apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think of wabi-sabi as a strategy, not a style. Without explanations of the specific approaches taken in each of the spaces shown, how can anyone learn from this post? I do think it would be interesting to read someone's philosophy on how to apply wabi-sabi using specific examples and specific spaces.

nope... i'm going to call BS on this!!! just because you have a piece of folk art, a distressed piece or some antiques, does not wabi-sabi therefore make!

I think the so called new found interest is that people DO like and cherish some things that are not showroom/design house immaculate. I like to think that it makes some of the automaton's I've seen on this site and elsewhere seem like they still have at least a shred of personality left. that being said, i know there will be a million people out there that will go out of their way to have something "Look" unfinished and rustic just so they can say.. "yep, i'm on top of it... not only do i know yellow is the biggest color in fashion, but i'm sooo wabi-sabi too!"

sigh... i sure don't mean for my posts to be negative, it's just that the ones that get under my skin and push me to comment are the ones i take offense to. sand oyster=pearl (maybe???)

can someone explain the differences, or subtle nuances, between wabi-sabi and shabby-chic...isnt it all just plain ol' patina? chips, cracks, damage, wear and tear? lol

all these artsy-fartsy classifications are getting a bit out of control for me...please excuse my ignorance. I'm an audiophile and a writer, not an interior decorator :)

I agree with fabframes and ubertimmo. Wabi-Sabi is not Feng Shui. Its a philosphy and thought process that should spill out naturally. To me, wabi-sabi is a personal thing and not a formula to follow.

I agree to some extent w/all of the comments and frustrations noted above.

(Wasn't it a former supreme court justice who said that he couldn't define pornography, but he knew it when he saw it?)

I'm no expert on wabi-sabi (or much else) but my thought is that it's a mindset as much as anything else. I can more easily say what it's NOT, than what it is. (Though I know it when I see it!)

It's the antithesis of showroom perfection. It's the opposite of brand new and formal and pristine and off-the-rack (though one or more of these might play a part in any wabi-sabi setting, because it's all about the MIX.)

It's personal, and artful, and casual. It's the bouquet of sunflowers in a tomato can and not the roses in the crystal vase. It's your first-grader's framed finger-painting taking pride of place above the mantel. It's finding a *perfectly* rusted tin can on the street and picking it up and bringing it home and putting it on a bookshelf, maybe beside your battered copy of Found Objects (copyright 1981).

It's surrounding yourself with things that have meaning to you that goes beyond what is "in." It evolves, but its evolution has nothing to do with trends and fashion, and everything to do with your own life.

Am I getting close?

mirandabee...i like that take on it...this makes more sense to me now...

but..

If wabi-sabi is about owning/showing things you love regardless of trends or showroom appearance...isnt that just "having style"? thats where all this design jargon loses me lol

I don't think throwing in a few flea-market knick-knacks or banged-up leather chairs really captures the essence of wabi sabi. It is not "decorating" and it is not design-jargon.

well then what is it, particlebored

Wabi-sabi or not (I don't really understand why it's such a big deal what decoration theme they call it) I love that wallpaper. Anybody know where it's from?

by definition, jargon is technically specific (and usually unintelligible) language...Wabi-sabi is a term specifically for interior design...and you havent been able to define it lol

Yet another term to add to my defined sense of interior style:
midcentury-bohemian-eclectic-WABISABI-fleamarket-chic!
Nice.

I enjoyed this essay: http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm

Or, if links don't work, JFGI and click the second link, "What Is Wabi Sabi?"

Wabi Sabi is the opposite of IKEA. But you could include an IKEA piece in a wabi sabi lifestyle. Chew on that.

wabi sabi is the aesthetics of restraint. it doesn't really go into the same sentence with the word "decorate".

*scratching ear* Um, is it like Pier One Imports but with a little Crate and Barrel? I'm all confused...

"Wabi-sabi is a term specifically for interior design". No, it isn't.

And here all this time I thought it was a condiment for my sushi.

According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), wabi sabi: "represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience...The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is 'imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete'...wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it 'occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West.'"

