Mediterranean & French Furniture Styles

My latest school lesson has been on furniture and history of the Italian and French Renaissance periods.  It actually has been really interesting to see the different styles of furniture in lieu with what was happening in history at the same time.  Never thought I'd be getting such a great history lesson while studying interior decorating!  I thought I'd make a post to help all of you do-it-yourself decorators with how to tell the different styles apart and to help myself review the material better.  =]

To differentiate different styles of Mediterranean and French design, there are a lot of different details to look for.  Let's start with Mediterranean.

Mediterranean furniture is very heavy and ornate.  Usually the furniture has leather with studding and is full of straight lines or mechanical curved lines.

Mediterranean style really gave way to the French style of Louis XIV in the sense of being heavy and still having generally straight lines.  Louis XIV furniture tended to be massive in scale to fit Louis XIV's grand age of decorating and reign as the "Sun King."  Due to the bigger size, you'll see many pieces with stretchers, (the X-shape underneath a chair or table) that help to support the large furniture.  This style also tends to have furniture upholstered in rich fabrics with fringe detailing.  Some people refer to Louis XIV style as French Baroque, meaning very ornate and ornamented.

After Louis XIV's reign, along came Louis XV, (at the age of FIVE).  Over Louis XV's ruling, furniture became much smaller, more delicate, curved, and romantic.  Everything was about freeform curves and Rococo, (decor featuring rocks, shells, musical instruments, and general nature motifs) decorations.  You will not find any leg stretchers for chairs here, nor will you find furniture that looks heavy or utilitarian.

Next up we have the last of the Louis', Louis XVI.  While Louis XVI was ruling, Madame de Pompadour, (Doctor Who fans, you know who I'm talking about!  She smooched Tennant in his first season as the tenth doctor!) funded the exploration of the newly discovered ancient city, Pompeii.  Due to the exciting new Roman architecture that was found, French furniture reflected it in a fancier fashion.  Legs of tables and chairs were no longer found with the cabriole leg and were now straight with fluting to reflect columns.  Furniture still looked delicate, but now was back to straight lines and mechanical curves along with new motifs, such as the lyre and urns.

The last style I want to mention is the Empire style.  I am not going to go into depth about French Provincial, (think Belle's neighborhood in Beauty & the Beast) or the Directoire style simply because I'm running out of time before I have to go to work!  But the Empire style makes me laugh at it's gaudiness, so I have to show you some pictures of what was "in" back then.  Empire style, (pronounded "ahm-PEER") was full of heavy looking pieces with gaudy ormolu mounts on them.  Think Egyptian Sphinxes on chairs and naked mermaids casted onto tables.  Boat beds and recamiere chairs became popular along with mythological creature and seductive women motifs.

So that's it!  A nice short lesson on Mediterranean and French furniture!  I know, you didn't even know you wanted that until you saw it.  I've got you covered!  =D  Let me know which style is your favourite, or least favourite, and if you'd ever consider using any in decorating your own home!  I know I probably wouldn't unless it was a much more modern version of some of the pieces I showed you, like console tables or MAYBE a recamiere chair in my dream grand bathroom someday. 

Thanks for reading!  =D