Cosentino and Luxury Interior Designer Claudia Afshar Bring Japandi Style to the Pacific Northwest

by Laura Goldstein
Photos courtesy Cosentino

The floating world. Living in the moment. Savouring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves. Detached from life’s everyday problems. That is the meaning of the Japanese word UKIYO the newest Japandi inspired Dekton Collection designed by Claudia Afshar in collaboration with family-owned Spanish sustainable surfaces company Cosentino.

We are sitting in Cosentino’s vast 4,293-square-foot showroom in Vancouver’s Armoury District, (a smaller showroom is located in Burnaby,) festooned with towering pink silk cherry trees in full bloom. It’s a stunning tribute to Claudia Afshar’s sophisticated new UKIYO Collection of textured interior and exterior natural cladding. It’s also a serendipitous collaboration, because as Afshar was surprised and delighted to learn, Vancouver is a twin city with Yokohama, Japan and the country gifted hundreds of cherry trees to the city beginning in the 1930s and again in the 1950s. Victoria is also a ‘sister’ city to Morioka, Japan.

“As a kid I was always rearranging my furniture in my bedroom and driving my mom crazy,” laughs the London-born, Los Angeles-based founder and principal of Claudia Afshar Design. Although professionally trained in ballet and contemporary dance, the sylph-like Afshar seemed destined to continue the family business. “My mom who was an interior designer, had a wonderful showroom in Belsize Park in London that consisted of architects, a building team and one of the largest fabric houses. So as a kid I remember getting lost in all the fabulous fabric samples. Later, when I wasn’t dancing I’d intern there and without really thinking about it, interior design just became embedded in me,” Afshar relates.

“Japandi, (a fusion of Japanese and Scandinavian minimalist design) has been resonating with me for a long time,” confesses Afshar whose attention to detail has garnered raves from clients from around the world. Minimalism which is very much my aesthetic also originates from Japan because it’s all about using raw materials, clean, large-scale slabs, metals and wood.”

And we share many of those same elements here in the Pacific Northwest that have had a profound influence on interior design, furniture and architecture. Our profusion of beautiful natural woods like Douglas fir, oak, red cedar, maple and alder, are often juxtaposed and accessorized with brass, bronze, copper and gold decor.

Dekton by Cosentino is a carbon neutral ultracompact porcelain surface that is created by combining over 20 minerals compressed under high pressure which makes it extremely durable and stain and scratch resistant. It’s so strong that it can easily be adapted to curved edges without worry of breakage. Used in multiple iterations, Afshar’s UKIYO Collection for residential, hotels and commercial design has vast applications besides wall facades. “There’s a tremendous diversity for this product,” assures Afshar. “It can be used around kitchen islands, stairs, bath and spa cabinetry, fireplace surrounds, as anti-slip flooring and even for poolside exteriors that extends the fluidity from indoor to outdoor. And, there are so many ways that UKIYO can be incorporated into furniture. We’ve already created a chaise lounge and a trolley bar on wheels using the Collection which we’re really excited about.”

Inspired by nature and the organic world, Afshar “takes the littlest snippets of the tiniest discoveries from my travels like the cobbled streets in Europe; the way the water ripples when a rock hits it and we take those images and expand on them when designing. My 10-year-old daughter Paisley and I were in Malibu and she was running along the beach and said ‘Mummy look at this stone.’ And I thought this is an amazing stone, very weathered and decayed, I have to use it in one of the designs for this project so I did!” she laughs.

Like an enveloping cocoon that brings warmth to any room, UKIYO is available in two structured fluted pattern widths that reflect a subtle geometric texture and five matte colours that cast a sensual calm and overall feeling of wellness over any environment. Dekton Bromo is a dark slate grey shade that evokes a moody atmosphere; Dekton Umber recalls the warm natural pigments of earthy terracotta like the roof tiles found in the South of France, Spain, Mexico and Morocco. Afshar notes that Pantone’s Peach Fuzz  the 2024 Colour of the Year is a great co-ordinating hue. The neutral Dekton Nacre is an organic cream shade that evokes the mother-of-pearl inside a mollusk shell. Inspired by cement, Dekton Kreta can create lighter or darker dimensions depending upon the density of the fluting. Dekton Rem captures the subtle elegance of brown and grey veining with hints of gold.

“People have asked me ‘why such neutral colours?’ “ That was intentional because they are staples that can be mixed and matched to other Dekton products that have more vein or vibrant colours as well as wood or natural stone, all easily paired with the UKIYO Collection. Having said that we’re in discussions to introduce more colours and textures in the future,” says Afshar. Her passion for design and the UKIYO Collection is palpable but she doesn’t rest on her laurels.

Afshar is already working on a high-end lighting, furniture and a nature-inspired rug collection to launch in 2025. 

“You know, working with Cosentino was a dream – we understood each other creatively and we are so mindful of not designing anything that I wouldn’t love to have in my own home.”