1901 - 1939
The Edwardian era was influenced by diverse styles over a short period of time. Initially there was a return to classical elegance & simplicity. Art Nouveau, regarded as the first modern style of this era, sought its initial inspiration in the natural world, embracing plant forms and organic lines.
Art Deco emerged from the bleakness of the First World War, to provide a fresh new look that was more angular and streamlined, yet lavish and unashamedly contemporary. Initially Art Deco embraced simple and abstract motifs in elegant and exotic forms, this abstraction being well illustrated in the work and particularly the furniture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Edwardian walls tended to feature muted but lighter colours derived from nature such as yellows, greens and blues. Dado rails disappeared, leaving only the picture rail, and walls were decorated in uniform colours with contrasting woodwork painted in either a very dark or very light shade. Ceilings were painted in off-white and had relatively simple mouldings.
Art Deco retained some of this neutrality but also experimented with brighter shades such as pinks, turquoises, aquas and blues, many of the colours inspired by shades favoured in the fashionable grand hotels of the time.
In sitting, dining and bedrooms, Edwardian floors were of stained and varnished parquet, covered with rugs. In other areas such as the kitchen, hall, bathroom and porch, heavily patterned tiles arranged in panels and interspersed with white tiles to accentuate the detail are more authentic.
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