Japandi Lighting: What Japanese and Scandinavian Design Both Know About Light

Japandi is usually described as a look: pale timber, linen, low furniture, a palette of clay and stone. Its lighting has a longer history than the name, and the two traditions it blends were already meeting over light long before anyone combined them into a style.

Around 1900, the Danish architect and engineer Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint folded a lampshade from paper for a stoneware petroleum lamp. According to Le Klint, the company his son later founded, Jensen-Klint developed the cross-pleating technique behind its shades inspired by Japanese origami. In 1926, the Danish designer Poul Henningsen developed the three-shade system that became the PH lamp, built around one idea: light without glare. And in 1951, the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi visited Gifu, a city with a long tradition of paper lanterns, and began the Akari light sculptures, made of washi paper on bamboo ribs.

Three designers, two traditions, one shared conclusion. Light should be soft, its source should be hidden, and some of the best ways to achieve both are paper, shape and restraint. That is the real substance of Japandi lighting, and it is worth understanding before choosing a single fitting.

Paper: The Oldest Diffuser

A bare lamp is a small, extremely bright point, and that concentrated brightness is what makes it uncomfortable to look at. Wrap the same lamp in paper and much of the light still comes through, but spread across a far larger glowing surface. No single point is harsh, so the eye can rest on it.

Noguchi built Akari around exactly this. Ozeki, the Gifu workshop that makes Akari, describes the design as drawing on the quality of washi paper that softly diffuses light, with the paper's natural shrinkage and wrinkles kept on purpose. Noguchi himself compared Akari's light to sunlight filtered through the paper of shoji screens. He chose the name because akari means light as illumination, and also suggests lightness as opposed to weight. Since 1951, more than 100 Akari designs have been released.

Le Klint's pleated shades do the same thing in Danish form: a folded sheet that glows rather than glares.

Never Show the Bulb

Poul Henningsen (1894 to 1967) approached the same problem from another direction. Rather than wrapping the source in a translucent material, he shielded it with shaped, reflective shades. His Paris Lamp, developed with Louis Poulsen, won a gold medal at the 1925 Paris exhibition, and in 1926 he developed the three-shade system behind the PH lamp, with curves based on a logarithmic spiral. Louis Poulsen still describes the result as "functional yet completely glare-free light."

His working rule was simple: the bulb should disappear from view from every normal sitting or standing position. The shades then catch the light and send it back into the room from larger, dimmer surfaces.

Noguchi diffuses the source; Henningsen hides and redirects it. The methods differ, but the rule is the same, and it is the most useful test in this article. From every place someone sits or stands in the room, can they see a bare lamp? If they can, the lighting is not finished.

Shadow Is Part of the Design

In 1933, the Japanese novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki published In Praise of Shadows (In'ei Raisan), an essay that set the shadowed interiors of traditional Japanese buildings against the brightness of the modern West. He admired the way traditional materials absorb light rather than reflect it, and the way objects such as lacquerware come alive by candlelight.

That idea is the half of Japandi lighting that most often goes missing. A Japandi room is built from materials that reward low light: matt plaster, oiled timber, linen, unglazed clay. Light them softly, from low and from the side, leave some of the room in shadow, and those textures carry the atmosphere. Light everything evenly from the ceiling, and they flatten into a showroom.

Lighting a Japandi Room

What follows is design practice, drawing on these traditions rather than on any rule.

Start with one glowing shade. A paper, pleated or linen pendant over a dining table, or a large paper floor lamp in a corner, often anchors the room. Let it be the one sculptural piece rather than one of many. Our dining room lighting guide covers hanging a pendant over a table.

Hide every other source. Choose shades that cover the lamp from seated and standing positions. Where you need concealed light, set LED strips behind timber slats, inside alcoves or along shelves, so the light is seen only on the surfaces it touches. Our guides to LED strip lighting and cove lighting cover the details.

Light low. Floor and table lamps, a soft wash at the base of a plaster wall and a glow beneath a floating bench keep the light near the furniture, where life in the room happens.

Keep it warm and consistent. Warm white, often 2700K or warmer, suits a palette of timber, linen and clay. Keep the colour temperature consistent across everything seen together, as our guide to colour temperature explains.

Favour matt surfaces. Glossy surfaces mirror every lamp back at you. Matt plaster, timber and linen soften the light further.

Use fewer fittings. A few well-chosen sources do more for a Japandi room than a grid of downlights. Our guide to living room lighting covers layering a scheme.

Dim it. The same room needs more light for reading than for a quiet evening. Our guide to dimming and lighting controls explains how to avoid flicker at low levels.

Paper and Heat: A Practical Note

Paper lights deserve a moment of care. Use only the lamp type and maximum wattage marked on the fitting, keep paper shades clear of heaters, fires and candles, and choose fittings made and sold as light fittings rather than decorative lanterns adapted at home. LED lamps run much cooler than the incandescent lamps paper lanterns were first used with, which makes paper lighting easier to live with today, but the fitting's own rating still applies. Fixed wiring for a pendant is work for a qualified electrician.

