It’s an imperfect, amazing wabi-sabi world

Apr 6

Instead of fighting against imperfection, I like the idea of opening to its glory and making beauty shine from it.

This art form is known as wabi-sabi.

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature. It is prevalent in many forms of Japanese art. (wikipedia)

I’ve been an admirer of wabi-sabi for a very long time, but in the time since covid started I have fully embraced it. One of the reasons is because it reflects my own spiritual outlook on life, with its transience and constant evolution into something new and renewed. Wabi-sabi allows this, encourages it, by incorporating the sense that nothing needs to be used for that which it is made, rather it’s more beautiful aesthetically to reuse and redesign materials for other purposes.

I know I can never stop doing this now, and this aesthetic is guiding my design acumen. Which makes me very happy because it’s a healthy way to live, very much in touch with all that it natural and good in the world.

The main corridor in my house. The beams are marked so the builder back in the early 1800s knew what post belonged where.

Wabi-sabi roots lie in Zen Buddhism which was brought to Japan in the 12th century by a Chinese monk. The Zen philosophy stresses that the following points are the principles of wabi-sabi:

Kanso — simplicity
Fukinsei — asymmetry or irregularity
Shibumi — beauty in the understated
Shizen — naturalness without pretension
Yugen — subtle grace
Datsuzoku — freeness
Seijaku — tranquility

Incorporating more nature and less unnecessary items in our personal space one way that we can both honor the natural world and help rescue the planet from over production of consumer goods.

While wabi-sabi can take many iterations, all of them include the aspect that nature leads the design principle, and in this way, form always follows function in a most organic and gentle path.

I find that relaxing into the rawness of natural beauty is somehow deeply satisfying. Nothing about it is easy or not curated. It’s about choosing the essential, based upon utilitarian principles. Solid wood. Stoneware. Forged metals. It’s putting aside the unnecessary to allow the full emotional beauty of these materials come through.

In completing our latest renovation, we chose a style somewhere between rustic and urban that allows for an exploration of a few quality materials. Plaster, wood and forged metal dominate the space, and I absolutely love all of those materials with all my heart.

I can’t wait to show you the finished space, which will be very, very soon.