Argento, Chinoiserie and Decoupage - Decorative Furniture
Theodore Alexander’s Argento Collection has once more been featured as on-trend for 2008. This month Traditonal Home magazine focuses on the lure of all things metallic. The use of gold furnishings and accents in the home can lighten a room, provide a brilliant point of focus or simply add a glistening touch of luxury.
The featured Agento chest (see above) is a delicate, distressed cream with a golden floral motif at the centre. A smooth golden line traces across the top of this unique piece, and it is finished with brass handles and feet.
The decorative detail of Theodore Alexander’s range of Chinoiserie furniture is wonderfully delicate and feminine, with hand painted flowers, butterflies and plants. The use of black as a base colour lends it great versatility in interior design.
Chinoiserie as a fashionable style swept across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, inspiring Asian influenced architecture, porcelain, fabrics, wallpaper and furniture. The term chinoiserie (the French word for Chinese-esque) originally came about as a name for the fusion style of European art with Eastern influences. Most Chinoiserie designs are only loosely based on original Asian art. Historically, Chinoiserie as a style is a mixture of the whimsical, the beautiful and the exotic.
Découpage was a highly popular hobby for European ladies in the 18th and 19th centuries. The decorative technique involves gluing coloured paper onto an object, be it a vase or a piece of furniture, perhaps in combination with the use of gold leaf or painting. Each layer is sealed with a varnish until the surface of the piece is entirely smooth. Famous enthusiasts of this simple decorative art have included Marie Antoinette, the English Regency dandy Beau Brummell and Queen Victoria herself.
Examples of antique découpage show elaborate, sometimes fantastic depictions of musical instruments, flowers, butterflies and birds, painstakingly cut out from periodicals and pattern-books.
Theodore Alexander uses this historic technique to create beautiful accent pieces for the modern home.
More: theodorealexander.com
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