
4. A significant element to incorporate from the Japanese style is the Shoji wall or panel.
A shoji screen is a translucent folding or sliding screen usually used as a divider or partition to offer privacy and still provide light through the room. It is typically made of a wood frame covered with paper, wicker, or a piece of thin fabric. More ornate ones may have artwork of blossoms or bamboo covering the panels, though that is not the standard style. More Westernized shoji screens would be considered room dividers, though shoji screens are typically placed on tracks and slides.

Shoji acts like curtains and offers visual privacy but does not block sounds, encouraging a home’s inhabitants to speak and move softly, calmly, and gracefully out of consideration for the other inhabitants. If you are considering a Japandi style, you most likely do not have ready-made Shoji screens, but you can buy them almost anywhere online these days. Though they may not be entirely authentic, consider yourself lucky – original shoji were the exterior walls too, which meant no central cooling and heating!