Design Through the Decades: The 1900s
As we wrap up the 2010s, we look at key designs of the 20th century, such as Tiffany lamps, and their relevance today
Happy New Year — the last of the decade. What will the 2010s be remembered for in the home realm? As we ponder that question over these next short months (not to rush them!), let’s look back at iconic designs from previous decades, starting with 1900 to 1910, and their applications today. Like fine antiques, today’s trends have provenance, and remembering the past helps propel creativity forward.
Archer & Buchanan Architecture in Pennsylvania incorporated a Tiffany chandelier and an abundance of custom art glass by Selvin Glass — including the room divider of handblown rondels at left in this dining room — in a new build inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Originating in England, the movement’s proponents rejected mass production in favor of handicraft and natural materials.
See more of this house
See more of this house
Gaudí Mosaics
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí took Art Nouveau to perhaps its most flamboyant extreme. Many of his projects in Barcelona — including Park Güell, begun in 1900, and his 1904-06 renovation of Casa Batlló — feature sinuous shapes from flora and fauna that are covered in colorful shards of ceramic and glass.
Interior designer Tracey Stephens of New Jersey used this technique, known as trencadís or pique assiette, to create a one-of-a-kind kitchen backsplash out of broken china for her client.
Read more about this kitchen
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí took Art Nouveau to perhaps its most flamboyant extreme. Many of his projects in Barcelona — including Park Güell, begun in 1900, and his 1904-06 renovation of Casa Batlló — feature sinuous shapes from flora and fauna that are covered in colorful shards of ceramic and glass.
Interior designer Tracey Stephens of New Jersey used this technique, known as trencadís or pique assiette, to create a one-of-a-kind kitchen backsplash out of broken china for her client.
Read more about this kitchen
Lutyens Bench
The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the ascension to the British throne of her son Edward VII marked the decline of Victorian architecture and the rise of Edwardian architecture, which favored larger spaces and lighter colors. Coming after the previous century’s rapid industrialization and before the horrors of World War I, the gracious period is exemplified by the country houses of English architect Edwin Lutyens, who later helped plan the city of New Delhi.
The 8-foot carved oak garden bench he created in 1902 for the Little Thakeham estate in West Sussex is a design icon that endures in countless reproductions today. Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors in Illinois framed this one with brick piers and walls.
See more of this landscape
Find Lutyens-style benches in the Houzz Shop
The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the ascension to the British throne of her son Edward VII marked the decline of Victorian architecture and the rise of Edwardian architecture, which favored larger spaces and lighter colors. Coming after the previous century’s rapid industrialization and before the horrors of World War I, the gracious period is exemplified by the country houses of English architect Edwin Lutyens, who later helped plan the city of New Delhi.
The 8-foot carved oak garden bench he created in 1902 for the Little Thakeham estate in West Sussex is a design icon that endures in countless reproductions today. Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors in Illinois framed this one with brick piers and walls.
See more of this landscape
Find Lutyens-style benches in the Houzz Shop
La Cornue Range
The London firm Artichoke has designed cabinetry, furniture and other woodwork for many English country houses, including two by Lutyens. It has a large database of Lutyens moldings and an extensive library of period architectural detail.
Lutyens “was quite simply a genius, and the detail he introduced into his architecture was staggering,” says Artichoke’s Andrew Petherick, who looked to the architect for ideas when creating this Edwardian-style kitchen for a professional chef.
Petherick commissioned a copper La Cornue range to complement the client’s collection of copper cookware. The French company was founded in 1908 to make innovative ovens that used new natural gas lines to circulate heat around the food.
Read more about this kitchen
The London firm Artichoke has designed cabinetry, furniture and other woodwork for many English country houses, including two by Lutyens. It has a large database of Lutyens moldings and an extensive library of period architectural detail.
Lutyens “was quite simply a genius, and the detail he introduced into his architecture was staggering,” says Artichoke’s Andrew Petherick, who looked to the architect for ideas when creating this Edwardian-style kitchen for a professional chef.
