Wabi-sabi: lighting for rooms with patina and natural materials

What is wabi-sabi?

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in things that are imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. The term joins two words: *wabi* stands for simple, understated modesty, *sabi* for the beauty that comes with age, such as patina, weathering and signs of use. The idea is closely linked to Zen Buddhism and the Japanese tea ceremony, where simple, irregular bowls are often valued more highly than flawless porcelain. As an interior style, wabi-sabi means rooms with raw natural materials, few objects and surfaces that are allowed to age. A crack in the table or a lopsided bowl is not a flaw but part of the character.

How do you recognise a wabi-sabi interior?

A wabi-sabi room looks calm, elemental and slightly aged, as if it had grown over the years.

• Materials: clay and lime plaster with visible trowel marks, old solid wood with cracks, stone, undyed linen, jute, wool and hand-thrown ceramics.
• Colours: earth and stone tones such as clay, loam, ash and moss, plus unbleached linen. Hardly any pure white, hardly any strong colour.
• Shapes: simple and irregular. Tree slabs as tables, wooden blocks as side tables, stools instead of chairs, bowls that are not quite round.
• Details: a dry branch in a clay vase, a bundle of grasses, old books, a tea bowl on a wooden tray.
• Emptiness: free surfaces and bare walls are intentional. Whatever is in the room has a story or a purpose.

The right light for wabi-sabi

Wabi-sabi light is warm, subdued and allows shadows. The Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki described this attitude in his essay "In Praise of Shadows": only in half-light do wood, lacquer and ceramics reveal their depth.

Colour temperature: very warm and dimmed

Bulbs with 2,200 to 2,400 kelvin create a light reminiscent of candles and evening sun that tints clay, wood and linen warmly. For work surfaces such as the dining table, up to 2,700 kelvin is fine. Dimmable bulbs are almost a must in this style, because the room should be allowed to grow darker in the evening.

Natural materials on the shade

A wabi-sabi shade may show what it is made of. Alpine hay with grasses and flowers, real leaves or wood veneer with lively grain are natural materials where no two pieces are alike. Switched on, the grasses, leaves and grain glow warmly. Burl woods such as olive ash burl are particularly fitting, as their irregular figure becomes clearly visible in the backlit veneer.

A few low pools of light

Instead of lighting the whole room, wabi-sabi places individual points of light where you sit, eat or read: a pendant above the table, a light column next to the sofa, a small lamp by the bed. Grazing light on clay plaster brings out the texture of the wall. Corners that are not used can stay dark.

Wabi-sabi room by room

Living room

Next to a low linen sofa, a light column becomes a calm focal point. Lucerna is a 156 cm veneer floor lamp with a diameter of 18 cm. In olive ash burl, the lively grain glows warmly through the wafer-thin veneer while the black base recedes. It suits clay plaster, a coffee table made from a tree slab and an old stool used as a side table. Switched off, it remains a simple wooden column whose grain looks lively even in daylight.

Dining area

Above an old wooden table, a single small pendant is often enough. Konus is a conical pendant with a shade of alpine hay, leaves or loden, available single or as a set of three, with a jute or black cable. With an alpine hay shade and black cable, it hangs above a table with cracks and patina, surrounded by stools, a stone floor and clay walls. The lower edge should hang 60 to 70 cm above the table.

Bedroom

By the bed, a small, subdued light is enough. Ligna is 47 cm tall and stands on three legs of Swiss stone pine, oak or walnut; the shade comes in the versions alpine meadow, rose petal, cornflower and leaves. With oak legs and a shade of real leaves, it sits well on an old wooden block next to undyed linen bedding. Switched on, the shade reveals the natural structure of the leaves, a detail that suits linen and old wood.

Window seat

For a seat by the window, a small pendant is more practical than a floor lamp because it takes up no space on the bench. Nux is a pendant with a shade of natural material such as alpine hay, leaves, cornflower or wood veneer, available single or as a set of three on an oak bar, with a jute or black cable. With a leaf shade and jute cable, it hangs above a clay plaster window seat and gives light for tea and a book. A single lamp is enough for the niche; the set of three on an oak bar is better suited to a long table.

Common wabi-sabi lighting mistakes

The most common mistake is lighting wabi-sabi with too much light and too much perfection.

• Even brightness: ceiling spots and panel lights remove the shadows and with them the depth of plaster and wood.
• Cold white light: clay and linen look grey and lifeless.
• Smooth, industrial lamps: high gloss, chrome and flawless plastic shades do not suit raw surfaces.
• Too many lamps: reduction applies to light as well. Three well-placed points of light have more impact than seven.
• Fake patina: mass-produced items made to look old contradict the idea. Genuine natural materials with natural irregularities fit better.

Wabi-sabi lamps by Leuchtnatur

Leuchtnatur is a workshop in Übersee on Lake Chiemsee making lamps of wood veneer, alpine hay, leaves and loden. Because the shades are made of natural materials, every piece differs slightly from the next: the alpine hay shades consist of real hay and flowers from mountain meadows, and the veneer is selected by hand and comes from FSC-certified wood. For wabi-sabi, alpine hay, leaves and burl woods such as olive ash burl or poplar burl work particularly well. Find more in pendant lamps, floor lamps, table lamps, wall lamps and wood veneer lamps.