Checklist

The source

• No bare lamp visible from any normal sitting or standing position
• Shades chosen to diffuse light through paper or fabric, or to shield and redirect it
• Concealed light placed so only the lit surface is seen

The room

• One glowing shade as the anchor, rather than several competing pieces
• Most light kept low, near the furniture
• Some areas left in soft shadow
• Matt, textured surfaces lit softly from low or from the side

Light quality

• Warm white, consistent across everything seen together
• Dimming available, and checked for flicker at low levels

Safety

• Lamp type and wattage within the rating marked on each paper fitting
• Paper shades kept clear of heaters, fires and candles
• Fixed wiring installed by a qualified electrician

Five Mistakes

1. Seeing the bulb. If a bare lamp is visible from where people sit or stand, the room has failed Henningsen's test.
2. Lighting from a ceiling grid. Even downlighting flattens the timber, plaster and clay that make the style.
3. Lighting every corner. Without some shadow, the textures lose their depth.
4. Too many sculptural lights. One glowing shade anchors a room; four compete with each other.
5. Treating paper as decoration. A paper lantern is still a light fitting, with a lamp rating that has to be respected.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Japandi lighting? It is lighting for the Japandi style, which blends Japanese and Scandinavian design. In practice it means soft, diffused light from paper, pleated or fabric shades, sources hidden from view, warm colour, light kept low, and some of the room left in shadow. Its roots run back through designs such as Isamu Noguchi's Akari lanterns, Poul Henningsen's glare-free PH lamp and Le Klint's pleated paper shades.

What colour temperature suits a Japandi room? Warm white, often 2700K or warmer, suits the style's timber, linen and clay palette and the low, evening character of its lighting. More important than the exact figure is consistency: keep the colour temperature the same across everything seen together, so the room reads as one calm space.

Are paper lamps safe? Paper lamps made and sold as light fittings are designed for the job, provided you use the lamp type and maximum wattage marked on the fitting. Keep paper shades clear of heaters, fires and candles. LED lamps run much cooler than the incandescent lamps paper lanterns were originally used with, but the fitting's rating still applies, and any fixed wiring should be installed by a qualified electrician.

What is the difference between Japanese and Scandinavian lighting? In the designs this article looks at, the Japanese approach diffuses light through translucent paper, as in Noguchi's Akari, while Henningsen's Scandinavian approach shields the bulb and reflects light off shaped shades. Le Klint's pleated paper shades, whose pleating technique was inspired by Japanese origami, sit between the two. Both aim for the same result: soft light with no visible glare.

What lights work in a Japandi living room? Typically one glowing paper or fabric shade as the anchor, such as a pendant or a large floor lamp, supported by table lamps and a little concealed light behind timber slats or in alcoves. Keep most of the light low, warm and dimmable, and choose shades that hide the lamp from wherever people sit.

Do I need ceiling lights in a Japandi room? Not necessarily as the main light. Many Japandi rooms rely on a single pendant over a table, lamps and concealed light rather than a grid of downlights. The room still needs enough light for tasks and for moving around safely, so plan a brighter setting for those moments and a lower one for evenings.

Why do paper lamps look so good? Because they turn a small, harsh point of light into a large, soft glow. Much of the light still passes through the paper, but spread across a far bigger surface, so nothing in view is uncomfortably bright. The paper also shows its own texture when lit, which suits the natural materials of a Japandi room.

Notice

This article is published by Archlior for general information and educational purposes. It is written for architects, interior designers and homeowners as a perspective on lighting in the Japandi style.

It is not professional lighting design advice, electrical advice, or a statement of compliance for any project.

Design history is summarised from museum, manufacturer and published sources. Products and designers are mentioned for their place in that history, not as recommendations. The sections on lighting a Japandi room describe design practice, not rules.

Use paper and fabric light fittings only with the lamp type and maximum wattage marked on them, and keep them clear of other heat sources. All fixed electrical work must be carried out by a suitably qualified electrician working to the regulations in force locally.

Archlior accepts no liability for any loss, cost or damage arising from reliance on the information in this article. Readers act on it at their own discretion.

Last reviewed: October 2026.

Sources and further reading

• Ozeki. AKARI: the origin of Akari in 1951, its washi and bamboo construction, and the meaning of the name.
• Dezeen. Isamu Noguchi's sculptural Akari lamps are "poetic, ephemeral, and tentative": Noguchi's 1951 visit to Gifu, his comparison of Akari to light through shoji, and the size of the series.
• Louis Poulsen. Poul Henningsen: the 1926 three-shade system and its glare-free principle.
• Scandinavian Design. Poul Henningsen: A Hundred Years of Searching for Harmony in Light: the Paris Lamp of 1925 and Henningsen's rule that the bulb should disappear from view.
• Le Klint. Our history: P.V. Jensen-Klint's first pleated paper shade, the cross-pleating technique inspired by Japanese origami, and the founding of Le Klint in 1943.
• Tanizaki, J. In Praise of Shadows (1933). English translation by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker (Leete's Island Books, 1977).