Scandinavian Kitchen Cabinets
This style of design is typified by clean horizontal and vertical lines. Compared to other designs there is a distinct absence of ornamentation. While Scandinavian design is easy to identify, it is much more about the materials than the design.
French Provincial Kitchen Cabinets
This style of design is very ornate. French Provincial objects are often stained or painted leaving the wood concealed. Corners and bevels are often painted with a gold leave or given some other kind of gilding. Flat surfaces often have artwork such as landscapes painted directly on them. The wood used in provincial varied, but was often originally Beech.[2]
Early American Colonial Kitchen Cabinets
This design emphasises both form and materials. Early American chairs and tables are often constructed with turned spindles and chair backs often constructed with steaming to bend the wood. Wood choices tend to be deciduous hardwoods with a particular emphasis on the wood of edible or fruit bearing trees such as Cherry or Walnut.[3]
Rustic Kitchen Cabinets
The rustic style of design sometimes called "log furniture" or "log cabin" is the least finished. Design is very utilitarian yet seeks to feature not only the materials used but in as much as possible, how they existed in their natural state. For example a table top may have what is considered a "live edge" that allows you to see the original contours of the tree that it came from. It also often uses whole logs or branches including the bark of the tree. Rustic furniture is often made from Pine,Cedar, Fir and Spruce. Also see Adirondack Architecture.
Mission Style Kitchen Cabinets
Mission Design is characterized by strait thick horizontal and vertical lines and flat panels. The most common material used in Mission furniture is oak. Hardware is often visible on the outside of the pieces and made of black iron. It is a style that became popular in the early 20th century; popularized by designers in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveaux movements.
Oriental Kitchen Cabinets
Also known as Asian Design, this style of furniture is characterized by its use of materials such as bamboo and rattan. Red is a frequent color choice along with landscape art and Chinese or other Asian language characters on the pieces.
Shaker Kitchen Cabinets
Shaker furniture design is focused on function and symmetry. Because it is so influenced by an egalitarian religious community and tradition it is rooted in the needs of the community versus the creative expression of the designer. Like Early American and Colonial design, Shaker craftsmen often chose fruit woods for their designs. Pieces reflect a very efficient use of materials.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Kitchen Cabinets
History of Cabinet Building:
Before the advent of industrial design cabinet makers were responsible for the conception and the production of any piece of furniture. In the last half of the 18th century, cabinet makers such as Thomas Sheraton, Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite also published books of furniture forms. These books were compendiums of their designs and those of other cabinet makers.
With the industrial revolution and the application of steam power to cabinet making tools, mass production techniques were gradually applied to nearly all aspects of cabinet making, and the traditional cabinet shop ceased to be the main source of furniture, domestic or commercial. In parallel to this evolution there came a growing demand by the rising middle class in most industrialised countries for finely made furniture. This eventually resulted in a growth in the total number of traditional cabinet makers.
Before 1650, fine furniture was a rarity in western Europe and North America. Generally, people did not need it and for the most part could not afford it. They made do with simple but serviceable pieces.
The arts and craft movement which started in the United Kingdom in the middle of the 19th century spurred a market for traditional cabinet making, and other craft goods. It rapidly spread to the United States and to all the countries in the British empire. This movement exemplified the reaction to the eclectic historicism of the Victorian era and to the 'soulless' machine-made production which was starting to become widespread.
After World War II woodworking became a popular hobby among the middle classes. The more serious and skilled amateurs in this field now turn out pieces of furniture which rival the work of professional cabinet makers. Together, their work now represents but a small percentage of furniture production in any industrial country, but their numbers are vastly greater than those of their counterparts in the 18th century and before.
Before the advent of industrial design cabinet makers were responsible for the conception and the production of any piece of furniture. In the last half of the 18th century, cabinet makers such as Thomas Sheraton, Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite also published books of furniture forms. These books were compendiums of their designs and those of other cabinet makers.
With the industrial revolution and the application of steam power to cabinet making tools, mass production techniques were gradually applied to nearly all aspects of cabinet making, and the traditional cabinet shop ceased to be the main source of furniture, domestic or commercial. In parallel to this evolution there came a growing demand by the rising middle class in most industrialised countries for finely made furniture. This eventually resulted in a growth in the total number of traditional cabinet makers.
Before 1650, fine furniture was a rarity in western Europe and North America. Generally, people did not need it and for the most part could not afford it. They made do with simple but serviceable pieces.
The arts and craft movement which started in the United Kingdom in the middle of the 19th century spurred a market for traditional cabinet making, and other craft goods. It rapidly spread to the United States and to all the countries in the British empire. This movement exemplified the reaction to the eclectic historicism of the Victorian era and to the 'soulless' machine-made production which was starting to become widespread.
After World War II woodworking became a popular hobby among the middle classes. The more serious and skilled amateurs in this field now turn out pieces of furniture which rival the work of professional cabinet makers. Together, their work now represents but a small percentage of furniture production in any industrial country, but their numbers are vastly greater than those of their counterparts in the 18th century and before.
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