The art nouveau style saw a fundamental change in interior design styles. Rather then using inspiration from the past designers began to look at the things around them to inspire some of the most wonderful furniture, lighting and patterns which make this particular style unique.
In the beginning people either loved it and embraced the designs with open arms or loathed it and said it would never become popular the latter being very wrong! The art nouveau style saw a revival in the 1960s and again today in the 21st century interiors designers are still using some of the concepts within their interior styles.
Famous names associated with art nouveau are Charles Renie Macintosh who introduced wonderful patterns for wall papers and fabrics. It is for these designs he is probably most associated.
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed and created wonderful lighting using a host of different coloured glass in table lamp shades on which the stands depicted nature and animals predominately.
Emille Galle designed fabulous furniture, ceramics and glass wear to compliment this new design fashion in the art nouveau style with influences from Rocco.
Rene Lalique glass wear and jewellery items are highly sought after in the auction rooms, with people hoping to find these exquisite pieces to add to their collections.
These ‘new’ designers believed in fine craftsmanship and quality but they also embraced and accepted mass production.
To achieve the art nouveau look in your home there are some key and fundamental ‘rules’ to be followed.
Floors should be parquet and stained or vanished. While Macintosh experiments with interiors which were ‘all white’ typically the colour tones were muted and comprised of sage greens, browns and mustard, combined with lilac, purple and peacock blue. Walls were either painted in one of the muted tones, ’off white’ or papered with patterns inspired by nature and often included birds, particularly peacocks and dragonflies.
Macintosh is world famed for his high backed chairs with black gloss lacquer. However chairs upholstered in replicas of floral fabrics with muted tones would look in keeping with the art nouveau theme.
If you could afford a genuine Tiffany lamp it would undoubtedly be the show case of the room, however this is highly unlikely for most! Reproduction Tiffany lamps are widely available in the high street or online and are essential to achieve the art nouveau look.
Ornaments were glass, the opaly and pearlescent styles for which Lalique is famed, along with pewter and silver. Antiques shops and boot fairs are ideal places to find art nouveau ornaments which do not necessarily command a high price due to the mass production at the time.
To complete the art nouveau look the room should have plenty of flowers and peacock feathers which are one of the hallmarks of this interior design style.
Windows contained stained glass panels, these can been found at salvage yards if you are lucky or modern reproduction would work equally as well.
Art nouveau curtains should be unpretentious and include Mackintosh or William Morris designs which were similar to wall paper designs having linear lines or Morris styled floral designs which were inspired by his own garden.
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