Historians following the trends of the furniture industry can attest that furniture styles and their designers are virtual archives of an era. The economy of the time, the availability of supplies and tools and most surprising, the politics and religion of the time all influenced home décor. Religion and the organizations that formed around each [...]

 Since all movements are contemporary to the time they were began the term Modern furniture may seem confusing, especially when its roots go back over one hundreds. A child spawned from the functional designs and philosophies of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Modern furniture designs was as influenced by the revolution against Victorianism as it [...]

Born into a working class German-American family, Gustav (born Gustave) Stickley was born poor enough that he was put to work by his father at age 12. While William Morris was born into a posh English family and later philosophically rejected it for his utopian socialistic ideals, Gustav and his brothers were not so privileged. [...]

William Morris (1834-1896), has often been attributed as being the inventor of the Morris reclining chair. In fact, the Victorian Morris did produce one version but, although we adopted his name to the chair, he was not the inventor. Morris is also associated with being the father of the English Arts and Crafts movement, which [...]

 American Amish crafted furniture is custom made from American solid hardwoods, individually stained and finished to meet high quality standards. American’s love of hardwoods is shown in its history. The history of the United States proves conclusively that native solid woods built this country and cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan stand as reminders of that [...]

Everyone longs for a moment, or longer, to relax but the fact is that most of us don’t really know how to reach full relaxation. Also, the irony in relaxing at spas, retreats, etc., is that the cost alone can create more stress. By setting up a home environment that is conducive to relaxing we [...]

“Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain,” wrote the legendary American furniture designer and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was born June 8, 1867, just in time for the Arts and [...]

Gustav Stickley (3/9/1858 – 4/21/1942) was the preeminent American Arts and Crafts Mission furniture designer and builder. Stickley’s designs are still collected and copied today and stand as a perfect example of America’s influence on England’s Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley led an interesting life of great influence in his field but Stickley did not [...]