OUR PROJECTS | A Japandi style kitchen design

Inspired by Japandi style? In this post we share a new kitchen design we recently completed

The word Japandi means Japanese+Scandinavian – and it refers to an interior style which is one of the most current trends now in decorating.

Perfect for those who love minimal style but at the same time are looking for a warm and a bit eclectic interior, Japandi style is also one of the decorating references I love the most – and that our client from Tuscany also wanted for her beautiful new home.

As I always do, I did a reinterpretation of the style by giving to it an Italian touch – in this post I will share with you more about the project, some tips and the kitchen before and after.

INTERIOR PROJECTS

A Japandi-inspired kitchen design in Italy

This moodboard is for of a duplex apartment in Tuscany, for a young couple who asked for our interior design services. What is great about the whole project is that it has been totally done on online basis – thanks to a great communication with the client ( and to their good aesthetic taste, we were definitely on the same page ) and to a good choice of the suppliers.

The apartment was new but totally empty – with good finishes, a beautiful view to the seaside and a very bright interior space. The interior layout is particular, with the lower level occupied by the bedrooms, and the upper level by the living area ( in Italia houses usually happens the opposite).

Most of furniture has been purchased locally by following the guidelines given in the shop list I’m always sending to my clients at the end of our interior consultation. The kitchen which has been created by a local craftsman according to my design and that I am sharing more in detail now.

|| Discover more about our online interior design services and it works in this page

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Japandi style kitchen design / Layout

The first key feature of a Japandi style kitchen is a minimalist design. And, as we were mentioning in this post “how to design a modern minimalist kitchen“, the kitchen is probably the one room that is as messy as can be. Other than this, it has to be functional ( and my clients wanted it to be super practical ) and to be honest some times minimalism is not synonymous with functionality.

But there are some important choices to be made, already in the very first phase of the design, to achieve a minimalist look without loosing in functionality:

Prefer a linear layout design instead of more complicated ones;
Unless your clients have a really minimalist lifestyle, choose close cabinetries instead of open shelves ( to avoid visual mess );
Hide the kitchen hood or choose a geometric one;
Go for hidden kitchen appliances, and when it’s not possible to hide – for sleek and linear ones ( example : induction kitchen hobs instead of gas )

For this house, I proposed three alternatives and the final solution was a mix of these three, integrated by some elements required by the clients.

The longer wall has been used to host the washing and cooking area, by centering the kitchen hobs and hiding the hood. In the shorter wall, instead, the clients required a small drinking area, where to put bottles and other small objects – and the corner has been used to hide the fridge.

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Japandi style kitchen design / Colors and materials

Another key feature of a Japandi style inspired kitchen is a neutral palette. So even is I’m a lover of color – in this project I went for whites and wood.

I choose a dark wood, to create more interest and contrast, in a veined finish, for the lower cabinets that I wanted to visually enhance. I choose a dark wood finish also for the table and the chairs, to enhance even more the lower level of the kitchen.

Instead, for the upper cabinets I choose white because I wanted to visually make it “disappear” – same for the cabinets in the short wall area, this time here we choose a light concrete finish to add some tactility to the kitchen. When working with whites ( especially in the kitchen area ) in fact my fear is always to get a “too cold” effect – so I prefer alternate white laminate to other kind of finishes, always in a neutral palette.

But what makes this kitchen really special in my opinion is the finish of the top and the backdrop wall. In fact, here we choose a real Carrara marble slab, with beautiful natural veins. In fact, the clients live in the area of Tuscany where this kind of marble is extracted – yet, the idea of using a very local and traditional material to add some “Italian feel” in the project.

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Japandi style kitchen design / Details and furniture

There are also some other important choices we made in the design of this kitchen in order to get those effect my clients where looking for. For example, instead of standard kitchen handles we choose custom wooden ones, as longest as possible, to keep the kitchen linearity. The kitchen appliances and faucets has been chosen to be in black, to keep a whole modern and minimalist feel.

Last, the furniture and lighting choices: for the table and chairs, I choose dark wooden furniture with curved profiles, with a Japandi inspired aesthetic ( both purchased on local shops, following the shopping list provided ). Same for the pendant lamp ( the iconic Formakami lamp by &Tradition).