Historical Design Movements
Influential design eras and movements from Art Deco to Mid-Century Modern that continue to inspire contemporary interiors.
50 terms in this category
A
Aesthetic Movement
A late 19th-century British movement promoting "art for art's sake," featuring refined decorative elements, peacock motifs, sunflowers, Japanese-influenced designs, and muted artistic color palettes.
Art Deco Movement
A bold decorative style of the 1920s and 1930s featuring geometric patterns, rich colors, lavish ornamentation, and luxurious materials that celebrated modernity and glamour.
Art Nouveau Movement
A decorative art movement from the late 19th to early 20th century characterized by sinuous organic lines, floral motifs, and the integration of art into everyday objects and architecture.
Arts and Crafts Movement
A late 19th-century movement rejecting industrial mass production in favor of handcrafted quality, natural materials, simple forms, and the integration of beauty into everyday functional objects.
B
Baroque
A dramatic European style from the 17th century defined by grandeur, rich colors, bold ornamentation, and a sense of movement and opulence in both architecture and interior decoration.
Bauhaus Movement
A revolutionary German design school and movement (1919-1933) that unified art, craft, and technology, championing functional design, clean lines, and the principle that form follows function.
Belle Epoque
The golden age of European culture and design (1871-1914) characterized by optimism, artistic innovation, luxurious materials, and a confident blend of historical styles with emerging Art Nouveau influences.
Biedermeier
A Central European design style from 1815-1848 that brought neoclassical elegance to the middle class, featuring light-colored wood, clean lines, practical forms, and comfortable bourgeois domesticity.
Brutalism
A mid-20th-century architectural movement characterized by raw exposed concrete, monumental forms, bold geometric shapes, and an honest expression of materials and structure.
C
Chinoiserie
A European decorative style from the 17th-18th centuries inspired by imaginative interpretations of Chinese art, featuring pagodas, dragons, lattice patterns, and exotic landscapes.
Chippendale Style
A mid-18th-century English furniture style named after Thomas Chippendale, blending Rococo, Gothic, and Chinese elements into masterful mahogany pieces with elaborate carvings and distinctive fretwork.
Constructivism
A Russian avant-garde movement from the early 20th century that applied abstract geometric forms and industrial materials to art and design, emphasizing functionality and social purpose.
D
De Stijl
A Dutch art and design movement founded in 1917 that reduced forms to geometric essentials, using only primary colors plus black and white to create harmonious abstract compositions.
Directoire Style
A transitional French style from the 1790s bridging Louis XVI and Empire periods, featuring simplified classical motifs, lighter proportions, and revolutionary symbols in a restrained elegant manner.
E
Edwardian Style
A lighter, more relaxed evolution of Victorian design from the early 1900s, featuring softer colors, increased natural light, simpler decoration, and a blend of traditional and modern influences.
Empire Style
A grand neoclassical style from Napoleonic France (1804-1815) featuring bold military motifs, Egyptian and classical references, heavy proportions, and lavish use of gilt, marble, and bronze.
F
Federal Style
An American neoclassical design style from 1780-1830 inspired by ancient Greece and Rome, featuring delicate proportions, patriotic eagle motifs, oval rooms, and refined classical ornamentation.
French Provincial
A rustic yet elegant design style originating from the French countryside, adapting Parisian court fashions into warmer, simpler forms using local materials, curved lines, and muted natural colors.
Futurism Design
An early 20th-century Italian movement celebrating speed, technology, and modernity through dynamic forms, bold colors, and designs that conveyed a sense of movement and energy.
G
Georgian Style
A refined British architectural and interior design style spanning from 1714 to 1830, characterized by classical symmetry, elegant proportions, and restrained decorative elements.
Gilded Age Design
The lavish American design style of the 1870s-1900s when wealthy industrialists built grand mansions inspired by European palaces, featuring imported materials, eclectic historicism, and unrestrained opulence.
Gothic Revival
A 19th-century architectural and decorative movement that revived medieval Gothic forms, featuring pointed arches, elaborate tracery, stained glass, and dramatic vertical proportions.
H
Hepplewhite Style
A late 18th-century English furniture style attributed to George Hepplewhite, known for light elegant forms, shield-back chairs, delicate inlay, and a refined neoclassical simplicity.
