Washi Papers as Home Decor

Turn to paper to affordably add fall colors to your home. Washi (Wa = Japanese, Shi = Paper) is traditional Japanese paper made of fibers from the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub, mulberry, bamboo, hemp, rice, or wheat...

We saw these lamps by Eriko Horiki for Kozai Designs and realized that washi papers are a great way to add natural color and texture to the home. We have a piece of plywood covered with layers of the translucent paper and finished with was hanging on our wall like a painting. And it's one of our favorite pieces of art in our home.

We wonder if lamps similar to Horiki's could be DIY'd in a paper mache fashion. Anyone else experiment with paper in home decor?

Comments (5)

Stunning! But I always worry about paper lamps being a fire hazzard. I think I got it (it being my propensity to worry about safety in interiors) from my Building Codes teacher at The New York School of Interior Design back in the day!

Great idea...I've always wondered about finding Washi goods.

But please quit linking to Kozai...I'm saving my pennies for the Sen Table lamp and I'm worried it will be sold out by the time I save enough to get it (I found out about it here from a post last Summer).

I'd imagine that a CFL wouldn't produce too much heat for a paper lamp...

I work at a design store that carries Washi-style work by a local artist by the name of William Leslie (using only paper, wood, and glue) and he uses standard 60 watt bulbs. Just to be on the safe side, we use incandescent bulbs, which surprisingly manage to cast a warm glow through the paper.

Washi is what makes shoji screens so beautiful. In the traditional shoji, the washi is mounted in individual rectangles to fit the sections in the frames. The washi darkens as it ages, and the sections of shoji are sometimes damaged and need to be replaced, so eventually a shoji screen will have lovely, soft variations throughout its washi.