What is the difference between the Mission and Arts and Crafts styles?
It’s not unusual to see a particular home decor item marked “mission/arts and crafts.” This leads to the misconception that these two styles are the same, although this is not true. Home accessories in the mission style will not necessarily match those in the arts and crafts style, although the styles do have some similarities. Knowing the difference between the two can help you tell them apart in stores, especially when you’re shopping for home accessories and decor and want to create a more authentic space.
ID: mission style
Surprisingly, the terms “quest” and “artisan” are interchangeable. These two styles refer to exactly the same style of architecture and home decoration. This happened like many things today: through the media. To make a long story short, a peddler from Stickley Craftsman Furniture was talking to a newspaper reporter, who turned around and used the term “mission” for the furniture in the catalog shown “in a Spanish mission”, instead of using the term craftsman. Since then the term has stuck and is now easily used interchangeably with the term “craftsman”.
That being said, knowing where the style comes from doesn’t help differentiate what it looks like. Craftsman is actually a variation on the Arts and Crafts style. It arose at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. It features larger, thicker lines than those seen in Craftsman-style furniture and home décor pieces. These lines were clean and unadorned, with no excessive ornate detail, but rather straight lines and angles with very little additional and unnecessary embellishment.
ID: Arts and Crafts Styling
As noted above, Mission-style furniture and home décor products feature larger, thicker lines. Arts and crafts refers to the style from which the mission (artisan) evolved. The Arts and Crafts style of home decor began in the late 1800s, just before the mission/craftsman style began to emerge.
Craftsman-style furnishings are simple yet elegant. It features slimmer lines but simple and beautiful shapes. Unlike the mission style, however, the handcrafted furniture and other home decor items featured a bit of ornateness: hand carving, inlays into the wood, subtle curvature, etc. These seemingly minor differences can actually help make it easier to spot the difference between arts and crafts home decor and mission home decor.
Once you’re aware of these seemingly subtle differences, you can quickly begin to differentiate between furniture, home accessories, and décor that are artisan or mission and those pieces that are arts and crafts. Many people are under the impression that these styles are all the same, but knowing the basics, including the difference in line weight and the use of inlays, shows how truly different these styles are.