Petherick commissioned a copper La Cornue range to complement the client’s collection of copper cookware. The French company was founded in 1908 to make innovative ovens that used new natural gas lines to circulate heat around the food.
Read more about this kitchen
Photo from the National Trust for Scotland
Mackintosh Furniture
Scotland’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect, a designer of interiors and furniture and an unconventional modernist. He envisioned houses from the inside out, letting the interior spaces dictate the exterior. And with his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, he blazed the trail toward white interiors decades before British designer Syrie Maugham.
He liked to punctuate the white backdrops with his distinctive stylized roses, pierced squares and ebonized high-back chairs like this one, designed in 1902 for the Hill House in Helensburgh. His chairs still look so otherworldly that they regularly turn up in sci-fi movies, including Blade Runner and Inception. Italian furniture company Cassina offers the Hill House chair as part of its I Maestri collection.
Mackintosh Furniture
Scotland’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect, a designer of interiors and furniture and an unconventional modernist. He envisioned houses from the inside out, letting the interior spaces dictate the exterior. And with his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, he blazed the trail toward white interiors decades before British designer Syrie Maugham.
He liked to punctuate the white backdrops with his distinctive stylized roses, pierced squares and ebonized high-back chairs like this one, designed in 1902 for the Hill House in Helensburgh. His chairs still look so otherworldly that they regularly turn up in sci-fi movies, including Blade Runner and Inception. Italian furniture company Cassina offers the Hill House chair as part of its I Maestri collection.
British furniture designer David Tragen crafted this china cabinet out of sycamore and purpleheart for a client and fellow Mackintosh enthusiast.
Look on Houzz for someone to make a custom furniture piece
Look on Houzz for someone to make a custom furniture piece
Wiener Werkstätte Furniture
David Estreich Architects and Gail Green Interiors also contrasted white and ebony with the walls and floors of this New York City apartment. The pedestal table and the graphic armchairs flanking it are early-1900s designs by Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) founders Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser for the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna and the nearby Purkersdorf Sanatorium, respectively. Striving for a synthesis of all arts, the Wiener Werkstätte was dedicated to producing utilitarian objects in a wide range of media, emphasizing artistry and quality over affordability.
The touches of gold in the room evoke paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, who collaborated with the Viennese group.
See more of this apartment
David Estreich Architects and Gail Green Interiors also contrasted white and ebony with the walls and floors of this New York City apartment. The pedestal table and the graphic armchairs flanking it are early-1900s designs by Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) founders Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser for the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna and the nearby Purkersdorf Sanatorium, respectively. Striving for a synthesis of all arts, the Wiener Werkstätte was dedicated to producing utilitarian objects in a wide range of media, emphasizing artistry and quality over affordability.
The touches of gold in the room evoke paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, who collaborated with the Viennese group.
See more of this apartment
Fortuny Lighting
Gaudí compatriot Mariano Fortuny trained as a painter and worked in the theater as a set designer and lighting engineer before he became known for his sumptuous fabrics and pleated dresses. His 1901 cyclorama dome, a stage structure used to create the illusion of an extensive sky that can quickly change from bright daylight to dusk, is among his 20-plus patents.
So is this height-adjustable floor lamp composed of an umbrella-like rotating shade on a tripod base. Although it was patented in 1907 and looks as if it belongs in a photographer’s studio or on a movie lot, it’s popular in today’s residential interiors, such as this New York loft by Kit Republic.
Browse photographer-style floor lamps on Houzz
Gaudí compatriot Mariano Fortuny trained as a painter and worked in the theater as a set designer and lighting engineer before he became known for his sumptuous fabrics and pleated dresses. His 1901 cyclorama dome, a stage structure used to create the illusion of an extensive sky that can quickly change from bright daylight to dusk, is among his 20-plus patents.
So is this height-adjustable floor lamp composed of an umbrella-like rotating shade on a tripod base. Although it was patented in 1907 and looks as if it belongs in a photographer’s studio or on a movie lot, it’s popular in today’s residential interiors, such as this New York loft by Kit Republic.
