How Shinobi Houses Inspired our Modern Jap Home's Tidy, Minimal Look

242

Japandi
HDB (BTO)
~700 sqft
2 br
Couple Living

よ！ Welcome to the floor. If you've been following our posts, you'll definitely know a thing or two about what the house looks like. Today, we'll be showing you guys how we keep things minimal and tidy whilst having all our lifestyle necessities and storage spaces hidden in plain sight. Hitotema.home is a Modern Japanese (not japandi) cozy 3 room BTO, designed to bring traditional elements of Japanese houses into the modern era. First, let's show you the most known feature of our living room. You might notice the tiny gap the wood flooring.
With the push of a button, that's how we transform our almost bare washitsu (living area) into a dining room for 6-8 people. With tiny houses nowadays, space optimisation is key. Having a bare living room allows us to have an unobstructed space to chill with friends, watch movies, jam, lie down, or play fetch with our dog. At the same time, with a floor-rising table, it's so easy to have a large dining table, and by extension, a large dining room in a way, without needing to choose how the already small floor space needs to be divided for both purposes. If I might offer you guys some early advice, being minimalist doesn't mean living on bare essentials, neither is it a philosophy about "spark joy" or being overly intentional about the things you have and own. Minimalism just requires intensive planning, and being honest and creative about creating the spaces that house the many things you'll eventually have, and, the ability to use them easily whilst keeping them out of sight when not in use.
For instance, this is the view of our shoji window. For more info on that post, check out our previous posts or use this link: - Our Living Room: Multi-Functional, Modern Japanese Versatility https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/65fef437f6bf32641fc34f75 On the edges of the window are cabinets, left and right. These cabinets house essential items for the use of the washitsu, such as electronics, zabuton, even blankets and other miscellaneous stuff. Lemme show you more.
This cabinet on the right side houses our Dyson Submarine. The cabinet dimensions were pre-planned in order to fit the dock and all its accessories, including electricals required to charge the device. You wouldn't think something like this would be in the living room, but that's intentional. It's well hidden, but yet, so easy to reach at and use.
If you've read the previous post on the living room, you'll also know we chose not to have a TV. What we didn't show in that post was how we hid the projector screen under a pelmet that seamlessly blends in with the shoji, hiding the "tech" underneath the "traditional". The screen is also remotely raised and lowered.
Similarly, the projector and all other devices like a Nintendo switch dock, Apple TV and so on are all concealed under the platform. Everything was calculated so meticulously to ensure that when the cabinet is pulled out, the projector matches the screen size, and everything can slide in and out seamlessly without fuss. Notice the mess? Aha, we haven't gotten around to tidying up the cables. But then again, if I didn't open this drawer, would you have known a movie night sesh on a 100" screen is possible? Beside the electronics, there's two other drawers adjacent that we use to store all kinds of stuff too.
Swinging around, the main entrance features wooden walls on the left and right, bare and flush. Yet, 80% of those wooden panels are doors. The largest of them all conceals the bomb shelter. If you wanna know more about our entryway, check out this post: Entryway: Putting the "Ta-da" in "Tadaima" with Mod-Trad Japan Vibes https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/66376c8fb034d1c94708885c
On the other side, two doors form the shoe cabinet, and another 2 doors conceal the DB and add extra shelf space for random things.
Now, to the kitchen. For more on the kitchen, check out this post: A Chef's Kitchen: Stainless Steel & Japanese Monotonal Design https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/66125527f6bf3220ddc4b941 We have a little trick up our sleeve, could you guess what it is?
Ta-daaaa. A stainless steel niche that houses our chest freezer. Nice and concealed (because chest freezers are white and unsightly), and the lid also doubles as a worktop. Also, mesh doors to allow for airflow.
Ah, and this too. A niche for our large dustbin. It runs off tic-tac doors, so there's no handle or finger grooves on the door panel that'll even let you know that's a storage space.
Now, on to the bedroom! Two things I'd wanna show you today. If you haven't seen the bedroom post, here: Our Bedroom: Zen from a Modern Japanese Perspective https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/65f59ecf8ee13c73fdb2746d
First things first - a sunken in pocket acting as a bedside table to hide switches, keeping cables out of sight, and yet still easy to reach and clean. At eye level, you won't notice even if there was clutter within these pockets. Also, if your phone alarm rings and you don't wake up, you don't need to worry about it vibrating off a bedside table onto the floor.
Also, more storage for duvets, quilts and fitted sheets at the head of the bed! We planned these to be long, deep storage spaces because we had thought of its function very early on.
Down to the walk-in wardrobes, it's a clean, minimal layout. Naturally, where the sink is, you'd wanna have your important devices for hair care like blow-dryers, straighteners and what not.
Yet, it's not hidden, but rather hidden in plain sight, these side-facing shelves allow for sockets and all these devices to be at arm's reach yet out of mind when not in use.
Lastly, not much going on in the study, but I'll just show you this. If you haven't seen the post, here: An Essential Study in 4m² https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/6623f6f8e579c35eda03ca91
Undertable storage! I mean....if you're going to cable manage, you're probably going to get a cable management tray. In a way, this is an extension of that idea, but doubling as storage too, allowing you to hide sockets within, monitor clamps, spare keyboards, and the router could also go underneath rather than take up space on a shelf at eye level.
That's it! Just remember, being honest about your lifestyle, careful planning and being intentional about your storage solution is the key to a minimal look! Follow us on instagram @hitotema.home and check out our other posts on Hipvan!