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Posts Tagged ‘Mission style’

Another Take on the Rustic Themed Living Room

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

The great thing about a rustic themed living room is that it can be as casual or formal as you would like it to be in a way that will perfectly capture your lifestyle. Blend Arts and Crafts with cottage country for transitional style furniture that might best be described as formal country or mix Arts and Crafts and with Mission for a more casual yet sophisticated look. The choice is yours. But whatever rustic themed focus you select, remember that lines are clean and profiles are simplified for living room furniture that is calm, tranquil and inviting.

The Arts and Crafts design style emerged out of Great Britain around the turn of the twentieth century as a reaction to the mass produced furniture of the Victorian era that essentially made cottage industries virtually disappear, putting many crafts people out of work. The Arts and Crafts movement emphasized traditional woodworking and metalwork skills, resulting in handcrafted furniture made of natural materials such as wood, including tables and other furnishings that incorporated metal decorative elements.

While of course today living room furniture is more mass-produced than handcrafted, Arts and Crafts furniture design principles are still popular because of their clean lines and simple profiles. The emphasis is on simplicity and the appearance or spirit of handcrafted furnishings. The Arts Crafts style can be especially welcome in a living room or family room where a casual yet inviting atmosphere is conducive to enhancing the quality time spent with family or entertaining friends.

The Arts and Crafts style furniture looks handcrafted. It typically has little ornamentation; when decorative elements are included, furnishings like coffee tables, end tables and accent chairs should appear as though they are handmade. For your rustic themed living room, Arts and Crafts furniture should have a straightforward design, an “organic” appearance and be functional as well as esthetically pleasing.

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Amish Interior Decorating – The Dining Room

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Amish dining room furniture encompasses many styles, including Shaker, Mission and various sub styles of country. Typically, each Amish community focuses on a specific type of furniture or a craft such as quilts or baskets. Every piece of furniture produced by the Amish is unique, even when it is made within the same community, because, while some modern woodworking techniques are allowed in some communities, it is mostly made by hand. Since “Amish” is not necessarily a definitive or particular style, when creating an Amish dining room, there are some key principles that need to be incorporated to accomplish this type of interior design.

Design Principle #1

Amish Palette 2

Use heritage colors, paints that have been created with natural pigments. Hues and tints are generally less “intense” than other types of commercially produced paints, but that doesn’t mean “bland” or “colorless.” Most manufacturers, like Sherwin-Williams, make paint colors that resemble heritage colors. The typical Amish color palette reflects the fields they work, the crops they grow including the earth and sky.

Design Principle #2

If purchasing furniture from an Amish community is not an option, select furniture that is made of wood such as oak, walnut or cherry. Dining room furniture such as a sideboard, dining table or china cabinet, should have simple lines, wood finishes that have been distressed or have a low to medium shine and be oversized, solid or “boxy” in appearance.

The Home Styles Ponderosa Solid Wood Dining Table, while it does have arrow feet and decorative detail, they are features common to traditional woodworking methods. Its rich pine finish gives the table a rustic yet refined handcrafted appearance.

The Stanley Furniture American Perspective Beeswax Cherry Windsor Side Chair also has arrow feet and turned legs. But again, this dining chair, with its Windsor back, shouts attention to detail.

While Amish furniture profiles are simpler, they can be dramatic. Backs of dining chairs are taller; tables are longer, emphasizing the “slab” appearance of the tabletop; china cabinets and sideboards are “chunkier.” The Tradewins Cherry Expressions Buffet with Hutch is impressive in stature, but decorative detail, such as the crown molding and the gently arched apron, is uncomplicated.

Design Principle #3

The emphasis of Amish interior design is on the combined impact of form and function. Put simply, it means that all of the furniture pieces in the dining room should be functional and practical, but they should look beautiful as well. For example, the Home Styles Ponderosa Solid Wood Dining Table includes a leaf, which allows the table to expand (from round to oval shaped), making it very practical when entertaining or hosting a family holiday feast.

Accessorize the same way. Select window treatments that are not “fussy” and made of natural materials like cotton for curtains and wood for blinds. Pick an area rug like the Calvin Klein Home by Nourison Loom Select Midnight Thread Area Rug Collection in Multicolor that has a natural, organic woven look. Don’t forget candlesticks and lamps made of materials like wrought iron or stone.

Come back next week when I will be starting a new series on traditional style with a twist.

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Amish Interior Decorating – The Living Room

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

The Amish believe that their religious principles should be reflected in all aspects of their lives, including how they furnish and decorate their homes. When the Amish make furniture, they take pride in the process, from the way the timber is cut to the finished product and all the steps in between. Again, as part of their belief system, the majority of the methods used in furniture making don’t involve modern technology. The results are handcrafted furnishings that are well-designed, well-made and long lasting; furniture that is worthy of lasting from generation to generation.

But you can easily create the look of an Amish interior design living room by following a few general principles.