Browse photographer-style floor lamps on Houzz
Fortuny also invented new ways of dyeing, printing on and pleating fabrics. Today, Venetia Studium of Venice, Italy, where he spent most of his life, produces Fortuny chandeliers that merge his love of fine silks with his interest in light’s changing quality.
In this dining room by Jessica Helgerson Interior Design of Oregon, a delicate Fortuny Scudo Saraceno chandelier in ivory silk and an antique Venetian glass mirror balance the heavy wood table and the plain white chairs.
See more of this house
In this dining room by Jessica Helgerson Interior Design of Oregon, a delicate Fortuny Scudo Saraceno chandelier in ivory silk and an antique Venetian glass mirror balance the heavy wood table and the plain white chairs.
See more of this house
Voysey Wallpaper
By the turn of the 20th century, English architect Charles Voysey was already an established figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. He was influenced by William Morris and, in turn, influenced Lutyens and Mackintosh. Like them, Voysey was gifted in many of the decorative arts, including furniture, lighting, textiles and metalwork. His career as a wallpaper designer, however, outlasted his other creative pursuits and resulted in hundreds of patterns.
The owners of this 1905 home in Nashville, Tennessee, used a couple of Voysey wallpapers, including the Essex Rose pattern, designed circa 1906 and reproduced by Voysey specialist Trustworth Studios. Rendered in pastel gray-green, yellow and orange-red, the sunny, simple pattern features his signature heart motif hidden in the leaves and bramble.
See how boutique printers are keeping historical wallpapers alive
By the turn of the 20th century, English architect Charles Voysey was already an established figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. He was influenced by William Morris and, in turn, influenced Lutyens and Mackintosh. Like them, Voysey was gifted in many of the decorative arts, including furniture, lighting, textiles and metalwork. His career as a wallpaper designer, however, outlasted his other creative pursuits and resulted in hundreds of patterns.
The owners of this 1905 home in Nashville, Tennessee, used a couple of Voysey wallpapers, including the Essex Rose pattern, designed circa 1906 and reproduced by Voysey specialist Trustworth Studios. Rendered in pastel gray-green, yellow and orange-red, the sunny, simple pattern features his signature heart motif hidden in the leaves and bramble.
See how boutique printers are keeping historical wallpapers alive
Stickley Furniture
Furniture designer and manufacturer Gustav Stickley helped bring the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement to the United States. He and his guild designed sturdy, squarish pieces with exposed joinery and gave them a clear finish that highlighted the natural grain of the wood, especially American white oak.
In 1901 in Syracuse, New York, he founded the influential Craftsman magazine and began publishing plans for homes that were simple, affordable and in tune with the environment. “His idea was to empower the common man with the material and guidance needed to build that personal ‘Shangri-La,’ ” writes Ray Stubblebine in Stickley’s Craftsman Homes. The magazine’s title eventually lent its name to what’s known as Craftsman architecture.
Stickley was a better designer than a businessman; after he went bankrupt, his furniture-making brothers took over his company in 1918. Although no longer in the family, Stickley Furniture continues to produce his work, such as this dining set in a Craftsman house by Seattle’s Christian Gladu Design.
The design was a circa 1903 collaboration between Stickley and Harvey Ellis, a New York architect who brought a lighter and more decorative touch to the furniture with curved edges and inlaid images of trees and flowers.
See more of this house
Shop for Craftsman-style furniture
Furniture designer and manufacturer Gustav Stickley helped bring the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement to the United States. He and his guild designed sturdy, squarish pieces with exposed joinery and gave them a clear finish that highlighted the natural grain of the wood, especially American white oak.
In 1901 in Syracuse, New York, he founded the influential Craftsman magazine and began publishing plans for homes that were simple, affordable and in tune with the environment. “His idea was to empower the common man with the material and guidance needed to build that personal ‘Shangri-La,’ ” writes Ray Stubblebine in Stickley’s Craftsman Homes. The magazine’s title eventually lent its name to what’s known as Craftsman architecture.
