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.
