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Nine Japanese Noren

We stumbled on the traditional Japanese noren the other day when we were gathering Curtain Space Dividers from Apartment Therapy and Beyond. We're now smitten with the flat, two-panel textiles and have gathered a few more for your reference...

 
 

FIRST ROW:

1 a beautiful four-paneled noren at Brooklyn textile gallery Sri Threads
2 Cherry Blossom Noren from VivaTerra
3 a mod fabric noren on Whip Up via Curbly
4 an in-depth tutorial on how to make your own at Janome
5 a printed noren by Supercozy

SECOND ROW:

6 a Hello-Kitty-print noren on Ebay
7 Asagao hand-painted noren from Marcopoloni
8 Sakura hand-painted noren, also from Marcopoloni
9 a white-on-white natural fiber stripe from Dharma Crafts

We think norens are a perfect tried-and-true small space solution. Their flat, spare design makes them a streamlined addition to small apartments and their multi-purpose use means they'll work time and again whether your need is for a gauzy window covering, door panel, or room divider.

Comments (6)

As with most Japanese nouns...
...the plural of Noren is Noren - not Norens.

posted by bepsf on May 6th 2009 at 11:30am
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Thanks, bepsf

posted by regina on May 6th 2009 at 11:40am
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I love noren... just wish I had someplace to use them. This site also has some beautiful items:

http://www.jlifeinternational.com/houseitems/noren/noren_e.html

posted by arroyo on May 6th 2009 at 12:06pm
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Is that a toilet I see in the middle of the top row? I'm not sure how I feel about Noren as bathroom doors.

posted by creativeneurosis on May 6th 2009 at 1:52pm
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Love these! When I lived in Japan they were plentiful and cheap ... used them all over my apartment. They usually came with the panels stitched together, so you could use them in one piece or cut them apart.

posted by komori on May 6th 2009 at 2:21pm
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Another noren resource:

http://www.jun-gifts.com/specialcollections/norencurtains/norencurtains.htm

posted by sciencegeek on May 12th 2009 at 2:10pm
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