Japandi Living Room: Low Sideboards with Sliding Doors & Matt Black Handles

December 17, 2025

A Japandi living room combines Scandinavian functionality with Japanese minimalism, where low sideboards with sliding doors serve as a focal point for visual calm and hidden storage.

The modern living area demands clean lines and an uncluttered structure. A floor-to-ceiling, traditional living room cabinet often acts like a visual concrete wall in small rooms, absorbing light and visually shrinking the space. The Japandi style solves this issue by systematically bringing furniture closer to the floor. By using low furniture pieces, more free wall space remains, which visually extends ceiling height. The focus lies on natural materials, muted colours such as beige, grey, or white, and functional fittings that ensure smooth daily operation.

Ideas and Solutions for the Japandi Style

The core of the Japandi aesthetic is reduction to essentials without sacrificing necessary storage space. A living room cabinet with ample storage does not need to be tall; it can expand horizontally instead.

The Lowboard as the Centrepiece

Instead of a multi-part wall unit, the TV lowboard takes centre stage. It serves as a surface for the television, conceals technology, and provides space for everyday items. TV lowboards & TV benches are characterised by their low height, which typically ranges between 35 cm and 50 cm. For the Japandi look, wooden lowboards are particularly suitable, radiating natural warmth. Typical materials are solid wood or high-grade chipboard with a decor in oak or walnut.

Sliding Doors for Compact Spaces

Sliding doors are an essential feature of this interior style. Unlike traditional hinged doors, which project out into the room when opened, sliding doors move along a horizontal axis. This saves space and reinforces the calm, flowing appearance of the room. When alcoves exist in the living room, they can also be enclosed with larger systems. Fitting systems originally designed as made-to-measure wardrobe sliding doors can be repurposed and integrated into the living area to create a seamless, minimalist wall elevation.

Contrasts with Matt Black Handles

While the base colours of the furniture remain bright and natural – such as a lowboard in beige or white – the fittings provide deliberate accents. Matt black furniture handles create a sharp yet discreet contrast against light wood or plain fronts. They give definition to the furniture piece without disturbing the reduced design language. Those who prefer a fully monochrome look can alternatively opt for white furniture handles, which visually blend into white fronts.

Dimensions, Planning, and Assembly

Planning a low-level storage concept requires precise advance consideration regarding room proportions and housing electronic equipment.

Choosing the Right Dimensions

The width of the sideboard must be proportionate to the wall and the television.

Small rooms: A lowboard that is 140 cm wide is sufficient for compact living rooms and medium-sized TV sets.
Large rooms: Along extensive walls, a lowboard with a 250 cm width provides an elongated, elegant line. Alternatively, two smaller cabinets can be mounted side by side and connected with a continuous top panel.
Depth: For integrating AV receivers or gaming consoles, a cabinet depth of at least 40 cm to 45 cm is necessary. Back panels made of HDF should feature cut-outs for cable routing.

Tools Required for Furniture Assembly

Assembling a lowboard requires standard DIY tools:

Cordless screwdriver with matching bits (usually PZ or TX)
Folding rule and pencil
Spirit level for exact alignment
Rubber mallet for wooden dowels

Assembling Sliding Door Lowboards

The assembly differs slightly from cabinets with traditional concealed cup hinges.

Cabinet assembly: The base, side panels, and top panel are usually joined using wooden dowels and cam-and-pin connectors. It is vital to align the carcass square. Measure the diagonals of the back panel; if both are exactly equal in length, the carcass is square.
Track installation: Guide tracks made from plastic or aluminium are pressed or screwed into the pre-routed grooves in the base and top panels.
Fitting rollers: The running rollers are screwed to the back of the door panels. Ensure correct positioning (top/bottom), as top rollers often serve purely as guide rollers, whereas bottom rollers carry the load.
Hanging doors: The door panel is first inserted at an angle into the top track and then lowered onto the bottom runner track.
Installing handles: Drill holes for the handles through the front. A hole centre distance (pitch) of 128 mm or 160 mm is ideal for sliding doors, as these handles offer sufficient gripping surface without appearing overly bulky.

Suitable Handle Categories for Japandi Design

Selecting the right handle significantly influences the operation of sliding doors. Because sliding doors are pulled sideways, the handle must offer a secure grip. Elongated bow handles or flat profile handles are the best choice here.

When planning around the System 32 standard (the standardised hole spacing system in furniture making), handle hole centres are often multiples of 32 mm.

For compact doors and a subtle appearance, 128 mm furniture handles are suitable.
If the sliding door is heavier (e.g. made from thick MDF), 160mm furniture handles provide better leverage when pulling the door open.

When working with sliding doors, ensure that handles do not project too far into the room. If two doors bypass each other, the handle on the rear door must not rub against the front door. In cases where doors glide past one another with minimal clearance, low-profile edge handles or recessed flush pulls are often the technically safest solution.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions About the Japandi Living Room

How wide should a TV lowboard be in relation to the television? As a rule of thumb for a balanced appearance: the lowboard should be at least 20 to 30 percent wider than the television. A 55-inch television (approx. 123 cm wide) looks well proportioned on a lowboard that is 140 cm wide. For larger screens, a furniture width of 180 cm or more is recommended.

Which material is best suited for sliding doors? For furniture fronts, chipboard with a melamine resin coating is frequently used, as it is lightweight, dimensionally stable, and scratch-resistant. MDF (Medium-Density Fibreboard) is ideal if fronts are to be painted or detailed with grooved profiling.

How do I level furniture on uneven floors? Low-profile furniture does not tolerate uneven floors, as misalignments immediately show in the door gaps. Use adjustable cabinet feet with an M8 thread inside the plinth base. With a spirit level placed on the top panel, you can level the furniture unit precisely by adjusting the feet before hanging the doors.