All aboard! This Mega-Pack decal allows you to create a custom train track and train on your walls. Children will love mapping out their own train track, hooking up the rail cars, and decorating with the additional red, yellow, and green dots. It's so muc
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When a group of leading Parisian artists organized an exposition dedicated to modern industrial and decorative art in 1925, they sparked the birth of a short-lived but highly influential design movement later known as Art Deco. In the 20s and 30s it came to dominate the entire range of decorative arts, in fields as diverse as architecture, industrial design, and, of course, interior design. We can still see Art Deco buildings in many cities and, thanks to a resurgence in the 80s, in hotels and other commercial spaces. To get the complete picture all you have to do today is take a look at any Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical film of the 30s and you will be instantly submerged in the total Art Deco experience. I love the futurist faith central to Art Deco, a faith that now seems whimsical and naïve, but that created a thoroughly unique design language that can add a wistful element of nostalgia and playfulness to contemporary interior design.
Art Deco was, above all, modern with a capital M. The geometric shapes, sharp angles, stepped patterns and sweeping curves were meant to capture the rapid advances in industry and technology that characterized the early 20th Century. This is why some of the most iconic examples of Art Deco style are the hi-tech symbols of the time: skyscrapers, ocean liners, radios and even phonographs. It's why the favored materials were aluminum, glass and stainless steel. Even the wood was shiny, either lacquered or inlaid. The floors were shiny as well, marble or tile, often with checkerboard patterns. Rugs featured geometric patterns, while Zebra skin and shagreen (snake skin) covered decorative surfaces. Mirrors were usually round and plentiful. Sunburst and chevron motifs could be seen on everything from furniture to woman's shoes to radiator grilles on cars. Paradoxically, while Art Deco was the epitome of Modernism, influences included patterns and symbols from Aztec Mexico, Egypt and Africa.
Poster art was in its heyday, with some of the finest illustrators capturing the Deco style in advertising for consumer products, the performing arts and sporting events. Ivory, jade and stained glass were common materials for accessories, which were usually tall and thin and graceful, with gentle curves. Patterns on wall coverings often featured foliage, stylized animals and nudes.
The cataclysm of World War II closed the book on Art Deco, as modern technology became more identified with death and destruction than advanced design. And while there has been some isolated resurgence, today Art Deco is mostly viewed nostalgically as a look back to time that is long gone. Due to its ubiquity in architecture and public places, you can still see great examples of Art Deco in cities around the world: the Chrysler Building and Radio City Music Hall in New York are but two of the many examples.
A few years ago I worked on my sister's Art Deco apartment in Paris. The living room featured sofas in grey leather with shiny burl wood, the custom cabinetry which hid the TV was done in cream lacquer, the walls were finished in very smooth Venetian plaster in a yellowish palette, and round, heavy mirrors were framed in Zebra and Ebony woods. Window treatments used a simple sheer to cover large windows and the floors were limestone squares. If you're going to do Deco, you need to follow through with at least an entire room, as the style demands continuity in all the elements of the space. The resulting effect transports you to a different and altogether more glamorous high society, where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced the night away, drinking champagne without a care in the world.
The purchasing of goods at auction is rather limited for those who are in business at any distance from New York City. While there are auction rooms located in some of the larger western and southern centers, the goods that are sold do not compare in quality to those handled by the large auctioneers in the East.
Auction buying demands a certain amount of experience and at the same time is an invaluable lesson in price gauging. The auction room is one of the best schools for the young professional interior decorator. It is however only valuable to the decorator who handles antiques, and whose clientele will value and pay for such articles.
From an educational standpoint, the decorator should attend the exhibitions of the goods before the sale, purchase the catalog, appraise the pieces and note the appraisal value on the catalog. These prices should be compared with the actual prices obtained at the auction. Some of the most famous auction rooms in the world are Christie's in London and Hotel Drouot in Paris. All classes of articles are sold in these places, and the largest decorators have agents in both of them to attend the sales constantly.
There are three principal methods of obtaining manufactured articles, and by using these methods the decorator obtains by far the greatest supply of all kinds of goods which he uses, particularly furniture reproductions, textiles, and floor and wall coverings.
These three methods are as follows:
By special purchasing trips made periodically by the decorator or his purchasing agents to the large manufacturing centers;
By the appointment of resident buying agents in the manufacturing centers;
By the traveling agents of the manufacturers, who make periodical trips covering the whole country.
The buying trips made by the decorators themselves are not absolutely necessary from the point of view of purchasing goods, as salesmen from any of the large manufacturers will call on the decorator in his own establishment, if requested to do so, but the buying trip, possibly made only once a year, gives the decorator an opportunity to see to much better advantage the latest developments in the decorative arts, and has a tendency to refresh and develop his mind, which if he remains continually in his own locality is of course impossible.
The second method is appointing a resident buyer in New York City, is followed by a great number of decorators, decorating departments, and retail furniture stores throughout the country. These resident buyers usually represent a large number of firms, and their officials, by the very nature of their business, are in constant touch with the manufacturers and importers, and are able to give better service on stock goods than the purchasing agents sent out by the decorators themselves.
There is a very huge group of "Buying Representatives" in New York, and the best way to obtain their names and addresses is through the advertising column of the various trade papers. The third method, that of receiving the sales representatives of the manufacturer, is perhaps the most common method of the three.
It, however, does not prohibit the adoption of either or both of the other methods if so desired. The manufacturers must of course be notified in order to have their representative call a decorator for the first time. Since the novice decorator will not know whom to communicate with, it will be necessary to give a brief list of some of the leading firms, although far more complete lists may be found in the advertising columns of the trade publications. The addresses of the following firms are the latest obtainable, but are of course subject to change. They are all in New York City, except as otherwise noted. Many of them also have branch establishments in other cities.
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