So from what I gather, wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic (in the sense of a worldview, not just style) and is certainly not limited to decor. It's not shabby chic, I think, because it's about embracing the subtle beauty of imperfection, decay and change...which doesn't seem to be the same thing as deliberately seeking out a piece that's been weathered just so.

thanks for the enlightenment slowdown :)

I think you know it and feel it when you see it like you have it or you don't. Its not forced nor contrived. I have rarely seen it here on AT only once ore twice.

We should all get together to put a book out...."The Junk We Love"

I don't know a thing about wabi-sabi, but from the breakdowns I've read here it seems like a great principle to live by. Appreciating the beauty in things that aren't freshly purchased, or keeping things that you've lived with and worn down is a great thing.

Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that values imperfection and recognizes the beauty in decay, transience, impermanence. You can fully appreciate the aesthetic by reading The Book of Tea.

I think that where a lot of these so-called examples, and these tentative definitions, fail is when they try to take the Japanese-ness (or more broadly, the Asian-ness) out of 'wabi sabi'. IMO, it's like art deco or colonial or bauhaus or so-called traditional. These are all styles rooted in a culture (broadly, Western) and while they can be seen in, and translated into, non-Western aesthetics, they do have a clearly acknowledged cultural root. So while no one would take a very symmetrical, intricately geometric piece of furniture from, say, India and just pronounce it 'art deco' because it has *some* art deco characteristics, you have people here trying to take any old piece of banged up furniture with turned legs or spindles or a shaker-style back and call it 'wabi sabi.' It's not. It's shabby chic because it is too particularly and explicitly European. It would never fit a Japanese aesthetic and that is where wabi sabi is grounded.

Wabi Sabi is not a design trend or style, nor does it have any connection with shabby chick or bohemian or vintage homegoods. Wabi Sabi is a practice, and it's practically a religion.

Really, it started off as a tea ceremony. There have been many many many ways to make/brew tea in the past several centuries. The Chinese, Japanese, Taoists, Buddhists, etc - they all prepared it differently. Thus where Wabi Sabi comes in, but the term wasn't really used until the mid 1900s.

Wabi Sabi started to break out into other areas of life as the industrial revolution rolled around and modernization occurred: flower arranging, art collecting, and decoration of tea houses. It was essentially a way to preserve the handmade, the thoughtful processes that go into making things with your very own hands. Tea bags became popular in the late 1800s - before then it was either tea cakes that were boiled, powders that were whisked, or leaves that were roasted and soaked. Eastern thought did not like the tea bags that were trendy in the West. Therefore, tea houses and ceremonies preparing tea the O.G. way flourished. A steel pot that was mass produced in a factory is perfect. One that a blacksmith has hammered will most likely have a few imperfections. It's a celebration and preservation of more simple means and lifestyle.

Over the recent years, yes. It has become a *style*. And by all means, people can live their lives around this style and incorporate it in fashion and furnishings. But most of these people don't quite know the history, which I feel is the most important part.

If you're really interested, The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo is the primary and best read about Wabi Sabi, even though you will read through the entire thing and barely even see the words Wabi Sabi. It was written in 1903 and is really a great read. Link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Tea-Stone-Bridge-Classics/dp/1933330171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250892402&sr=8-1

The Book of Tea is also available on the Gutenberg Project as an e-text at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/769 .

I've always been wabi-sabi. Finding a lost hubcab that is still shiny, and which has a lovely pattern like a sun spiral, and finding a corner in the garden where it can be an unexpected sun-sculpture. The cover and cup from an antique miner's lunchbox hung on the wall. Something that you look at and it makes you think about its history and also its design.

Yes, I'm late to the "tea" party here, but this lovely philosophy, notion, way of life (but definitely not a new style trend) is simple to understand if you read a little about it. As applied to objects, it is more a matter of recognizing beauty in every stage of life, where others may see old, or broken, or trash, even. An ancient notion also, it is increasingly relevant now, I think, because it embraces our environmental concerns in many ways.
Unfortunately, things will begin to be manufactured in a "wabi-sabi style" and ppl will buy them...completely missing the point. Many of the photos above, BTW, do not represent wabi-sabi....with all due respect to AT.