The beauty of the past: From the formal Louis the XV to French provincial ( also called country French), The English periods of Chippendale, Tudor & Queen Anne and the Americana Colonial and Shaker styles. Period design re-creates an era long past. Dramatic damasks, soft strie’s and stripes, plush velvets and brocades. The elegant lines of a wingback chairs to the intricate carvings of a French Berg ere. The rounded front of a demi-lune chest to the stately blah blah blah. Traditional design celebrates our heritage with warm woods and subtle palettes and hues. It anchors the home and the rooms in permanency and tradition.

This is the practice of combining various styles and or furniture periods into a harmonious design scheme. For instance placing those loved heirlooms and antiques in a room with something a bit more modern or contemporary in styling and voila-it works! Successful transitional design is the practice of melding colors and shapes, textures and forms from different periods and creating a harmonious open ended design allowing for additional and deletions without sacrificing the overall concept.

Typically defined as a period of architecture and style of furniture post dating the 1920’s, contemporary is not exactly a style at all, it is simply all that is not traditional. There are many styles under the general heading of Contemporary including Modern, Dada, Deconstruction, Art Deco etc) Typically we think of such masters as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbousier, Marcel Brewer and Frank Lloyd Wright to name a few. Incorporating more industrial materials and functional lines contemporary leans toward the uncluttered and simple interiors with vast expanses of glass and materials such as steel, concrete and cut stone. Many times by mixing the use of bolder colors and textures to off set the smooth clean lines of stone/glass and steel a soft and very livable environment emerges. Today’s well bred contemporary will be tomorrow’s heirlooms.