Coming about over 700 years ago, the wabi sabi aesthetic movement has grown beyond Japan and become consistently popular around the world. Getting big in the West back in the 1950s and 1960s, it’s just as prominent with today’s search for more rustic designs. Meant to emphasize imperfections, wabi sabi uses natural designs for a truly unique aura. These design principles are best seen in pieces made from natural, sustainable materials, giving them a form of imbalance that ironically creates harmony through dissonance.
Get the Shell Out: How Reclaimed Coconut Shell Furniture Embraces Wabi Sabi
Sustainability has obvious environmental purposes, but it’s also increasingly popular in the world of design. This means not only using natural materials, but also ones that put these rustic elements front and center. One sustainable material that’s only growing (or rather, “regrowing”, in this case) in popularity is reclaimed coconut shell. Using recycled pieces of a coconut shell, these pieces are usually painted and shaped into different forms while keeping the natural variations of the substance. This ensures that no two versions of the same piece alike, emphasizing the handcrafted artistry used to make them. The material is very lightweight, and the visuals that it creates are unlike other natural items like wood.
For instance, the Mila Coconut Shells Round Accent Table is a miasma of reused shells, making it both sustainable and utterly unique. The exterior has various “circles,” and these are all different sizes, creating an aesthetic that’s uniformly asymmetrical. This is wabi sabi in a nutshell (or rather, a coconut shell), as it creates the right kind of balance through pure imbalance. It helps that it can be used in just about every room of the house, be it as a bedroom nightstand or as a table in the living room. To add a bit more wabi to a room’s sabi, consider adding this or other pieces near more industrial furniture, creating a compelling contrast that makes the seemingly incompatible into something unbelievably enthralling.
In Living Color: Whisper Loudly with Contrasting Colors
Along with a sense of slight imbalance, wabi sabi is meant to bring the natural world inside. This usually means more muted and organic colors, creating a calm neutrality in the room. There’s a certain level of “lived in” that wabi sabi provides, even if the space itself is brand-new. From the colors themselves to the textures they they’re layered on, every bit of the aesthetic should “take root” in a room and provide a sense of inhabited grounding. Despite how subtle these visual aspects may be, they should ultimately be invitingly warm and never cold or distant. This also creates the opportunity to go all out with everything else in a room.
While the color schemes of wabi sabi items might be cool, calm, and collected, it’ll be easy to create true contrast by placing them near more vibrant and colorful furniture. For instance, the Wind Wood 2 Drawer Nightstand is available in multiple colors, with even its blue option having a softer hue that highlights the naturalistic finish. This can make it the proverbial wabi sabi piece in a room, but some of the brighter colors could also be used to contrast with brown or grey pieces.
Conversely, the Skylar Live Edge Teak Wood Coffee Table is the ultimate wabi sabi table, with the material giving each piece a unique woodgrain that naturally sprawls across the surface and onto the edges. To top things off, it even has a design that resembles the silhouette of a fallen leaf, giving any room a touch of the autumnal. For decidedly sharp contrast that really gives an edge to an interior aesthetic, consider bright, modern and absolutely awkward vases and sculptures. The more abstract, the better, and the more unnatural pieces will accentuate the naturalistic ones to an even greater extent.
Hit the Switch: Swap Pieces for Seasonal Wabi Sabi
Change is constant, and a great way to reflect every part of the natural world is to embrace that change. This is where wabi sabi design philosophy can really shine through, with every season begging for pieces that highlight these natural occurrences. Looking for more minimalistic or rustic glasses to hold flowers or simply set the tone for the room? The Capsian Hand Blown Glass Vases have enough of an earthy aesthetic to fit right in with fall, but they can also work well in just about every season.
Conversely, the Trapezium Plank Wood Coffee Table is the epitome of the natural simplicity embodied by the wabi sabi philosophy, with this modesty working best during the similar quiet of both winter and spring. The trapezoid form is a nice touch, making even its simplistic design stand out.
Summertime is the season for enjoying the outdoors and hosting guests, and interior décor should be just as inviting and festive. One of the best ways to do this is with shining lights that set the jovial tone, but there’s a line between beguiling and gaudy, and wabi sabi pieces can help keep homes closer to the first category.
Though it’s made from a sturdy metal, the Vada Iron Hanging Lantern has a certain tropical quality, turning any backyard, deck, or even the dining room into an island oasis. Its construction is the perfect contrast between the natural and the industrial, so it works well in either environment. Place it in a way that elegantly filters natural light to really make a setting come to life. 
Fall might be the season where wabi sabi can be emphasized the most, as it’s already associated with muted browns and an arboreal aesthetic. Rustic and almost “imperfect” pieces should be the world of the day, even if (or in the case of wabi sabi, especially if) the rest of the room doesn’t exactly match. A quick and simple way to do this is with side tables or other small pieces that use natural “flaws” as an artistic statement. The Merrill Teak Branch Accent Table truly looks like a tree that grew into a piece of furniture, and this includes wood grain, splits, and other elements that showcase how it’s anything but mass produced.
When the leaves start falling, this table is certain to start calling, especially for rooms begging to “touch grass.” Another option is the Lorena Round Teak Accent Table, with its brown wood grain and unique design making it resemble a sort of exotic Jenga block. Taking autumnal design to new heights, it’s ironically just the right size to add a touch of the October frost for a cool, crisp interior.
