mood board: Georgian style

(BBC's Downton Abbey / Highclere Castle - Drawing Room)With the popularity of the British show, Downton Abbey, interest naturally sparked in English country estates and their beautiful interiors. Downton Abbey is the fictional setting of the very real Highclere Castle, home of the Earls of Carnarvon, in Hampshire, England. To pay homage to the incomparable English style and to continue our series of mood boards, we’re delving into one of their most popular styles:  the Georgian period. 

The Georgian style was named of course for the reigning British monarchs of the 18^th century, George I through George III.  The most famous cabinetmaker to emerge from this period was Thomas Chippendale.  The Early Georgian period was really an extension of the earlier Queen Anne style and their hallmark feature in furniture was the cabriole leg.  Cabinetmakers just added more sculptural detail to the leg, such as eagles, lions, and satyrs.  Chippendale then entered the scene and refined the furniture lines and gave Georgian furniture a more graceful form.

In our Georgian mood board, we have fine examples of Chippendale furniture, such as the Chippendale settee from Agostino and an upholstered wing chair in mahogany from the Stanley Weiss Collection.  Both have the distinctive cabriole legs and ball and claw foot with scroll detail at the knee.

Tea drinking also entered the English culture in the early 18^th century and all kinds of furnishings devoted to this habit arose. On our board is an elegant mahogany Chippendale tea table from Clinton Howell Antiques. Beautiful ceramics in the form of teapots and teacups also became popular.  We have here an enameled teapot from Vandekar and a Royal Worcester teacup set.

Chinese trade spurred the import of porcelain ware.  An English drawing room was not considered complete without some kind of exotic Chinese accessory.  Complementing our Georgian room is a turquoise glazed Mandarin Palette vase from the Qing Dynasty.  Cartouches depicting Chinese figures in a garden setting grace the front.  Handles in the shape of Rouge de Fer dragons add to the exotic detail.  The vase is available from Vallin Galleries. 

Portraits were a popular form of art work during this time and the subjects usually stood in front of their estate or some kind of classical folly or ruin.  Our painting here is by artist John Lewis of Mrs. Yeats in front of a fantasy Greek temple. 

In our photo above of the drawing room at Highclere Castle, there is a mixture of different styles – as each generation of the Carnarvon family changed and added to the furnishings. The sofa is most likely from the early 20^th century but the armchairs may have been of the Georgian period but they could also just be reproductions. 

Interested in learning how to create mood boards?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories. 

mood board: Art Deco

Elegance, sophistication, and glamour describe the Art Deco era, but this was just the frosting on a multi-tiered cake.  Art Deco culminated from the convergence of global culture and tastes – with motifs that included modern geometrics, Egyptian, Babylonian, African, and Aztec styles and Greco-Roman classicism.   For the latest in our series of mood boards, we’ll rediscover the glamorous world of Art Deco style. 

Art Deco was the nickname given for the style that arose from the influential 1925 world’s fair that occurred in Paris, France called the Exposition Internationale des Artes Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne.  Legendary designers, artisans, and architects contributed to the World Fair, including glass designer Rene Lalique, furniture designer Emile-Jacques Rhulmann, architect Le Corbusier, to name a few.

In our first mood board above, we show a French Art Deco console table from French Design, Inc. made from macassar ebony, a popular rich-looking wood of that era. Its center leg displays a gilt and silver artwork of geometric shapes.  On top of the table we have accessories that are globally inspired – the muscular Eve with Serpent sculpture from Renaissance Man is created in the Greek tradition and the vase, Biches Bleues, designed by Charles Catteau reflects African influences. The vase is from the Modernism Gallery.

For seating, we have a streamlined lacquered club chair from French Design, Inc.  The delicate side table, reminiscent of furniture designer Emile-Jacques Rhulmann, is made of rosewood and covered in shagreen, available from Gary Rubinstein Antiques.  On top of the table from TFTM Gallery is the coffee service from ocean liner, Il de France, and designed in the iconic Art Deco geometric shapes.  For lighting we have a French chandelier designed by Petitot and available from Versailles Antiques.  Petitot created an octagonal shaped light made of nickeled bronze and frosted glass insets with a sunburst design. The rug, though not Art Deco, is very geometric and is from Safavieh. 

For our second mood board on Art Deco, we have a lighter look with the furnishings.  The hemispherical desk is an American art deco style using mahogany with a sunburst inlay on its writing surface and figured maple veneer on its drawers.  The club chair is upholstered in gold velvet and both are available from Antiques of River Oaks.  The tall secretaire from Paul Stamati is made of macassar ebony inlaid with ivory detailing – see the diamond pattern.  For artwork, we have a cubist tile panel designed by Harris Strong and is available from Greenwich Living Antiques.  Lighting the room are half-moon lacquered sconces from Maison Gerard. 

Art Deco may have had its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s but the look is still being reproduced to this day.  These Art Deco furnishings may be mixed with more contemporary pieces that share the elegant and glamorous mood. 

mood board: Old-World and New-World Glam

We all dream of the glamorous life: jetsetting to Paris, designer clothes, and throwing fabulous cocktail parties amidst a gorgeous setting.  I can't help you with the travel or the clothes, but here's how you can reproduce that glamorous room with our mood boards of the month: Old-World and New-World Glam. Lounge back, sip a cocktail and enjoy!

When you fantasize glamorous settings, you probably picture old Hollywood sets starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or the French Art Deco interiors full of Jean-Michel Frank, Lalique, and Emile-Jacque Ruhlmann furniture (okay, maybe that's just me). These furnishings and style may have come from the 1930s and 1940s but they’re still being copied to this day, showing that true glamour never goes out of style.

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mood board: Shabby Chic

Like a grand dame in her waning years, a shabby chic home reflects faded beauty and elegance but with blurry features. Despite this decay, Shabby Chic became a very popular style that gathered steam in the 1980s and continues to be a fashionable choice till today.  In our continuing series on mood boards, we’ll delve into the elements of a shabby chic interior.

Despite its emergence as a somewhat contemporary style, shabby chic has actually been around for a long time – the style really derives from the faded elegance of old British country manors.  The British upper class commissioned furniture makers to create long-lasting quality furniture and basically handed it down to their heirs.  Sometimes their descendents replaced the furniture with newer styles but as fortunes waned, some kept the more popular pieces – the Georgian and neoclassical styles – until it broke down.  What started as mere frugality eventually became a style statement in the 1980s. 

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mood board: Moroccan style

It may have started with Valentino stealing a kiss in the casbah or Lawrence of Arabia storming across rippling sands astride a camel, but our fascination with desert cultures has had a long history and continues till today. In this month’s Mood Board, we explore the exotic desert land of Morocco to discover the elements of Moroccan style.

Natives of the desert have lived primarily a nomadic, tribal life and consequently their furnishings had to be portable too.   Through their travels they carried with them pillows for their seating, small tables and folding chairs to dine with, and rugs to cover the sand.  Eventually some natives settled into walled cities - the casbah - but their homes still echo their past nomadic lifestyles. 

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