Our Living Room: Multi-Functional, Modern Japanese Versatility

330

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

よ！ Welcome to the living room. Once you've taken off your shoes, your eyes are met with the shoji, diffusing daylight so softly like it's summer in Kyoto. Except it's always summer here, and it's definitely not Kyoto. Hitotema.home is a Modern Japanese (not japandi) cozy 3 room BTO, designed to bring traditional elements of Japanese houses into the modern era.
If you've been to a traditional Japanese home, you'll know that feeling of openness and minimalism of the washitsu (和室). Modernising the washitsu meant doing away with tatami. Tatami is expensive and extremely hard to upkeep. These challenges grow especially if you have a pet, or kids. Moreover, tatami comes in specific sizes (rooms in Japan are still communicated in Jo 帖, a unit of measurement of tatami mats) and unfortunately, living in Singapore means rooms aren't standard tatami sized. So, we opted for hardwood flooring just like the modern apartments in Japan. Yet, the function of the washitsu remains the same.
A washitsu is a room with many purposes - a family room, entertainment room, dining room, or even a guest room. Given the tiny size of flats today, the principles of a washitsu have helped us to be able to achieve many lifestyle goals in this small space. For starters, this space remains obstruction free. There's no sofas or dining tables in the way, everything's tucked away discreetly (like a shinobi, lol). As a result. the living room feels airy and spacious, inviting you to walk about freely with no designated paths to take. You could spin in circles unencumbered if you like. This open space is perfect for several things. First, our dog has wide open area to roam in the day, or release the zoomies when one of us comes home to play.
Also, we can entertain a number of guests unrestricted by furniture. Don't you know that feeling when you go to a party at someone's house and the sofa's full, the chairs in the dining table are all occupied and you ask yourself - now what do I do with myself? That problem doesn't exist at hitotema.home, as we've got zabutons and zaisu to sit on. Otherwise, the ledges are perfect to hang out at too. Lastly, an open space like this means we don't need specific rooms for specific tasks. This multi-functional space can accommodate it all. Nintendo Switch Sports with your mates? Yep. Yoga or calisthenics? Check. Karaoke party? OK. Some soul-searching acoustic guitar jam sesh over drinks? You get the picture.
So, if your flat is that tiny, where's the dining table at? Ha. Ninja furniture, remember? Also, it means you haven't viewed our post about the dining area. So go and read that here: https://www.hipvan.com/ideas/65ec28c18ee13c0e99eeb638 But maybe, finish this article first. Let's continue.
Keeping a living room that's so "wabi-sabi" (we still don't get what wabi-sabi design really is) organised and tidy is a challenge. Having the discipline to stay intentionally organised is key to any home. Also, be warned that the more organised you wanna get, the more costs you'll stack up, whether it's storage boxes, or trays, it's small money but it does add up. Anyway, for all our most reached-at items, they're all stored together in this woven basket. The more devices you have, the more controllers add up, and you'll find them all in here. This, along with tissues, coasters and, if you feel like it, an occassional packet of candies or a tub of McDonald's curry sauce for emergencies. For bulkier items like our zabutons, or other electrical devices, they're stored away within the carpentry in drawers or cabinets.
Yeah, something like this. On the borders of our shoji are shelved storage spaces built to house bulky equipment. On the left side for instance, we've got our vacuum cleaner hidden neatly away from sight, but yet easily accessible. We wanna stress this to you guys - design your house around the appliances you have, or intend to purchase. It's often an afterthought by new home owners. Thinking about these things in advance gives you opportunities to plan how your storage of these items affects your convenience to use them. Things like a roomba, or a cordless vacuum, or even a feather duster should be hidden, yet at an arm's reach to use instantly. You won't want to find yourself at a loss later on when you realise you only have inconvenient places to put these things. Like the bomb shelter (and that annoyingly heavy door), or in the kitchen, exposed.
"Wait, a living room with no TV?" "Yeah, no TV. So what?" One thing we insisted on as part of our design was not to have a TV or any traditional TV console. First, if you've been to a traditional ryokan, a TV isn't the first thing you see in the washitsu. Secondly, we wanted to ensure that social spaces with friends or family remain social. That means, talking, laughing, bonding. Not everyone eating takeaway dinners glued to Netflix. Lastly, TVs...look fantastic when they're on, but turned off, they're just glorified black mirror boxes. Yes, we're aware of modern frame TVs and how they blend in and become picture frames while in standby. We're cool with that, and most interior designers suggested that to us, but they consume electricity on standby and they're still TVs, which carry the temptation of easily turning them on and having Netflix dinners. We've another trick up our sleeve. With very meticulous calculations and the fantastic work of our designers, when desired, a drawer below the platform slides open, revealing our modern entertainment devices.
And with a press of a button here....
The living room transforms into our movie room. In that drawer, we've got a 4K UST Projector, projecting a screen size of 100" against a grey screen. This whole setup really required careful calculations on our part to work, and we're glad the math be mathin'. Our projector is connected to a soundbar and subwoofer set which sits at the shoji. Our designers did custom cut-outs to allow the cables to run neatly across from the drawer to the shoji area. This brings us back to our ethos: If it's socialising with, we want to have that opportunity to socialise well. If it's movie night with the missus, or close friends, let's really enjoy the evening together with a lovely immersive experience. Selfishly, we only have 2 of those plush recliners, but the living room can fit 6-8 comfortably for a good movie, Nintendo Switch party or a karaoke sing-a-long sesh. Also, we just started on Shogun, probably a little late to the club. No spoilers for us please!
Stay tuned for our next post!