What Is Art Deco Style?

Fine art Deco made its dazzling debut in 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. A glamorization of the architecture and interiors fabricated possible by modern technology, the fashion reveled in all things new, exotic, glamorous and dramatic — and was wildly popular until the late 1930s and early 1940s, when its over-the-top ostentation fell out of pace with the Depression and World War Two. Its bold, exuberant colors, decadent high-end finishes, and exotic motifs have surged back in the pop imagination over the years, and Fine art Deco's celebration of strong geometry, expect-at-me-patterns and rich materials is hugely influential with contemporary designers. Ready to revisit that confident chic for the 21st century? This is how tastemakers are interpreting Art Deco style in gimmicky spaces.

Art Deco Wallpaper Is Tonal + Textural

This moody bedchamber's gorgeous plum grass cloth wallpaper establishes a strong textural tone that continues in the golden crushed velvet on its channel tufted bed, a plush faux fur blanket, a graphic avian print accent pillow and an intricate, precious stone-bright floral surface area rug. Tone-on-tone plum paint carries the walls' drama up and across the ceiling, and geometric gold detailing on the pendant, table lamp, nightstand and desk-bound adds opulence to the room.

Fine art Deco'southward Patterns Are Geometric

Much like New York Metropolis's Chrysler Building — a classic instance of Art Deco architecture with seven radiating terraced arches at its crown — Art Deco interiors oftentimes showcase sunburst patterning and vaulting that features concentric arches. This condominium sleeping room's characteristic wall plays with a characteristic Art Deco pattern in both feminine pink and a supersaturated peacock dark-green. A pair of white table lamps on flanking nightstands doubles down on that thought of graded curves, while the nightstands themselves offer precipitous angles in chrome legs and hardware to counterbalance those curvy elements.

Art Deco Deploys Mirrors, Crystal and Acrylic

Appropriately plenty for such an extroverted aesthetic, Art Deco rooms are all well-nigh mirrors — to reverberate calorie-free, to add together embellishment and to simply pile on the luxury. Intricate geometric frames similar this ane are characteristic of the style, every bit are dramatic sconces similar the pair here. Deep, oceanic tones similar the mineral-patterned wallpaper in this foyer infinite outset stake, metal and reflective pieces like these.

Art Deco Accessories Are Exotic

Intricate floral, creature and Eastern motifs are all popular in Fine art Deco spaces. In this chic Art Deco-inspired entryway, a pair of Egyptian busts share space with gleaming gilt starburst paperweights and an array of fine art, sculpture and travel-related curios. Assuming sconces flank a dramatic vintage clock composed of mirrored panels.

Miami Embodies Tropical Art Deco Style

To bask in all things Art Deco with a beachy twist, look to the colorful, fine art-filled, sunlit interiors of Miami Beach. Spaces like this i offer a contemporary take on the aesthetic: bright coastal blues carry through touchable velvet chairs with geometric details, curvaceous drinking glass accessories and a bold abstract painting. Custom lighting in the tray ceiling offers a playful contrast to the traditional chandelier and sconces.

Miera Melba Interior Design, Inc.

Fine art Deco mode revels in its Industrial Revolution roots through oversized furnishings fabricated of metallic featuring pointed edges, arched tops, mirrored finishes and jagged corners. Miami Beach has perfected the Art Deco style through assuming geometry, symmetry, rich colors and glamorous details.

Chair of the ASID National Board, designer Kerrie Kelly

Art Deco Piece of furniture Favors Rare Woods

If you're lucky enough to stumble across a piece like this Art Deco tabular array featuring drawers carved from burled woods, don't even call back about reaching for a paintbrush — that fabulous graining is rare, plush and a calling card of original pieces. Because materials similar this were in such great demand in Art Deco's first heyday, rare wood often makes appearances equally inlaid detail work rather than in massive slabs. At the other end of the upkeep spectrum, yous can too score Art Deco fashion with humbler woods by giving them a dramatic coat of high-gloss blackness lacquer.

Art Deco Experiments With Shapes + Materials

One of the virtually authentic means to blueprint a space in the original spirit of Fine art Deco practitioners is, counterintuitively enough, to reach for art and sculpture that feels brand-new. Art Deco embodies optimism and celebrates technological breakthroughs — and then artistic spaces like this foyer, with both modernist pieces and a hypermodernist video installation centered amid them, echo that momentum all over again.