Jennifer Garner's Japandi-style kitchen teaches us to prioritize simplicity and embrace imperfections

Japandi – a trend combining Scandinavian elegance with traditional Japanese wabi-sabi (centered on accepting transience and imperfection) is no new phenomenon. However, Jennifer Garner is here to remind us why it will continue to influence how we decorate for a long time ahead. 

The actress, known for The Last Thing He Told Me, showed followers inside her neutral kitchen, exhibiting tall wood kitchen cabinets, wooden flooring, and marble countertops, all of which tap into the soothing Japandi aesthetic. 

It's hard to deny that Japandi-style kitchens (and traditional Scandinavian kitchens) are beautiful and versatile enough to transcend more fleeting design trends, but, as experts explain, this style has a positive impact on our well-being, too. 

'Japanese kitchens often spawn from a deeper ideology than we're used to in the West, and Japandi is no different,' comments Cassie Jones, the brand manager at Masterclass Kitchens. '

Wabi teaches the importance of finding satisfaction in austerity and promotes the idea of simplifying your possessions to bring you closer to nature.' 

Cassie explains that wabi-sabi experts often use tea ceremonies to illustrate this ideology, explaining that tea requires minimal materialism and is ideal for bonding over life's simple pleasures – and this ideology stands in organic kitchens too. 

'It helps you to reflect, focus, and practice servitude over material perfectionism. As the Japanese proverb goes: If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.'

Kitchen expert

Kitchen expert

Cassie Jones

Cassie Jones is an expert from Masterclass Kitchens, a UK-based manufacturer known for their design-led innovative kitchens and infinite choice of beautiful, highly functional furniture. Cassie and her team pride themselves on their attention to detail and passion, enabling them to create a quintessential range of kitchens with an enduring appeal. 

As mentioned, incorporating earthy wooden tones (especially in abundance like Jennifer Garner's) is one of the most impactful ways to get the Japandi look. However, we don't need to undergo a whole renovation to follow in her lead. Instead, there are other methods that are refreshingly simple. 

'Practicing sabi means appreciating aging. In terms of your kitchen, that doesn't mean letting it deteriorate – it means making design choices that help you appreciate it at every stage in its lifecycle,' Cassie comments. For example, we can look at installing hardwood cabinet drawers that can withstand years of usage or style our kitchen shelving so our pieces are asymmetrical. 

'Japanese philosophy is all about impermanence, accepting that life is always in its final form and is, therefore, perfectly imperfect in every moment. Japandi homes display asymmetry to reflect this fact and remind owners to appreciate the now.'

Whether we decorate with an abundance of wood or incorporate Japandi in subtler ways, we will surely only thank ourselves for getting behind this beautiful (and beneficial) design trend. 

Plus, for more ways to follow Jennifer's style, we noted this KitchenAid mixer atop her countertops. She has this model, available via Amazon below.