Hollywood Regency Style
A glamorous mid-20th-century style born from Golden Age Hollywood, characterized by dramatic contrasts, mirrored surfaces, lacquered finishes, bold colors, and luxurious textures.
J
Jacobean Style
An English design style from the early 17th century featuring heavy carved furniture, elaborate plasterwork ceilings, dark oak, turned legs, and a transition from Tudor heaviness toward Renaissance refinement.
Japonisme
A 19th-century Western design trend inspired by Japanese art and aesthetics following the opening of Japan in the 1850s, embracing asymmetry, nature motifs, simplicity, and refined craftsmanship.
Jugendstil
The German and Scandinavian expression of Art Nouveau, featuring organic flowing lines, stylized natural forms, and an emphasis on total design integrating architecture with decorative arts.
L
Louis XIV Style
The grand Baroque style of the Sun King's court (1643-1715), featuring imposing symmetry, lavish gilding, heavy carved furniture, rich tapestries, and overwhelming opulence symbolizing absolute royal power.
Louis XV Style
An elegant mid-18th-century French Rococo style featuring graceful asymmetric curves, cabriole legs, natural motifs, pastel colors, and intimate scale reflecting the shift from court grandeur to salon refinement.
Louis XVI Style
A late 18th-century French neoclassical style that replaced Rococo curves with straight lines, classical motifs, refined proportions, and architectural elements inspired by ancient Greece and Rome.
M
Memphis Design
A radical 1980s Italian design movement led by Ettore Sottsass that rejected minimalism with bold colors, clashing patterns, asymmetric forms, and playful references to pop culture.
Mid-Century Modern Movement
A transformative design movement from the 1940s-1960s that democratized good design through organic forms, new materials, indoor-outdoor connections, and the optimistic belief that modern design could improve daily life.
Mission Style
An American furniture and design style from the late 19th century inspired by Spanish mission architecture, featuring simple rectilinear forms, exposed joinery, and heavy oak construction.
N
Napoleon III Style
An eclectic Second Empire French style (1852-1870) blending historical references with industrial-age luxury, featuring deep button tufting, rich fabrics, dark woods, and opulent layered decoration.
Neoclassicism
An 18th-century design movement inspired by archaeological discoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum, reviving ancient Greek and Roman forms with refined symmetry, classical motifs, and noble simplicity.
P
Palladian Style
An architectural and design style based on the works of Andrea Palladio, emphasizing mathematical harmony, temple-front porticos, symmetrical floor plans, and classical Roman proportions.
Postmodernism Design
A late 20th-century design philosophy that challenged modernist austerity by embracing eclecticism, historical references, irony, color, and ornamentation in architecture and interiors.
Prairie Style
An American architectural style pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1900s, featuring strong horizontal lines, open floor plans, natural materials, and integration with the landscape.
R
Regency Style
An elegant early 19th-century British design style combining neoclassical refinement with exotic influences, known for its restrained decoration, clean lines, and sophisticated use of color.
Renaissance Design
A design movement rooted in the 14th-17th century cultural rebirth in Europe, emphasizing symmetry, proportion, classical motifs, and rich materials inspired by ancient Greek and Roman aesthetics.
Rococo
An ornate 18th-century decorative style originating in France, characterized by elaborate curves, pastel colors, gilding, and whimsical motifs inspired by shells, scrolls, and nature.
S
Shaker Style
A distinctly American design tradition from the Shaker religious community, renowned for its radical simplicity, functional perfection, fine craftsmanship, and the belief that utility is beauty.
Sheraton Style
A late 18th-century English furniture style named after Thomas Sheraton, featuring straight geometric lines, tapered legs, refined proportions, and delicate decorative painting and inlay.
Streamline Moderne
A 1930s evolution of Art Deco influenced by aerodynamic industrial design, featuring smooth curved forms, horizontal speed lines, chrome accents, and nautical references.
W
Wiener Werkstatte
A Viennese arts and crafts workshop (1903-1932) that produced distinctive designs combining geometric precision with decorative richness, bridging Art Nouveau and early Modernism.
William and Mary Style
A late 17th-century Anglo-Dutch furniture style featuring trumpet-turned legs, marquetry, lacquerwork, and a lighter more elegant approach that introduced Dutch and Chinese influences to English design.
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