Besides the functional
use of furniture, it also has an ornamental use in the
living room. If you want to recreate a period
lifestyle or adapt your living room to the popular fad
of a time period, you may want to buy authentic
antique furniture of that time that reflects the
particular traits that makes it unique and in keeping
with the social taste of the times. It is their link
to history and perhaps some astonishing stories from
the past that are often passed down with heirlooms
from generation to generation that attracts so many
people to antique furniture pieces and sometimes make
them much more expensive than the brand new items.
An epoch from furniture timeline
exudes similar style of craftsmanship, use of material or theme
that identifies a piece to belong to that period. To buy an
antique furniture piece, you must have good knowledge of furniture
history and styles in different countries and periods. People
often pass of d\fake antiques that are not even faithful
reproductions of the antique you want. It can be quite complicated
to identify true antiques, imitations, variations, alterations and
restorations and though, the seller may not always intend to cheat
you, he or she may have marred the authenticity of the furniture
due to lack of skill and knowledge and going for totally
incompatible furnishing requirements.
So, buying antique living room furniture requires a lot of
research and eye of an expert. Arts and Crafts Movement in America
is reputed to produce the best furniture designs and arts craft
furniture living room style puts best pieces belonging to this
period on display in the living room. The artistic elements of the
furniture and its affordability made it popular with the masses.
It is quite functional and is also known as 'Mission style
furniture' sometimes as the furniture designs were derivatives if
Franciscan missions in California. Also known as Craftsman
furniture, arts and crafts living room furniture has distinctive
design elements and was usually plain and simple. It was quite
durable and heavy and had strong joints and was usually made with
hardwoods such as solid white or red oak that was quarter-sawed to
highlight the wood grain in a special way and was then treated to
have long-lasting finish.
Arts and Crafts chairs and tables are generally made up of wooden
slats with straight legs that have stretchers in between. The dark
leather upholstery was most popular then and quality
craftsmanship; good proportions, highlighted wood grains and rich
colors mark them as unique. High quality handmade arts and craft
furniture for your living room can be quite expensive. Cheaper
quality furniture made by machines could also last very long.
Victorian living room furniture on the other hand is extremely
ornate and had exquisite carving details on display.
The furniture from this era is usually made up of darkest wood
unlike light mahogany finish and satinwood that were used
previously. The popular materials used for Victorian furniture
were dark mahogany with a reddish tinge, rosewood, black walnut
and bog oak. Rich deep hue of dark oak was preferred and the size
of the furniture was often colossal. The relief work in the
furniture included skilful and ornamental carvings of flowers,
fruit, animals and human figures. The Victorian furniture used to
be quite expensive. However, from today's perspective, we can put
it down as massive, clumsy and ill proportioned. Only the
cabinetry of the Georgian period is still treasured today.
