“I made all the furniture” - How a Tokyo Ceramicist Lives Small in his DIY Apartment

With a background in fashion and a love of sewing, Ryo keeps his hands busy moving between ceramics, sewing, and other DIY projects — often made specifically for his home. Over the past three years, Ryo has made all of his furniture and continues to test the setup, tweaking it as he goes to make sure the space keeps working for him, and with him. Rather than chasing a “perfect” interior, he’s created a home that feels personal, practical, and comfortably lived-in — a place where making and everyday life sit side by side without the room feeling “too perfect”.

This is a home designed in layers: softened light, textured surfaces, and storage built around the things Ryo owns and loves. When something no longer feels fit for purpose, instead of replacing the piece, it gets cut down, rebuilt, or repurposed. The result is a space that shifts seamlessly between living, working, making, and resetting — with small systems and daily rituals that make living small feel calm, functional, and unmistakably his.

An Entrance That Works Harder

The entry tells you all you need to know about how Ryo lives. It’s small, features ceramics and each nook is utilised. Ryo even made a compact seat for his shoes, both for putting them on and for storing them underneath. Above the seat, Ryo has turned his pottery glaze samples into artwork, while the coat closet and shoe cabinet on either side have been reassigned to what really matters to Ryo, his Makita. “I really love it. Since I bought this, DIY work has become much easier. This is also my weapon for when the zombies come.”

A Living Room Built in Layers

Ryo has a trick for low ceilings in rentals: hanging sheer curtains. The long wavefolds add length, while privacy is balanced with diffused sunlight. As for finding more storage, Ryo has another trick: custom-building a shelf to fit a large stack of storage containers. And above the shelf, a very important, unimportant paper fish. “When I find something like this, I always get it – the more meaningless, the more I want it.” The fish looks over the sofa, another DIY remodelled from a former shelving unit. Ryo also does smaller DIYs, like the lamp behind the sofa – the base made from ceramic and the shade a patchwork of German newspapers. Below is more patchwork, mismatched mats (igusa, old kimono fabric, IKEA, MUJI) to cover the rental apartment floor. “As long as the colours work together, there is a sense of unity,” explains Ryo.

A Work Nook That Keeps Evolving

Focused in a corner is Ryo’s desk. Half the size of what it once was, Ryo cut and remodelled the desk (the rest of the wood saved to be used elsewhere) to neatly shoulder the sofa and to sit snug in the deliberately narrow space, where Ryo finds comfort in the confines. Behind the desk is a Donald Judd-inspired bookshelf, based on the one in the Donald Judd Library in Marfa. Ryo’s version was made with custom-ordered pre-cut pieces of Shina lumber core wood. “I just got to do just the fun part … putting it together.”

A Dining and Work Area That Doubles as a Gallery

Ryo’s hard-working dining table is a multipurpose workstation also used for sewing and product photography. And given that Ryo “has this sickness of wanting to store things even in the narrowest of spaces,” even the thin ledge under the table is busy, holding his diary and notebook.  The adjacent renter-friendly wall he added provides another narrow gap behind, for even more storage. And when there’s a blank wall, Ryo needs to decorate. The urge becoming a display pillar, a mounted Fukasawa CD player, and a smart rotating system of small ceramic artworks. The narrow kitchen is nearby, behind the curtain. A space where Ryo leans on S-hooks to hold his most-used tools, like scissors, and hardest to store tools, like a kettle.

A Bedroom for Reset and Reflection

Ryo removed the sliding door between his bedroom and the living area to let more light in — trading privacy for the brightness of a large one-room apartment. Small, handmade objects and playful “childish things” are dotted around, including dinosaur motifs, stuffed animals and a shelf he built to display his pieces. This is also where he does his nightly ritual — lighting incense and saying “thank you”. Other storage is treated just as fondly – wardrobe stacking is seen as a game of Tetris, a small bookshelf is now also a bench on wheels, and a former cabin-attendant trolley is used as a set of drawers.

Whilst a deliberately imperfect home, Ryo has made the space perfect for him. “Any smaller and there wouldn't be enough space to fit things in it – It's just the right size, and I really like it.” 

It’s perfect.