The studio that made animation feel like home

Studio Ghibli was founded in Tokyo in 1985 by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and the producer Toshio Suzuki. Over the decades that followed, it made some of the most beloved films in cinema: My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo and many more. Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and The Boy and the Heron won the same award twenty years later.

Ghibli's films share a feeling more than a style: hand-painted skies, small everyday rituals, kind strangers, strange spirits and the sense that the world is full of quiet magic. That feeling is exactly why Ghibli decor is so popular. A Studio Ghibli rug makes a room feel softer and more welcoming. Ours are printed into short velvet, so watercolor skies, painted grass and fine linework come out with the delicacy they deserve, and they go in the washing machine.

Film by film

Every Ghibli fan has a favorite film, and each one brings its own look to a room:

Film	Design ideas	Mood
Castle in the Sky (1986)	The floating city of Laputa, the robot gardener	Sky blue, wonder
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)	Totoro, the Catbus, soot sprites, the bus stop in the rain	Green, cozy, childhood
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)	Kiki on her broom, Jiji the black cat, the bakery	Warm, seaside, independence
Porco Rosso (1992)	The red seaplane over the Adriatic	Mediterranean blue and red
Spirited Away (2001)	No-Face, Haku the dragon, the bathhouse, the train over water	Red, gold, dreamlike
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)	The walking castle, Calcifer, Sophie's flower fields	Romantic, whimsical
Ponyo (2008)	Ponyo, the fish waves, the little boat	Bright, oceanic, joyful
The Wind Rises (2013)	Paper planes, fields of wind	Pale, nostalgic
The Boy and the Heron (2023)	The grey heron, the warawara spirits	Mysterious, painterly

Princess Mononoke and Totoro have their own pages: see our Princess Mononoke rugs and Totoro rugs.

No-Face and the bathhouse

Spirited Away is a natural first choice, and No-Face, Kaonashi, is its most iconic image: a tall, silent, shadowy figure with a white mask, standing alone on a bridge or riding the train across the flooded sea. The bathhouse itself, red and gold, lantern-lit, full of spirits, is just as striking. A No-Face design is subtle and strange, perfect for a modern room; a bathhouse scene is rich and warm, a centerpiece for a living room.

Haku, the river dragon

Haku, the boy who helps Chihiro in the bathhouse, is secretly a river spirit: a long, white dragon with a green mane, flying through the night sky. The moment Chihiro remembers his true name is one of the most moving scenes in animation. A white dragon curving across a deep blue rug is elegant and almost classical, closer to a Japanese painting than to merchandise, and it suits a bedroom or a long hallway beautifully.

Howl's Moving Castle and Calcifer

Howl's castle, a ramshackle machine of turrets, chimneys and chicken legs, clanking across the hills, is one of the most imaginative designs in film. Calcifer, the fire demon who powers it, is a tiny, grumpy, adorable flame. A Calcifer rug is a charming choice for a kitchen corner or a fireplace hearth; a castle scene with Sophie's flower fields is one of the most romantic Ghibli rugs there is, perfect for a bedroom.

Kiki and Jiji

Kiki, the thirteen-year-old witch who flies to a seaside town to start her own delivery service, and Jiji, her sarcastic black cat, are favorites of anyone who has ever moved somewhere new. A Jiji silhouette on a round rug is simple and elegant; Kiki flying over the red roofs of Koriko is a cheerful, nostalgic scene. It's a natural gift for someone starting out in their first apartment. Cat lovers will also like our cat rugs.

Soot sprites

The susuwatari, the tiny black soot sprites who scurry through old houses in Totoro and carry coal in Spirited Away's boiler room, are among Ghibli's most loved little creatures: round, fuzzy, with two white eyes, often clutching a star-shaped candy. A scattering of soot sprites on a cream rug is playful and minimal, and it hides everyday dust better than almost anything.

Ghibli skies

If there is one thing every Ghibli film shares, it's the sky: tall summer cumulus clouds, deep blue above, golden light at the edges. The studio's background artists painted them by hand, and they've become a visual language of their own. A sky-and-clouds rug, with nothing but painted clouds, is one of the most versatile Ghibli designs: calm enough for any room, unmistakable to fans. Pair it with our cloud rugs if you love the look.

