Japandi Lighting

The range is not only pendants, which is worth knowing before you scroll. Most of the fixtures here are pendants, followed by wall lights and sconces, ceiling lights and flush fittings, and a few table lamps. Japandi suits a wall light better than most styles do, because a paper or fabric sconce washes a wall without putting a bright object at eye level — useful in the hallway or beside a bed where a pendant would be in the way. The Japandi sconces have their own page.

The material does most of the work here, so the fixtures reward restraint everywhere else. Wood, paper and stone all read warm, and they want a warm bulb behind them — cool white turns paper grey and makes wood look like laminate. Keep the count low too. A Japandi room is usually one considered pendant and a lamp, not four sources competing.

Paper and fabric shades diffuse, so the light arrives soft and the shade itself glows; wood and travertine block instead, and throw the light up and down rather than sideways. That difference decides where a fixture belongs more than the shape does. A paper or silk pendant is the safer choice over a dining table where people face each other; a travertine or ceramic piece is better in a hallway or over a counter, where a hard pool of light is what you want. When a table needs more than one pendant can give, a contemporary modern chandelier in ceramic, such as the leaf-form Vital Bloom, keeps the same restraint at a bigger scale. Several of these are travertine, which sits in the same wabi-sabi family and is covered in what travertine lighting is.

Read the full japandi lighting guide, or get the bulb temperature right first. Neighbouring looks: nordic, organic and wabi-sabi, and minimalist. Delivery is 6-9 business days.