Quotes of the Day

If you still haven't mastered the art of feng shui and don't know exactly where your red should be to bring you money, luck or love, never fear: wabi-sabi, the latest Asian-inspired design craze, is here to help. With its celebration of the imperfect, unpredictable and incomplete, wabi-sabi is a much more forgiving style than its predecessor.

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Wabi-sabi is a catchall term for a 16th century Japanese discipline that combines the notions of wabi (things that are simple or humble) and sabi (things that gain beauty from age). Artist and architect Leonard Koren introduced the term to Americans a decade ago with his extended essay, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers. But only recently have people begun to apply the term and philosophy to interior decorating. Several new books are leading the charge. Andrew Juniper's Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence and Taro Gold's Living Wabi Sabi: The True Beauty of Your Life explain how to apply the philosophy to life in general, while The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty, by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, helps you apply the principles of wabi-sabi to the place where you live.

Wabi-sabi in the home, according to Lawrence, is "flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather and loving use leave behind." Although at first glance it may seem a bit shabby chic, a style that cultivates a worn patina, it differs in attitude, asking that we "set aside our judgments and our longing for perfection" and concentrate instead on "the beauty of things as they are." It celebrates the tiny flaws that make everything—your mismatched kitchen chairs, a worn teapot or the coffee table the kids have battered—unique and individual. But while it embraces imperfection, wabi definitely does not mean sloppy. Like many other design philosophies, wabi-sabi emphasizes decluttering your environment. Lawrence recommends that you allow only three items on each surface and that you "just say no to refrigerator magnets."

Other ways to make your home more wabi-sabi:

• Whenever possible, choose handmade items over manufactured ones. Wabi-sabi encompasses admiration of the rustic and unique.

• Introduce asymmetry to your room. Symmetry or strong, harsh lines are a no-no in wabi-sabi because they represent perfection. Fluid lines reflect wabi-sabi's embrace of nature's unpredictability.

• Add some earthy reds, browns and greens to your décor. Autumnal colors best express wabi-sabi's celebration of nature. Choose naturally pigmented paints over chemically induced colors when possible.

• Welcome the old. With textiles, age and wear add valuable character. Faded (but clean and mended) fabrics bring wabi-sabi energy to any space.

• Lisa McLaughlin
• An Asian style that preaches beauty in imperfection