Stickley was a better designer than a businessman; after he went bankrupt, his furniture-making brothers took over his company in 1918. Although no longer in the family, Stickley Furniture continues to produce his work, such as this dining set in a Craftsman house by Seattle’s Christian Gladu Design.
The design was a circa 1903 collaboration between Stickley and Harvey Ellis, a New York architect who brought a lighter and more decorative touch to the furniture with curved edges and inlaid images of trees and flowers.
See more of this house
Shop for Craftsman-style furniture
Adirondack Chair
About the same time Stickley and Ellis were working together, Thomas Lee was searching for comfortable outdoor furniture for his summer place in Westport, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains on the shore of Lake Champlain. Finding nothing to his liking, he made several chairs himself, asking family members and guests to try out each one. They settled on a wooden chair that was low to the ground and had an angled seat, a reclining single-plank back and wide armrests on which to rest a refreshing beverage.
When Harry Bunnell, Lee’s carpenter buddy, expressed a desire to earn extra income, Lee showed him the chair and encouraged him to reproduce it for the locals, according to Bruce Ware, Thomas’ great-great-nephew. The chairs were such a hit that Bunnell patented what he called the Westport chair in 1905 and made them for the next 20 years.
In the decades since, the chair’s details, materials and even its name have varied. But it’s synonymous with a relaxing vacation, whether solid or slatted, natural wood or colorful plastic, outdoors in the mountains or on this porch in South Carolina’s Lowcountry designed by Wayne Windham Architect.
See more of this house
Shop for Adirondack chairs
Share: Which designs from the first decade of the 20th century would you highlight? What are the standouts of 1910 to 1920 and the current decade? Let us know in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1910s
More on Houzz
Houzz TV: Tour the Gamble House, an American Arts and Crafts masterpiece from 1908
Read other stories about the roots of style
Find an interior designer to bring your vision to life
About the same time Stickley and Ellis were working together, Thomas Lee was searching for comfortable outdoor furniture for his summer place in Westport, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains on the shore of Lake Champlain. Finding nothing to his liking, he made several chairs himself, asking family members and guests to try out each one. They settled on a wooden chair that was low to the ground and had an angled seat, a reclining single-plank back and wide armrests on which to rest a refreshing beverage.
When Harry Bunnell, Lee’s carpenter buddy, expressed a desire to earn extra income, Lee showed him the chair and encouraged him to reproduce it for the locals, according to Bruce Ware, Thomas’ great-great-nephew. The chairs were such a hit that Bunnell patented what he called the Westport chair in 1905 and made them for the next 20 years.
In the decades since, the chair’s details, materials and even its name have varied. But it’s synonymous with a relaxing vacation, whether solid or slatted, natural wood or colorful plastic, outdoors in the mountains or on this porch in South Carolina’s Lowcountry designed by Wayne Windham Architect.
See more of this house
Shop for Adirondack chairs
Share: Which designs from the first decade of the 20th century would you highlight? What are the standouts of 1910 to 1920 and the current decade? Let us know in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1910s
More on Houzz
Houzz TV: Tour the Gamble House, an American Arts and Crafts masterpiece from 1908
Read other stories about the roots of style
Find an interior designer to bring your vision to life
Tiffany Stained Glass
At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the characteristic nature motifs and whiplash curves of Art Nouveau were all the rage. American designer Louis Comfort Tiffany won a gold medal for his Four Seasons stained-glass window, launching him to fame.
Tiffany had studied to be a painter and worked as an interior designer before specializing in glass. He strove to bring art and design into everyday life by creating functional pieces such as lamps. He exploited the impurities in glass (iron oxides, for example) to achieve a dazzling array of colors and textures, and he pioneered the copper foil technique to fuse tiny glass pieces into curved, three-dimensional forms.
Although long attributed to Tiffany himself, the Wisteria table lamp, which debuted in 1901, was among about 30 lamps designed by Clara Driscoll, head of Tiffany Studios’ women’s glass-cutting department. The shade is made up of almost 2,000 pieces of glass of varying thickness, arranged by hand. The bronze base and crown resemble a wisteria trunk and branches.
Find stained-glass designers in the Houzz pro directory