✨ Interior images are AI-generated. Items shown are similar to those in the video.

Wabi Sabi

Tsukubai corner under the stairs with a bamboo spout

The piece in the middle has its own name: it's a tsukubai, the low stone basin placed in Japanese gardens for washing your hands before entering the tea house, and low enough that you have to crouch. The water arrives through a bamboo spout as a thin thread, not a jet. Around it, dark pebble edged in black steel against the polished floor, and above, the underside of the staircase clad in slats that follow the slope and carry the downlights within.

EscaleraBajo escaleraTsukubaiCaño de bambúCanto rodado oscuroTopiario en bolaFarol de bambúListones en el bajo de escaleraPiedra texturizadaNoche

Design keys

A low carved stone basin with a bamboo spout pouring a thread of water into it.
A bed of dark river pebble with a black edging profile, set against a pale polished floor.
The stair soffit clad in slats following the slope, with three spots recessed into the panel itself.
Two ball-clipped standards at different heights, lifting the green above the basin without taking floor.
A cylindrical bamboo-framed lantern resting on the stone, the only light at floor level.
A textured stone face washed from above, giving a relief backdrop to a composition of dark pieces.

Furniture and decor in this design

Items shown are similar to those in the video, not necessarily identical.

Stone tsukubai fountain with a bamboo spout

A set comprising a stone basin and a spout, with a submersible pump recirculating the basin's own water. Check the weight before buying: a carved granite basin sixty centimetres across easily exceeds a hundred kilos and, on a polished floor, needs two people and a felt pad. In natural stone the inside must be sealed, or the vessel weeps and leaves a damp ring around the base.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

Replacement bamboo spout for a fountain

A drilled bamboo cane with its bracket, the kind you swap when the previous one splits. Buy the spare at the same time as the fountain and keep it: diameters vary between makers, and finding one that fits the original bracket two years later is harder than it sounds. Before fitting, two coats of oil inside and out extend its life considerably.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

Ball-clipped standard tree for indoors

A topiary with a spherical crown on a bare stem, in a live or artificial version. The live one wants plenty of light and clipping every few weeks to hold its shape, so in an under-stair void it rarely works out; a decent artificial holds up at this distance and needs nothing. If you go live, a bay or a trained ficus are the most manageable indoors.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

Cylindrical bamboo lantern

A bamboo-framed lantern with a translucent diffuser, the floor-standing kind. It diffuses in all directions and lights nothing in particular, which is exactly its job here: marking a point at floor level without competing with the spots above. Choose the LED and cable version over the candle one, because at that height and beside water a real flame blows out in any draught.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

Croton, variegated-leaf houseplant

Codiaeum variegatum, the red, yellow and green leaved plant supplying the only colour in this corner. In Spain it lives only indoors or in very sheltered southern spots, because below around thirteen degrees it drops its leaves. It wants plenty of indirect light and humidity: in a heated interior mist it, or keep it near the fountain where the air stays damper.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

Construction adhesive for slat panels

High-grab cartridge adhesive, the route when you can’t or don’t want to drill, for instance on the sloping underside of a staircase where the partition is thin. Apply it in vertical beads rather than dabs, so the panel can expand. One condition can’t be skipped: the wall has to be sound and dust-free, because on loose textured paint the adhesive pulls off the coating rather than gripping the wall.

See similar on Amazon(paid link)

How to get this look at home

The basin is low on purpose. Originally it forces you to crouch to use it, and that gesture is the whole point of the piece: a tsukubai set at table height stops being a tsukubai and becomes a pot with water in it.
The spout should drip, not pour. At high flow the water leaps out of the basin and splashes the stone and the floor; turned almost to a minimum, the thread lands inside and the sound is the one you're after — a drip rather than a tap.
The slats on the stair soffit run with the slope, not across it. Following the diagonal you only cut the two ends; crossing it, every batten needs its own mitre and the work multiplies.
Recessing the spots into the slat panel itself avoids lighting the corner from a high ceiling, which is far away and leaves the void in shadow. Leave a generous batten cavity, because the wiring has to run behind the slats.
With a pale polished floor, dark pebble is what outlines the bed and stops it reading as a smudge. The reverse works too, pale pebble on a dark floor; what doesn't work is both being the same tone, because then the edge disappears.

FAQ

What is a tsukubai and how is it placed?

It's the stone basin of Japanese tea gardens, intended for washing your hands and rinsing your mouth before entering, which is why it sits very low: you have to crouch. Traditionally it isn't centred on anything but set at the edge of a route, accompanied by stones to stand on and to rest the lantern. At home you can simplify, but keep two things: the low height, which is what gives it its character, and not leaving it isolated in the middle of a space, because it loses the sense of something come upon in passing.

How long does a bamboo spout last on a fountain?

Less than you'd expect. Natural bamboo in permanent contact with water splits along the fibres and starts blackening inside within a year or eighteen months, and in hard water it also scales at the mouth. You can extend it by treating it with tung oil or marine varnish each season, but the honest approach is to budget for it as a periodic replacement. If you don't want that upkeep, there are resin and copper spouts shaped like bamboo that last indefinitely, though up close you can tell.

Can you clad the underside of a staircase with slats?

Yes, and it's one of the interventions that changes a void most for the least money, because a stair soffit is usually the worst-resolved surface in a house. It's built on battens screwed to the slab, leaving a cavity for wiring, and the slats run with the slope to reduce cutting. The added advantage is that the cavity takes recessed spots, so the corner is lit from directly above instead of from a ceiling that might be four metres up.

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Tsukubai corner under the stairs with a bamboo spout

Design keys

Furniture and decor in this design

How to get this look at home

FAQ

You may also like

Nook under a curved stair with an arced bench and vertical panelling

Under-stair corner with a pebble island and waves of light

Under-stair reading nook with a curved slat panel and warm light