  • Handcrafted furniture made from wood – true Amish furniture is made by them and purchased from an Amish community. If this is not an option, choose living room furniture that has simple lines and minimal decorative elements and is made of wood with a matte, distressed or low shine finish.
  • Form and function – the focus of Amish furniture is on the practical and the functional and then blending these aspects with profiles that are simple yet beautiful.
  • Functionality also applies to dressing the room – when accessorizing the living room, only add “functional” items like baskets, hurricane table lamps and pillows and throws in natural fabrics that have a handmade appearance. Wall art should reflect pastoral themes and country scenes.

Amish Palette

While the typical Amish color palette does include neutral tones and earth shades, it also incorporates brighter colors that possess tints that are not as intense (as in bold-bright). This is because heritage paint colors used in Amish homes are made from natural pigments, resulting in shades that are softer. While they might not be technically heritage colors, paint manufacturers, like Sherwin-Williams, offer similar colors that can be used in Amish interior design.

Today’s living room is a multipurpose room that can fill several functions, aside from the obvious ones of relaxing with the family or entertaining friends. Furniture for this type of living space should be comfortable and practical, perfect for an Amish style living room. While Amish furniture is not truly rustic, as in knots or twigs embedded in the surface of the piece of furniture, an Amish style living room will still have rustic elements.

The heart of any living room is the sofa. The Lifestyle Solutions Fashion Hardwood Arizona Convertible Futon Frame displays all of the elements of Amish design.

The Jofran 036 Series Rectangular Wood Cocktail Table in Brown Mission Oak is a great place to put the remote, some munchies or your favorite book. It also adds function to your living room, one of the basic Amish interior design principles.

Another aspect of Amish style furniture is that it tends to be solid and oversized with square or boxlike profiles. Select end tables like the Powell Mission Oak Magazine Rack Cabinet that have a number of storage options, again increasing the living room’s functionality.

The appeal of Amish interior decorating is its simplicity and “low-tech” vibe. But even an Amish style inspired living room needs to make space for a television and its accompanying components. The Parker House Deer Creek Plasma/LCD Media System has plenty of storage to accommodate the entertainment needs of a contemporary home.

Next week in the last part of our mini series, we will be discussing how to design an Amish style dining room.

Right now, Cymax Stores is offering a really great deal on living room furniture. If your living room needs a makeover take advantage of these savings by using the coupon code SOFA10 at checkout.

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Amish Interior Decorating – The Bedroom

Friday, January 15th, 2010

When the Amish first came to the United States, they settled in Pennsylvania. Today Amish settlements can be found in all across the US. However, no matter where the Amish settled, the location of their communities had one thing in common; they were surrounded by forests, a readily available source for the furniture the Amish have become renowned for. Traditionally, Amish furniture was fashioned from white or red oak that was plain sawn or quarter sawn. But with the establishment of communities in other regions of the country, woods including cherry, maple, hickory and walnut are also used.

Due to their beliefs, although some methods involving modern technology are allowed, Amish bedroom furniture is mostly handcrafted, using traditional woodworking techniques such as chiseled mortises, tongue and groove joints and dovetail joinery. Great attention is paid to utilizing the grain of each piece of wood to its best advantage. Lines are simple, with a refined rustic feel. For this reason, Amish interior decorating is particularly effective in a bedroom where the whole point of the design plan is to create a tranquil atmosphere.

You don’t have to go searching for genuine Amish furniture to attain the desired look. It’s easy to create an Amish décor by choosing solid furnishings with clean lines, square or “boxy” profiles and a handcrafted appearance. Amish furniture typically incorporates several styles including Mission and Shaker, styles that again are known for simple lines, traditional woodworking techniques and being well-made and durable.

Amish Palette

Don’t fall for the decorating myth that Amish interior decorating lacks color. Not so. Take inspiration from an Amish quilt and use heritage colors like softer blues and grays, gentle creams, sage greens and earth tones. Heritage colors are ones that are technically made from natural pigments. They are generally more expensive and can be harder to find. However many paint manufacturers, like Sherwin Williams, offer shades that closely mimic heritage ones.

Draw the eye into the center of the room with the Linon Mission Bay Queen Bed. Decorative detail is uncomplicated, but the closed slat design of the headboard and footboard gives the bed a handcrafted feel. Its profile, with the emphasis on simplicity, is actually soothing.

Because Amish furniture is crafted from timber that was milled mostly without the benefit of modern technology, it tends to be solid and oversized. The antiqued drawer pulls and handles of the Tradewins Mission 12 Drawer Dresser have a vintage design.

Especially when designing an American country, mission, Shaker or Amish style bedroom, an armoire, like the Brook Hollow TV Armoire in Dark Oak instantly lends the décor a vintage or heirloom look.

The focus of Amish interior decorating is on function. When accessorizing your Amish style bedroom, don’t forget items like baskets, pictures depicting simple country scenes and table lamps and bedside lamps with rustic or antiqued metalwork. Since quilts are an integral part of Amish culture, add one to your bed and buy a blanket chest to store it in or a quilt rack to display it in style.

Next week in part two of this Amish Interior Decorating mini series, we’ll explore ways to give a living room an Amish style makeover.

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