A dark timber room lit by a hanging paper lantern, its doors open onto a sunlit garden

Japanese interiors, made of wood and paper light.

Kigumi designs homes in the Japanese way: rooms of timber, shoji and tatami that change with the light. We plan, draw and build the whole interior, from the first sketch to the last sliding door.

Walk through a homePlan your home

Living, the engawa idea

A living room that opens onto the garden.

The engawa is the wooden veranda between house and garden. We design living rooms on the same idea: deep timber floors, full-width sliding screens, and a sill low enough to sit on.

Open the screens in summer and the room is outside; close them in winter and the light turns soft and warm.

A corner of a tatami room with shoji windows opening onto green trees
The garden house, living room

Rooms, inside the house

Three things clients ask us for most.

A long wooden hallway lined with shoji screens and garden windows

Shoji and sliding walls

Screens that divide a room by day and open it at night. Made to measure in hinoki, with real washi.

A tatami room in warm lamplight with shoji windows along the wall

A tatami room

One quiet room for tea, guests or sleep. We size it in mats, so the proportions feel right.

A dim corridor with lattice windows and a hanging paper lantern

Light through paper

Low lanterns and screened windows instead of ceiling glare. We plan the light before the furniture.

The garden house: hallway, tatami room, lantern corridor

Featured project, the garden house

A house planned around one garden.

Every room in this house turns toward the same garden. We kept the old timber, lowered the light and framed each view, so the garden sets the mood of each room through the day.

Green trees framed by a wide window in a dark timber room with shoji above
Main room, the framed garden
A long dining table under a paper lantern beside garden windows
Dining room
A wooden desk and chair by a window onto the garden
Study
A bath room with wooden tubs under a hanging lamp
Bath

How we work, the joinery

Joined, not nailed. Designed the same way.

Our name means wood joinery: timber cut so precisely that it holds without nails. We design a home like that, every room fitted to the next.

  1. Visit and listen

    We walk your home or plot, watch the light through the day and hear how you live.

  2. Plan and draw

    Floor plans in tatami proportions, then drawings of every wall, screen and lamp.

  3. Choose the materials

    You hold the wood, washi and tatami samples in your hands before anything is made.

  4. Build and fit

    Our joiners make and install every screen and cabinet, then we light the rooms.

Sunlight through open glass doors into a dark room of the same house

Let's plan your home.

Send your floor plan, a few photos of the space and how you want to live in it. We reply within a week with first ideas and a design fee.

studio@kigumi.example

Studio visits by appointment.