Contemporary furniture style The contemporary style is marked by clean lines, smooth surfaces and neutral, monochrome colors. Contemporary furniture is elegant, light and tidy, and various materials such as steel, metal and glass are used, in addition to solid wood. They taught and studied in Germany and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s. In, among other places, the Bauhaus school of art and architecture.
The furniture that was produced during this time is known today as classic modern or mid-century modern furniture. The modern furniture movement, which originated in the late 19th century, aimed to reinvent furniture for the masses. Emphasizing clean lines, simple shapes, elegant finishes and functionality, modern furniture represented a rejection of Victorian styles popular in previous years. Although it began with design movements such as the Bauhaus, modern furniture continued to evolve over the decades, characterized by the use of materials such as metal and wood and the simplicity of form, unlike the more ornate Victorian style.
Easily identifiable by its natural textures, colors and materials, rustic furniture helps bring beauty from the outside to the inside. Evoking history and warmth, the rustic style originated at the end of the 19th century in England, where it was heavily influenced by romanticism. By the 20th century, it had spread to the United States and had been adopted by both wealthy New Yorkers and the National Park Service. Although there are many categories of rustic furniture, one of the most popular and familiar manifestations of the style is Thomas Lee's Adirondack chair from 1903.
The Art Deco style, which takes its name from the 1925 Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, encompasses a variety of categories, from jewelry to architecture. Celebrating social and technological progress, Art Deco furniture generally features geometric patterns, luxurious materials, and detailed lines. These elements are combined in beautiful pieces made for the rich and intended to highlight the high social status of the owners. The contemporary category is always in constant change.
The style, whether realized in furniture, art, or jewelry, borrows from its predecessors and is often grouped with modernism. Popularized in the 1970s, contemporary furniture features crisp lines, geometric shapes, and muted color combinations that allow the design to speak for itself. Victorian furniture is stately, ornate and luxurious. Inspired by the Gothic and Louis XV styles of previous years, the Victorian style is one of the most easily recognizable and became evident in the mid-19th century, during the reign of Queen Victoria in England.
Overlapped with the industrial era, Victorian furniture was the first to be mass-produced. While this meant a loss of uniqueness, it also helped to reduce the price of the pieces, make them available to the middle class and expand their distribution. Postmodernism, which emerged in the 1980s, is one of the most striking styles on this list and deviates significantly from mid-century modernism and modernity. Postmodern furniture exhibits bright colors, unconventional proportions, and loud patterns and is typically made of plastic and other lightweight materials.
Combining aesthetically pleasing design with functionality, modern Scandinavian furniture largely follows the modern mold. Although it originated in the 1930s, the style crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the mid-20th century, around the same time that modern design captured the U.S. UU. Known for its elegance, Scandinavian furniture uses light woods, neutral colors and open designs to create a sense of spaciousness.
Mid-century modern furniture offers simple, reduced designs with clean lines. It was developed during the 1940s, reflecting the needs of the post-war United States, which saw a movement toward smaller homes that could keep up with busy lifestyles. The look is discreet, with some elegant curves and bold geometries. Mid Century Modern offers a tidy look and provides functional forms without excesses.
It's simple with a little guts. The rustic style, in contrast to the rest of this furniture style guide, is more about the finish of the furniture than the design. But all rustic furniture uses natural wood elements. Surfaces are often textured or rough, and reclaimed wood can be used.
Rustic furniture brings the beauty of the outside to the inside, for a warm and welcoming look. Contemporary furniture is constantly being adapted to reflect current design trends, which can make it difficult to define. It shares some elements of modernism and minimalism, so that the contemporary reflects a philosophy of less is more. Clean, simple lines with some soft curves and neutral colors are today's contemporary elegance.
Mission-style furniture began in 1894, when AJ Forbes manufactured a solid wood chair for a San Francisco church that featured a simple, straight-line construction. Joseph McHugh, a New York furniture manufacturer, would later develop it during the Arts and Crafts movement. Mission furniture keeps it simple with little decor. It highlights the straight lines and the flat panels that show the grain of the wood.
This style is designed to be durable and is used every day. Mission often features straight legs and vertical wooden slats. There can be some overlap between furniture styles, with furniture that could belong to a few at a time. Learn about the features, a little bit of history and see some great examples of the best styles in this quick, colorful and informative guide to furniture styles.
Whether you're attracted to the simplicity of Shaker or Mid-Century Modern or the elegance of Formal or French Country, now you know the features to talk about furniture styles. Almost all national chains with physical furniture stores sell modern and contemporary furniture. Louis XVI furniture is characterized by Greco-Roman influence, straight lines, classic motifs such as stretch marks and richly carved details. Because contemporary style is discreet, contemporary furniture can be used to fill rooms that emphasize furniture from other styles.
Whether you're looking for a tribal rug for your lobby or a modern, organic style chair to complete your living room, here's a guide to other distinctive furniture styles. As you'll see in the list of furniture styles below, modern and contemporary are actually different types of design in and of themselves. Modern, contemporary, mid-century modern, Scandinavian and minimalist furniture styles are among the most sought after. Over the centuries, furniture fashion has shifted from classic, ornate styles to contemporary furniture styles that blur the lines between art and functionality.
Born during the Industrial Revolution, the industrial style of furniture has experienced a resurgence in popularity with the increase in interest in minimalist design. A French furniture style is furniture designed for the king and the court, the aristocrats and the wealthy upper bourgeoisie. Mid-century modern furniture (or MCM) has many of the characteristics of late-19th century modern furniture, including simple designs and functionality. .
