Art Deco Design and History
Paris of the 1920s launched a well-loved decorative style that would rapidly spread around the world. Art Deco infiltrated everything from architecture to fashion, movie-making to antique lighting fixtures. When a person interested in 20th-century style sees something that exudes this unique vintage look, they come to recognize it quickly. For others, some more details on what Art Deco truly is might help.
Characteristics of the Unique Art Deco Style
As a restorer of antique and vintage lighting fixture pieces, I have a lot of experience with this unique home furnishing look. As popular as the look was back between World War I and II, it took a few more decades for proper recognition to take hold. The general traits of this style matched the type of forward-looking optimism many people felt before WWII became a reality. Modern for the time, luxurious, optimistic, and progressive, Art Deco seemed to forecast a brave new future.
Geometry combined with opulent lines and figures grace many antique lighting ceiling fixtures or wall sconce styles. Some even look industrial with curves of metal and tinted or frosted glass. This differs from the Art Nouveau style, which focused more on organic or natural materials and motifs. The Art Deco design focus may have borrowed from earlier trends, as most do, but also sparked something truly unique. Other than a focus on the future and modernism, it was really all about how good things looked.
Why Art Deco Matters Today
When you shop for a stunning antique chandelier, neoclassical lighting fixture, or Spanish Revival wall sconces, you are looking to establish a sense of history and style in your home. Antique lighting fixtures hold the opportunity to truly reimagine a space. They shed light, get attention, and add a unique sense of art that differs from the throw pillows on your sofa or the paintings on your walls. A chandelier or sconce becomes part of the room, an intrinsic, fixed accent that gives more meaning than a transient piece of decoration.
For fans of the Art Deco movement, the same characteristics enjoyed by people between the wars are appreciated today. The modern age deals with so much advancement, automation, and high tech things that the style of most standard light fixtures succumb to mundanity and utility rather than true effect.
Choosing a beautifully restored Art Deco lighting piece for installation gives a nod toward that type of modern progress while anchoring it firmly in a type of vintage elegance that the current world lacks. All restoration of these authentic vintage lighting fixtures is done by hand, just as they were created so many decades ago. Pride in craftsmanship can only be met with a strong sense of pride in how carefully and thoroughly each piece is cleaned, refurbished, and given new life.
Just as home designers and collectors of Art Deco and other historical design movements appreciate the unique designs, some of which have been lost to time, I approach every restoration project with a sense of due care. My goal is to return these historical light fixtures to their original glory so new generations of property owners can enjoy their beautiful style.