This style series has covered a wide range of decor styles so far.  If you’re just joining in, you can review the earlier articles here:  Country / Shabby Chic, Modern / Contemporary, Traditional, and Eclectic / Transitional.  In home decor, like fashion or colors, style popularity has an ebb and flow.  Currently it seems most shelter magazines and sites have lots of transitional, contemporary or eclectic homes with an occasional rustic mountain home thrown in.  However, certain classic styles don’t ever disappear, just slide off the radar.

Mission: A Time Honored Style

The guiding philosophy behind Mission, or Arts & Craft, style is that beauty is not found only in elaborate or ornate design.  It came about almost as a backlash against the much more formal, overstuffed and frilly Victorian rooms.  There are a couple of famous names that are associated with this style:  Frank Lloyd Wright and his prairie style homes came to epitomize the style; Louis Comfort Tiffany for the distinctive glass and lamp shades of the style; and Gustav Stickley whose name became synonomous with Mission style furniture.  This comfortable, casual style has some very distinctive elements. 

• Strong use of wood (usually darker tones) in flooring and furniture, lots of oak
• Furniture profiles with straight, angular lines and the use of slats and exposed wood frames
• Leather upholstery or dense woven tapestry type fabric
• Warm, earthy color palette using browns, burnt orange/rust, deep golds
• Built-ins throughout a home
• Stained glass with angular patterns rather than floral or organic shapes in windows, lamps, etc.
• Stylized depictions of nature, both floral and animals

Wood trim and built-ins with no extra embellishments keep the focus on the function and beauty of the wood.

Notice the extensive use of wood trim, simple cabinet fronts, warm golden mica lighting, wood floors…all fairly screaming Arts and Crafts style.

These photos are all from the same home (found at ElleDecor.com) and the bath is another faithful reproduction of Arts and Crafts style.  The windows  and wallpaper border are striking and such important Mission style elements.

The deep rust wall color, graphic rug pattern and traditional Mission wood furniture pieces showcase lots of elements of Mission style.

This room illustrates how Mission style might be interpreted in a more recent home and blended with furniture of other styles.  The extensive use of wood window trim, the natural stone fireplace with heavy mantel, the wood frame accent chairs and wood floor all speak to Mission style.  However, the softer sofa, modern orange accent chair, bamboo blinds and southwestern rug soften the rigid lines of a true Mission style room. 

These stained glass windows designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Robie House in Chicago are very typical of the style – angular, graphic, simple, often with no color.

How Old is Antique?

I discovered the term “antique” is open to interpretation.  For things like tools or equipment that are heavily used, it might be as little as 50 years.  A more generally accepted timeframe is anything over 100 years old.  Antique has also been defined as anything made prior to 1830, which was roughly the beginning of the industrial age and mass production.  Items that are from a different era but don’t quite qualify as antiques are considered vintage or if they’re not even that old, just a collectible.

As a designer, period design is my least favorite style.  I discovered I have no interest in which Louis era a chair or table originated; I can’t keep Edwardian furnishings separate from Tudor.  French, English, Baroque or Rococo - if it’s hundreds of years old, I’m not a fan.  However, what I DO like is one or two vintage or antique pieces in a home to add character, contrast and interest to any other style.  Each antique period has it’s own characteristics, but some generalities exist.

• Elaborate embellishments or decorations on furnishings
• Formal finishes and furnishings
• Oversize tapestries and paintings on the walls
• Silks, satins, mohair, wool
• Jewel tone colors, deep and rich
• Gold gilt on furniture, picture frames, everything
• Curved furniture legs, carved frames

A period room with French stylings – note the ceiling trim gilded in gold and the elaborate carvings on the furniture. 

By the same designer, another French inspired room of antiques (or reproductions).

The article said the designer loves working with Louis XVI elements and the ruffley drapes are one of his style signatures (these inspired by a wedding dress). 

Another French inspired room with a gilded mirror above the fireplace, period mural-like wallpaper and needlepoint fauteuil chairs.  (A fauteuil is a chair with exposed wood frame and open under the arms {like a dining chair}, usually with a padded fabric piece on top of the arms – pronounced fo-te-ay.)

Pastel palette, deep carved moldings, elegant curved furniture legs, hand painted screen, crystal chandelier, gilded mirror all combine in this successful French period room.  I’m sure it belongs to a Louis somewhere…….

This room is Louis XIII (who knew?) and looks sturdier and less formal than later Louis’.   It seems more English to me.  But, period pieces are not my strength.

Opposing Styles

Today featured two very different styles – the simple lines and plain woods of the Arts and Crafts (Mission) style and the much more elaborate and formal period or antique style.  Can you see incorporating elements of either of these styles into your home?

Be sure to check back next Monday as I continue our exploration of design styles.