The Japanese room in our flat is finally complete. This room had the most thorough refurbishment, with a new floor (well, new tatami mats), completely redone walls, and a new ceiling. It was delayed because stripping the old wallpaper turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated.
The walls are white, but painted with a substance that mimics the look of Japanese paper, so that they are very slightly rough, and harmonise well with the other colours. The doors, both to the cupboard and to the living room, are covered in paper, with no borders on the cupboard doors. This was a deliberate plan to make the impression lighter and cleaner, because the wooden frame between the doors is still quite heavy, so a dark frame in addition would have been a bit too much.
Originally, the room had a light hanging from the middle of the ceiling, but that’s been replaced with two strip lights set along the wall, in a wooden setting, providing indirect lighting for the room. It’s still quite bright, but the light is gentler, and picks out the texture of the wall and the ceiling.
The ceiling was also changed, with a completely new ceiling put in. The surface is woven strips of cedar veneer, which looks and smells very nice. The whole impression of the room is very Japanese, and very calming. It’s going to be the guest room, so guests will be getting the nicest room in the flat. Of course, we plan to use it for other things when we don’t have guests; it will probably be where we eat, as well.
Room by room, the new flat is slowly getting sorted out.
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