Accessorize your home the Arts and Crafts way

Today, if you decorated your home entirely in an Arts and Crafts style, it would look fussy and overbearing – and you would have to make a decision about whether you wanted matching flora on your curtains and cushions, or whether to just mix and match.

But adding a few Arts and Crafts items in each room creates a peaceful, attractive environment. For example, in your living room, keep your furniture plain, but add Morris-design curtains; or have a floral sofa as the main focus point, and then keep your soft furnishings plain.

In the dining room or kitchen, a Mackintosh-inspired table and chairs looks surprisingly contemporary. You can also get mirrors or picture frames with Mackintosh-style geometric and floral designs. Unfortunately, genuine Mackintosh items are exorbitantly expensive.

Many replicas exist, but if you go down this route, try and get the best quality, most authentic looking designs you can find. I used to live in Glasgow, and there were many shops selling cheap versions of Rennie Mackintosh designs, out of flimsy materials and with the occasional anachronistic design added.

If you can’t afford an original piece of furniture by an Arts and Crafts designer, you could choose prints for your walls, featuring their designs. A nice item to have is a print showing Rennie Mackintosh’s ladderback chair designs. However, this would go against Arts and Crafts teachings, as a print would be merely decorative, and not useful!

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Tags: art and crafts, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris

Category: Get a vintage home, Interiors, Vintage news