Custom Paintings for Japanese & Japandi Homes

Japanese & Japandi Paintings Options

Japanese interiors are built around ma, the empty space between things. One object on a wide wall, looked at closely, often for years. A print is an even film of ink on a flat sheet, and under the soft sideways light of a paper screen nothing catches. A hand-painted canvas has ridges and small changes in thickness, so the surface shifts through the day.

We paint in acrylic unless you ask for oil. Acrylic dries matte and stays matte, which suits a room of wood, paper and linen. Oil is available on request, and because it dries slowly between layers, oil pieces take longer. If you are curious how the layers go on before that choice matters, how we paint shows the steps.

The motifs we paint, and where each belongs

An honest map. Our catalog is deepest in wabi-sabi, minimalist and textured work, which is why those pieces are shown here. Wave, Fuji, sakura, crane, koi and brush-stroke pieces are painted as commissions from a reference we agree first.

Waves and Mount Fuji

A reproduction of a Hokusai or Hiroshige print, or a new composition inspired by ukiyo-e in your colors. Best on the widest wall.

Sakura

Cherry blossom in heavy texture, petals standing off the canvas. Pale reads calm in a bedroom, pink becomes the one bright thing in a neutral room.

Cranes and koi

Both suit a dining room, entry or hallway. Cranes carry an association with long life and are a common new-home gift, better in a shared room than a workspace.

Enso and brush strokes

One circle, or a few sumi-style strokes, on a mostly empty canvas. Good for a meditation room, a yoga studio or a bedroom.

Wabi-sabi texture

Torn shapes, plaster-like ridges and worn edges in beige, warm gray, off-white and ink black. Our strongest catalog area, and the easiest match for a Japandi room.

Quiet seascape

Deep water, foam and open sky in teal and white. A long horizontal is the safest choice above a low sofa, because it copies the shape of the furniture.

We do not paint rising-sun flag imagery, and we do not treat Buddhist statues or altar objects as decoration. Enso and brush strokes we paint as brushwork on canvas, not as religious objects. If you want true sumi ink on paper by a trained calligrapher, we are not the studio for it.

Japanese & Japandi Paintings References & Permissions

Copyright matters to us, so we paint only work in the public domain. Confirm the applicable requirements for your reference or destination before ordering.

Identify any Japanese print, artist’s work or calligraphy reference and its source. For text, provide verified characters and placement; distinguish a canvas interpretation from an original traditional work. Related guidance: Hokusai.

Identify any Japanese print, artist’s work or calligraphy reference and its source. For text, provide verified characters and placement; distinguish a canvas interpretation from an original traditional work.

Japanese & Japandi Paintings Sizes & Placement

Japanese and Japandi furniture sits low, so the wall above it is wide and short. A tall vertical canvas fights that shape. A long horizontal one agrees with it.

A useful starting point: make the painting about 60 to 70 percent of the width of the sofa or bed below it, and leave 6 to 10 inches of wall between the furniture and the canvas. Above a low platform bed you can hang lower than in a Western room.

Any size outside our 60 standard sizes is painted to your measurements at the same rate, so if your wall wants 66 by 22 inches, that is what we paint. Single canvases larger than 80 by 60 inches, up to 5 meters (about 16 feet), are quoted case by case. For a very long, very narrow canvas, send the numbers first: we will confirm how the stretcher can be built, or suggest two or three panels.

Indigo, sumi black, sage and warm gray

The palettes that sit well in these rooms are narrow: indigo, ink black, sage and olive, warm gray, unbleached white, and one earth tone such as clay. Most of our wabi-sabi and minimalist pieces already sit inside that range.

You do not have to accept the colors as painted. We can recolor any catalog design, for example pushing a beige and terracotta wabi-sabi piece toward warm gray and indigo. We can also match a paint code or fabric sample: we mix the color, photograph it under daylight and send you that photo for approval before we paint.

Sushi restaurants, izakaya, ryokan-style hotels and spas

Mixed designs count together as one order. A restaurant that wants one wave piece, two sakura panels and five small textured pieces is buying eight pieces, so it all sits on one rate. Trade pricing starts at one piece, improves at 6 and again at 21.

Plan backwards from your opening date. Production is 10 to 15 business days for 6 to 20 pieces and 15 to 20 for 21 to 50. Pieces 36 by 48 inches and larger, heavy texture and multi-panel sets sit at the top of their band, because thick paint has to dry.

Rolled canvas is the cheapest way to ship above about 20 pieces, and a local framer can stretch or frame near your site. Heavy texture is the exception: rolling thick impasto is not recommended, so those pieces ship stretched or framed. Freight is quoted separately at cost with no markup. More on our hotel page. If the delivery address sits in Japan or anywhere else in Asia, our Asia shipping page covers how those orders travel.

Renting, or a wall you cannot drill

Many apartments in Japan, and city rentals elsewhere, do not allow a hole in the wall. Rolled canvas solves most of that. We ship the painting in a tube and a local framer stretches or frames it, keeping it light enough for picture rail, a wall-safe strip or a slim shelf.

Leaning also works, and it looks deliberate in these rooms. A framed canvas resting on the floor, or a small piece propped on a low cabinet, needs no fixings. If you need a smaller parcel than a standard tube, ask us before you order.

Your References for Japanese & Japandi Paintings

The catalog is a starting point, not a limit. Send the image and we paint it by hand at your size.

On commissions we send progress photos while the piece is being painted, so you can redirect us early.

Your Japanese & Japandi Paintings Commission Step by Step

1. Send the details Sizes, motif, finish and quantity, through the quote form. One piece or fifty.
2. We reply WhatsApp replies are usually immediate; email replies usually arrive within 12 hours.
3. Painting Progress photos on commissions. Payment is usually 50 percent deposit, balance before release.
4. Approval photos We photograph every finished canvas. Nothing leaves the studio until you approve.

Popular starting points

• You want a painted surface, not a print, in a mostly empty room.
• Your wall needs a size nobody stocks.
• You are fitting out a restaurant, spa or small hotel.

Let’s discuss the details

• A date to work toward. Send the required arrival date and destination. We will check rush availability, production, drying and delivery before confirming what is possible.
• An artwork, photograph or branded reference. Share the source, intended use and any permission you have. We can discuss reproduction, adaptation or another approach before confirming the brief.
• You want true sumi ink on washi paper by a trained calligrapher.

Japanese & Japandi Paintings Sizes & Quote Planning

Japanese & Japandi Paintings Questions Answered