Source: Houzz – Art Deco Style Bedroom.
Art Deco is short for the French word Arts Décoratifs, a French decorative art and architecture style originating from the 1910s, although most of Europe adopted it in the 1920s with peak popularity in the early 30s.
Art Deco is undoubtedly the most successful post-war design style, spanning architecture, painting, sculpture, graphics, decoration, and fashion.
But what precisely is Art Deco style, and why is it so popular? Our Art Deco guide reveals everything you need to know.
What is Art Deco?
Art Deco is a design movement from the 1910s inspired by industrialisation, technical progress, and vivid living.
It rose from the very different world of Art Nouveau, which abstracted organic shapes into flowing motifs. Art Nouveau celebrates elegant curves, while Art Deco favours geometrical shapes, symmetry, and sharp lines.
Art Deco was revolutionary and is prevalent in today’s modern world. We can find Art Deco motifs in modern architecture, furniture, décor, jewellery, décor, and lighting fixtures because it works perfectly with modern geometry.
Why is Art Deco so popular?
Some things look good, and that’s the fundamental story behind Art Deco’s popularity across the arts. Once the first Art Deco furniture left France in the 1910s, the rest of Europe knew what it wanted.
If we delve deeper into Art Deco’s success, it captures modernism and turns it into fashion. It embraced industrialisation and the steel age, bringing class and elegance to the world being built around people in the 1900s.
Once regular people adopted Art Deco, it spread across the classes. The symmetrical, geometric, and streamlined architecture and design offered something modern and fresh compared to the organic shapes of Art Nouveau.
What are Art Deco’s characteristics?
Pictured: Gold Art deco patterns highlight features, patterns, and lines.
Art Deco has five key characteristics:
- Modernism. Art Deco rejected traditional decoration, emphasising the materials and primitive lines used in buildings and décor.
- Bold geometric forms, especially mathematical geometric shapes. Triangles, squares, rectangles, and arcs are common, usually in repetitive patterns.
- Sleek and elongated figures, especially in jewellery and sculptures.
- High-quality craftsmanship. Art Deco was famous for durable, long-lasting features, from robust architecture to sturdy furniture.
- Monochromatic colours. Creams, beiges, and medium browns are Art Deco colours, with vehement red, cobalt blue, and golden yellow highlights.
With heavy geometric influences and straight and smooth lines, Art Deco has often been considered a ‘funky’ design style. You can think of it as abstract refined, where creativity is expressed with functional forms and features.
Where does Art Moderne fit into all this?
Art Moderne is a separate design movement that arose from Art Deco and is often confused with it, but the two are not the same.
Art Moderne favours horizontal lines and asymmetry rather than vertical lines and symmetry, giving spaces a sense of movement. It is less about geometry and more about scale, with more prominent, bolder design features.
Another critical difference is that Art Deco uses clearly handmade forms, while Art Moderne typically uses machined forms. This makes sense because Art Moderne arose when mass production kicked into overdrive.
How to make your space more Art Deco
Pictured: Julian Bowen Florence 4FT 6 Double Metal Bed Frame, Available from Bedstar.
The easiest way to inject your home with Art Deco is to buy Art Deco-style furniture and décor. You only need one statement piece – such as a bed or a console table – to give your interior space authentic Art Deco vibes.
Another way to make your space more Art Deco is to decorate in a monochromatic colour scheme and use cobalt blue and golden yellow for features – this will set a period scene that is bang on trend with today’s style.
Incorporating geometric patterns into your space is also essential, and the best way to do this is with wallpaper. You can buy Art Deco-style wallpaper online, with our favourite colour scheme being navy blue and gold for a luxurious appearance.You can find more Art Deco styling tips for your bedroom here.
If you enjoyed this post head over to my 7 Everyday Choices for an Eco-Friendly Bedroom Design and Ways To Style Your Home With Fine Art America Prints
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