Found in Translation: 5 New Uses for the Shaker Box from Japan

We’ve been obsessing over Shaker design for 10-plus years now. And we thought we had seen it all. We stand corrected.

While browsing a new favorite online housewares shop, Orné de Feuilles of Tokyo, we were delighted to discover five Japanese Shaker box translations that adhere to tradition—swallow tail joints and copper rivets included—while giving the classic catchall practical new uses. Here are the surprise designs, plus some inspired Japanese versions of Shaker classics.

Photography courtesy of Orné de Feuilles.

a shaker tissue box, anyone? the shaker pieces offered by orné de feuilles 17 — Above: A Shaker Tissue Box, anyone? The Shaker pieces offered by Orné de Feuilles are from AXCIS, a Japanese company that designs the boxes; they’ve made by hand in Taiwan. The tissue box comes in natural and black, and requires filling with an out-of-the-box stack of standard tissues. It’s ¥10,450 ($68.88) and overseas shipping is available for all of the pieces in the collection.

The Japanese affinity for Shaker design is not new: see our feature on the work of Masashi Ifuji, creator of some of today’s most refined Shaker boxes, furniture, and tableware.