Art deco was a true international style that found great popularity in the United States and Western Europe, especially Paris. WWII heralded the end of the glitz and glamour as form gave way to function. However, art deco never truly fell out of fashion and it has always held a place in the annals of interior design. In more recent years, the trend has been gaining more and more momentum and we're seeing a resurgence of the opulent styling.
If you're looking to blow the dust off of your Great Gatsby book and create an art deco living room, we've put together a few hints and tips on how to achieve the perfect look with modern day styling. The first tip, however, is to be brave. Art deco is supposed to be opulent and glamorous, restrained art deco will look incomplete - it's an all or nothing style.
Geometric Fabrics Are Your Friend
In fact, geometics are your friend in general with art deco. Originally based on the principal of sophisticated sleek, clean and streamlined shapes. Look to incorporate geometrics into your space. Ashley Wilde's Delaunay fabric is the perfect fabric to create a set of luxury art deco curtains.
Art deco was inspired by and born out of geometrics, so embracing these patterns is a quick simple way to begin to build up an art deco space. Although it's important to be brave when designing an art deco space - it's equally important not to create something that's too busy. Geometrics are good, but patterns and colours that clash will result in your space looking too cluttered, decide what direction you're going in and stick to it.
If you're not looking to include geometrics within your soft furnishings, cubism inspired sideboards are an effective way to incorporate a sense of regularity into your space.
Don't Neglect Striped Fabrics
Moving away from geometrics - stripes are a staple of art deco styling. As with the geometric patterns, striped curtains or blinds are a fantastic way to add this all important element into your space. Embrace the uniformity of the striped fabrics and let them work for you. Clarke and Clarke have a fantastic Ticking Stripes collection which is well worth exploring on your hunt for the perfect striped fabric.
As with the geometrics, try to avoid clashing striping patterns. Again your space will look messy and uncoordinated. Including stripes in your soft furnishing like curtains, blinds or odd cushion is a great way to add a stripes to your space.
Embrace Brass
Be that brass finials on your curtain pole or brass curtain eyelets, brass should make up some part of your decor style. Another alternative is to find a fabric with brass coloured elements to it. The benefit of incorporating lighter fabrics into your space is it offers you an opportunity to brighten up your space and soften the darker shades which dominate the art deco style.
There's plenty of opportunity to include brass in your space. Be brave, bold and creative with your application and it will pay off. It's all about trusting your instincts.
Don't Be Afraid Of Animal Print Fabrics
If you feel that your space is falling a little flat, consider embracing animal prints - just embrace them sparingly! Animal prints offer you the perfect opportunity to breathe some unique life into your space if used with restraint. Trust your instincts and if you think it looks a little gaudy, it probably does. However, done right, animal prints can really uplift an art deco living room.
Kai's Animal Instincts collection has some fantastic animal print curtain fabrics which expertly find the sweet spot of being on trend without being tacky.
Most importantly when creating your art deco living room is to have fun, enjoy the process and embrace the opulence of the style. Done correctly, an art deco living room is a fantastic place to be and still looks seriously cool over 100 years since the style was first realised.
