Wabi-sabi: Finding peace and harmony

“Wabi-sabi” is the name of an interi­or design trend from Japan that has now also found its way into Ger­man liv­ing rooms. It stands for pur­ism and authen­ti­city. The room does­n’t need to be per­fectly fur­nished. Much more import­ant is that it cre­ates a feel­ing of tran­quil­ity and har­mony. Below, our expert shares some use­ful design tips with you and gives advice on how to install wood floors that go very well with wabi-sabi style rooms.

Tip 1: Get rid of clutter

The new wabi-sabi liv­ing trend brings peace and har­mony into your own four walls by get­ting rid of everything that’s super­flu­ous and unne­ces­sary. Fur­nish­ings and oth­er objects of daily use should ful­fill a spe­cif­ic func­tion and tell a story – of life, of the per­son that lives there. Vis­ible signs of wear and tear and small defects are there­fore expli­citly allowed. Nev­er­the­less, wabi-sabi style rooms don’t have to be uncom­fort­able. Light col­ors, earth tones and plenty of light cre­ate a warm and cozy ambi­ance. Also cur­tains, rugs and pil­lows made of nat­ur­al mater­i­als are typ­ic­al ingredi­ents. Just place a hand­made vase here, a Japan­ese tea set there – and you’re done with wabi-sabi style decor.

Tip 2: Use natural materials

The wabi-sabi way of life goes hand in hand with a con­scious use of our resources. A real wood floor is there­fore just the right choice for wabi-sabi rooms, espe­cially since it can be ren­ov­ated at a later date. It may also show a vivid grain and small blem­ishes such as knotholes or cracks. To ensure the floor­ing does­n’t shift and always remains in place, it should be bon­ded to the sub­strate over its entire sur­face. This way, also the foot­fall sound caused by walk­ing is min­im­ized since there is no sep­ar­at­ing air space between the floor­ing mater­i­al and the screed.