Arts Crafts Furniture Design Style

Comfort, function, and clean & simples lines is what defines the Arts and Crafts Furniture Design style. The most distinctive pieces featuring the arts and crafts look are large wooden furnishings, like dining room tables, bookcases, sofa frames, and headboards. Arts & Crafts was originally based on the idea of hand carved goods, made from wood, wool, cotton, and other natural products.

When you decorate a room in the Arts and Crafts style, you’ll end up with a cozy, cabin-styled escape with a charming, organic overall feel to the room.

Arts and Crafts first emerged in the late 19th century in England, acting as an aesthetics movement.

As the Industrial Revolution began to take place, creative jobs like carvers and glassworkers were dismissed as a hobby or pastime – not a paying job.

Lead by William Morris, a British designer who still has A&C products available on the market today, socialists used their creative talents to head the Arts and Crafts movement.

This movement promoted handcrafted goods to the public, instead of the massed manufactured products that were being spewed out by factories. Arts & Crafts became a commemoration to detailed, finely crafted pieces that were made from pure, raw materials.

Home Styles Arts & Crafts Entertainment Credenza in Cottage Oak

Many people find that the Mission style is interchangeable with A&C – however, there is a different. The Mission style mainly focuses on woodworking, and not other household details, like lighting, rugs, and artwork (like Arts and Crafts does).

Plus, the Mission style is more influenced by Native American, Southwest American, and Hispanic style. Since they are very similar in their look and feel, it’s easy to mix the two styles up, and end up with a room decorated in both styles. It doesn’t matter, as long as you have a room with simple, classic-looking pieces that portray a comfy, casual appearance. 

Butler Specialty Hors D’oeuvres Trade Winds Large Vase

How do you get the Arts and Crafts look into your home? Start off with the walls. Here is a selection of Benjamin Moore paint swatches that features the earthy, Autumn-inspired colours of A&C:

Textured wallpaper and wall-hangings like tapestries can add a bit of warmth and cosiness to the room, so don’t leave those out!

Next, focus on your larger pieces of furniture. What kind of wood should you look for in your furnishings? Anything unfinished, preferably in oak, cherry, or maple wood.

Pieces don’t simply have to be made of wood, though – dining or cocktail tables with glass inserts are popular, since glass is a natural product and it dresses up the A&C style to some degree. Pieces also contain storage, like drawers and shelves, to keep valuables in.

Wooden hardware is more of a Mission style feature, so opt for antique-styled metal hardware in bronze, pewter, or nickel. Chairs and sofas obviously feature a wooden frame, with deep-coloured or patterned cushions to contrast the light, unfinished wood.

What about the windows? You could go further with the wood theme and use wooden slat blinds to cover up the light, or you could go with California shutters:

Or pull-down Roman blinds:

Of course, you can always use drapes, contrasted with sheer curtains, and wrapped with a tassel that’s the same colour or concept as the rest of the room.

 When it comes to accessorising, you must remember that Arts and Crafts is all about minimalism.

You should have soft mood lighting in your A&C designed room, with natural-looking lamps that have either wooden stems or stain-glass shades. Home décor pieces can be anything from pottery, to wrought iron fire screens, to cuckoo clocks, to ceramic plates.

If you’re interested in a cozy, welcoming home, design it in the style of Arts & Crafts!

I know arts crafts furniture design style is new to some of you, please let me know if you have any questions!

Nicolette Interior Design Diva

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under Interior Design Styles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.