Your heritage and personal decorating style

Ethnic traditions, customs and attitudes carry forward our family values. Paying homage to family heritage and tradition also gives our children a strong sense of family ties. Our roots make us who we are, and respect for ancestral traditions gives the interior of your home a special uniqueness.

vernacular heritage

Regional architecture, called vernacular, designs structures to harmonize and blend with the environment. Designed to reflect the past, using historical influences, vernacular houses complement rather than dominate their surroundings. These houses recreate the traditional neighborhoods of the past with a strong sense of place.

Many vernacular structures provide friendly zones and encourage a relaxed lifestyle. For example, the adobe and stucco block houses of Santa Fe often have central patios. The cozy porches commonly found on Florida cookie houses invite neighboring cats. The wood-frame “shell houses” of Key West and North Carolina “low country” homes feature spacious decks and large windows to take advantage of the area’s cooling breezes.

Vernacular homes provide a protective transition space from the exterior to the interior, but homes without such transition spaces can greatly benefit when structural or landscaping details are added to harmonize the home’s private interior space with the outside world. If your home doesn’t have a covered driveway, consider adding a wood or iron frame or awning to create a sense of protection and shelter.

Ethnic influence on American architecture and furnishings

Since Americans have always built homes that mimic their home countries, it’s no surprise that Italian and Mediterranean villas, grand English country houses, and simple French farmhouses can be found all over the United States. Since our nation’s earliest days, Americans have taken design cues from around the world and copied, adapted, and redesigned their ethnic patterns and furnishings.

Patterns that originated in Africa, such as animal prints and complex geometries, have been duplicated in many ways. Mexican antiques, Danish and Swedish furniture, and oriental-influenced accessories have been intermingled in our homes. From the New England Cape Cods to the adobes of Santa Fe, our diverse heritage has influenced American architecture and interior design, while log cabins, rustic western interiors, and American folk art have suggested distinct American origins.

Emotional Style and Atmosphere

Style is the end result of decorating the combination of detailed features reminiscent of a particular era, art movement, or region, such as the Victorian era, Art Nouveau period, or Midwestern prairie style. The mood or emotional environment is the personal interpretation of the style to evoke feelings, whether they are clean, elegant, casual or romantically eclectic.

Architectural Styles: Structure and Furniture

It is better to reserve rooms of the same period or style for museums or exhibitions. Eclectic rooms mix furniture from different eras, like a contemporary sofa, silver maple Chippendale side table, and gilt Louis XVI mirror. The beautiful and the strange, the exquisite and the ordinary, mixed with frivolity and delight, create joyous homes.

The architectural style can refer to a structure or a type of furniture. Mixing vintage styles with today’s lifestyles is called New Traditionalism. Style combinations with a playful twist create rooms that are elegant and unpretentious. A few grand pieces, interspersed with simple furniture, will bring informality to an otherwise boring home.

The architectural style also influences the interior design. Understand the architectural style of your home and use it as a reference point for your decoration. For me, our modern furniture seemed totally out of place in our 1878 home, so we swapped out our glass dining table for a traditional wood one and replaced a sectional sofa with a squishy antique one.

Some Victorian houses look magnificent when furnished with contemporary furniture, but this is more difficult to achieve than the opposite, which is a contemporary house, furnished with antiques. Large old houses decorated with modern furnishings look best with plain, simple wall finishes and no-frills window coverings.

Juxtaposing styles from your heritage with other styles that suit your tastes creates interesting rooms and homes. Not every room in your home needs to incorporate the same style, but some room-to-room blending ensures harmony. Mixing heritage styles according to those who share your home also creates a harmonizing aura.

your personal style

If you have a strong affinity for a particular architectural style, incorporate it into your overall design plan. Encourage respect for your family’s traditions by surrounding yourself with ethnic furnishings and family heirlooms. Whether serenely elegant, traditionally formal or casually casual, whether dressing up or cutting back on decorative trim, any style can be tailored to your way of life.

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.