Monday, April 11, 2016

19th Century Bedroom Furnishing

Below the excerpts come from The Furniture Gazette and speaks to the types of Furniture designs for the 1884 Bedroom. I've included two illustrations from the same periodical. Enjoy!


ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR A
BEDROOM SUITE.

A FEW years back a Wardrobe was simply a Cupboard, sometimes of deal and at other times of mahogany. The better, or rather the more expensive, class of Wardrobe (for there was very little difference in the construction) was invariably of mahogany, the enrichment being of the most meagre description. If economy was not an object, it was made "round-cornered" or breakfronted, as the case might be. We have changed all that now, and the manufacturer who only keeps such goods in stock will find very few customers. To satisfy present requirements, a Wardrobe must, besides containing all the interior accommodation of the old-fashioned ones, present a far more attractive exterior.
One of our Separate Plates shows a piece of furniture of the improved type, which would, we think, form a tasteful addition to a bedroom if properly carried out. The choice of woods must depend largely on the surroundings and on individual taste; but in our opinion walnut or rosewood, with light inlays, would find most admirers. The centre glass is bevelled, and the diamonds in the small side doors are also of silvered bevelled plates.
The same remarks as to wood apply to remainder of Suite, shown on the second Plate. The diamond-shaped panels in Wash-stand doors should be of wood, not glass, as they are below the eye and useless for reflection. The decorations of a bedroom, we may add, should be as unobtrusive as possible, and in pale, soft tints.


WE illustrate herewith a complete Suite of Bedroom Furniture. Although wooden bedsteads are not in as general favour as they were years ago, they still enjoy a certain amount of popularity. The one figured on our Separate Plate is a half-tester. It has a panelled and carved high head-board, ornamental foot-rail, and square posts partly fluted. The Wardrobe has all the usual accommodation, including hanging cupboards, shelves for books and ornaments, and several large and small drawers. The dressing - table is replete with the customary requisites. In the washstand provision is made for two cupboards and a centre drawer. The back is filled in with tiles, and a looking-glass is fixed in the centre of the back. The seat and part of the back of the chairs are stuffed. The different items here illustrated are intended to be made up in rosewood, light coloured silk hangings being used in the room; and the chairs would, of course, be covered with materials to match. The Bedroom Suite under notice, which is of an effective character, has been designed by Mr. James Peddler, manufacturer of furniture, of Cranmer-road, Brixton.
(Unfortunately the illustrations were not fully copied but you can get an idea from the descriptions given.)


PERHAPS no other description of furniture has been so greatly improved during recent years as that intended for the bedroom. It is now almost universally recognised that a room intended for repose ought to contain nothing which can fatigue the eye. Time was when huge four-posters were considered indispensable to every sleeping-apartment: when toilet-tables were encircled with a sort of muslin petticoat, and when most other pieces of bedroom furniture were mainly conspicuous for their bad design and their ill adaptation to their intended purpose. Happily all this has been changed: and our modern sleeping-apartments are frequently the embodiment of good taste in the matter of decoration as well as furniture.
Source: The Furniture Gazette ©1884

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