding the balance when combining various elements. This is effortlessly achieved by mimicking the plethora of materials with neutral colours found in nature. A lot could be said about this, but a good rule of thumb is to just keep it simple. Focus on clean lines, light colours, and organic materials.
To summarize, keep the colour scheme soft and neutral, then successively add contrasts of darker colours to not make the setting dull. A Japandi wall mural could be the perfect springboard to get started and gives an interesting backdrop to expand upon. Add furniture in organic materials without excessive embellishments and declutter the surroundings to give the space some breathing room to really convey the simplicity of the true japandi aesthetic. This is a collection close to our hearts.
We at belartestudio have a predilection for minimalistic interior design and the art of handicrafts alike. We hope you enjoy these wall murals just as much as we loved making them. If you would like to see the entire collection, head over to the Dark Japandi collection tab to see more.