A love of flight

Miyazaki has loved aircraft all his life, and flight runs through the studio's films: Nausicaä's glider over the toxic jungle, the flapping ornithopters of Castle in the Sky, Kiki's broom, Porco Rosso's red seaplane over the Adriatic, and the aircraft designer at the heart of The Wind Rises. A flight design, a seaplane over turquoise water or a paper plane on a breeze, is a wonderful Ghibli rug for a study, a travel lover's room or a child who dreams of flying.

Takahata's films

Ghibli is not only Miyazaki. Isao Takahata directed some of its most profound films: Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko with its shape-shifting tanuki, My Neighbors the Yamadas and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, drawn in flowing charcoal and watercolor. Their art is softer and more experimental, and designs inspired by them, especially Kaguya's brushwork, make gentle, painterly rugs for fans who know the studio beyond its most famous titles.

Food from the films

Ghibli films are famous for their food: the ham ramen in Ponyo, Calcifer's bacon and eggs in Howl's Moving Castle, the bento boxes in Totoro, the herring pie in Kiki's Delivery Service, the strange feast in Spirited Away. Fans recreate them at home and share them online. A Ghibli food design is a wonderful idea for a kitchen or dining nook, where it makes the room feel like a scene from a film.

Cottagecore and Ghibli living

The Ghibli look has become a whole interior style: wooden furniture, houseplants, linen, open shelves of jars and books, warm lamps and a window full of green. Fans call it Ghibli-core or cottagecore. A Ghibli rug is the natural starting point, especially in a soft, natural palette, sky blue, grass green, cream and wood. Add a few plants, a woven basket and a warm lamp, and the room is half done. The rest comes slowly, the way it does in the films: a teapot on the windowsill, a stack of books, a cat asleep in the sun.

Kids' rooms

Ghibli is one of the few film worlds that suits children and adults equally. A soot-sprite or Ponyo design in a child's room is joyful and gentle, without the noise of a lot of cartoon merchandise. On slippery floors, choose Standard, 5 mm crushed velvet on a non-slip faux leather back, so the rug stays put during play. Every rug goes in the washing machine after the inevitable spill.

Sizes and levels

In a living room, choose Premium, 7 mm plush velvet on a bamboo and cotton back, in 4×6 or 5×7 ft for a bathhouse scene or Howl's castle. Beside a bed, 2.6×3.9 ft. A Jiji, No-Face or Calcifer design makes a lovely round rug, 3.3 to 4.6 ft (100 to 140 cm). In a kitchen or hallway, a 2×3 ft Standard rug grips the floor and clears doors.

Ghibli Park and the museum

The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, on the outskirts of Tokyo, has been welcoming visitors since 2001, and Ghibli Park opened in Aichi Prefecture in 2022 with life-size recreations of the films' houses and landscapes. Fans plan whole trips around them. For anyone who's been, a rug inspired by a favorite room or scene is a lovely souvenir to come home to; for anyone who dreams of going, it's a small piece of the trip in advance.

Gifts

A Studio Ghibli rug is one of the easiest gifts to get right: almost everyone has a favorite film. If you aren't sure which, No-Face, soot sprites or a Ghibli sky are the safest choices. Every rug is printed to order in 1–3 business days and ships from Turkey; US delivery usually takes 2–5 business days after that.

Care

Vacuum on a low setting each week, blot spills with cold water straight away and wash the rug on a gentle, cold cycle when it needs it; let it air dry flat. The design is printed into the fibers, so the painted skies stay blue and the grass stays green.

A note on the films

The Boy and the Heron

In 2023, Hayao Miyazaki released The Boy and the Heron, a dreamlike story of a boy who follows a talking gray heron into another world, and it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2024. A rug of a gray heron standing in still water among reeds, painted softly in Ghibli's style, is a calm, elegant design for a study or a living room.

Padrift is an independent studio. Studio Ghibli and its films and characters are named to describe what our designs are inspired by; we are not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Studio Ghibli or its distributors.