House Walkthrough 8 - The Japanese Room

In the North East corner of the upstairs space we will have a 和室 (washitsu) or Japanese room, the floor of which will be made of traditional Japanese reed mats called 畳　(tatami). These rooms are typically used for celebratory meals or as an additional sleeping space for guests. Houses that have a family shrine often place it in this room, although I don’t think we will be getting one ourselves.

Location of the room in the top north east corner of the house

We want to keep this room as simple as possible so have opted not to include much in the way of shelving, save for a low lying runner unit on the north wall. Along the east wall will be some low (frosted?) windows bringing in some natural light.

Low windows at the bottom of the east wall

We have had to make two relatively big decisions with this room and both were quite difficult. Firstly, we were asked whether we wanted the floor to be flush with the living room without a step up onto the tatami. This was our first preference. However, what we discovered was that by raising the floor of the Japanese room, we could install long drawers which slide out, into which we could put all the futons and bedding for when the room is used for sleeping. We decided that not having to include large cupboards for this stuff would give us a larger and simpler space and so we decided that the trade-off was definitely worth it.

The second decision was whether or not to leave the space open or to put in some sliding doors to separate the space from the living room. This time, it was a financial consideration as these doors were not exactly going to be cheap. That said, if we were to decide to have doors, there were various options to choose from, falling into two main categories.

The first are called shoji which you may have seen in pictures or films. They are basically a light wood frame and the “door panel” is made of waxy paper. They are beautiful but bad at keeping out unwanted light, poor at keeping heat in and prone to getting broken by kids and drunk adults. They are also quite expensive. The second are called fusuma and are heavier and more hard-wearing and better at keeping light out as they are more opaque. They are also a little cheaper but, I think, less beautiful than shoji. (More info about them both here https://simplicable.com/new/fusuma-vs-shoji)

Doors separating the space from the living room

Again, we flip-flopped between the two different kinds of doors and also having no separation at all. Eventually we concluded that being able to close off the space was valuable but not to the extent that we would splash out of the shoji. We have therefore compromised and chosen fusuma. If the budget starts to get away from us, we can always change our minds again.

That’s it for this entry. The final entry of the walkthrough will be the balcony and roof terrace. Stay tuned!