Bungalow Chest: a display of the Shaker style

Shaker

Shakers are known for their neatness and sense of order that permeates their art, work, and daily lives. This simplicity is found in their furniture style that the Amish borrow to make things like the Brookside Shaker Bed made by Amish Furniture Home.

Shaker furniture also has a functionality quality that requires every part to have a purpose. This means that there will be no faux drawers or decorative knobs on the piece. Just look at the Bungalow Chest; every door, drawer, and knob on the piece has a utility. There are no embellishments. Shaker furniture is simple, functional. This style is also known for the dovetail joinery technique, which can be seen here.

Mission/Arts and Crafts

The Mission Style can be traced back to the late 19th Century British Arts and Crafts Movement in England. This movement was a return to craftsmanship and artistry which developed as a rebellion against ornate Victorian design and mass production of the Industrial Age. The movement is characterized by simple lines, durable materials and the irreplaceable fine craftsmanship of the human hand.

American Mission Bed

The term ‘Mission’ to describe a rustic, clean-lined style of furniture began around 1895 and is attributed to Joseph McHugh, a furniture manufacturer from New York. The first design was for a straight lined, rush-seated chair which was influenced by and used in the Spanish missions of California.

Today the Mission Style is known for its simple, straight and solid design, emphasizing linear construction, exposed joinery, andmost of all craftsmanship. Look at the American Mission Bed for an example. There are no curved lines. Even the top of the posts are straight, cornered.

Queen Anne Bed: a tribute to classic Queen Anne style

Queen Anne

The Queen Anne style of furniture originated from Great Britain in the early 1700’s. It was revived in the late 1800’s and was a little more ornate than the Shaker and Mission styles, but more subtle than the Victorian style furniture. The subtle ornate look appeals to the Amish simplicity.

The cabriole legs characterize Queen Anne furniture, as well as the fiddle backed chairs and batwinged drawer knobs. The furniture utilizes curves, but keeps them clean. The Queen Anne Bed showcases this style of furniture perfectly.

When looking for your next Amish furniture piece, consider the influences that are at work in each piece and how they will work within the décor of your home. Built by craftsmen who pass on their trade from generation to generation, these artisans are building pieces the same way that furniture makers did over one hundred years ago. These pieces truly are heirloom quality!

The Shakers were always a small group whose self-imposed abstinence insured their demise. At their zenith the group held about 4000 members spread among nineteen self-sustaining communities. The Shakers lived the example set forth in the Holy Bible about living in the world without being a part of it. The community’s business sense was astonishing, especially for a small nineteenth century religious organization.

Although not part of the world it is obvious that Ann Lee, the group’s founder who had arrived the New World pre-American Revolution, was influenced by the Federal design style of that era. The Shakers had taken the Federal template and created a less formal and more rural design based on the needs and ideals of the farming communities they settled in. The influence of their religious beliefs and their country settings brought forth functional furniture with clean and simple lines. This was especially appealing to those who were suffocating under the opulence and gilding that was the Victorians.

The Shakers not only opened the door for the Arts and Crafts Movement in America but actually inspired some of its founders. The cousin of Arts and Crafts, American Mission and its father, Gustav Stickley, were quite possibly more warmly welcomed because of the influence of the Shaker ideals and products.

Sparse, clean, oversimplified, organic and often based on geometric shapes many people, especially those who really do not understand or prefer Modern designs, would find it surprising how much of their lives are touched by contemporary Modern design or how much thinkers like William Morris, Louis Sullivan and others of their era, actually inspired the movement.

Morris engaged in the practice of warm and fuzzy, if not always practical, ideals and dreams for society. He felt it not just a wish but an essential of civilized society to insure that it provide its citizens, one and all, with aesthetically pleasing and functional things to look at and use. He however was convinced that the quality he sought could not be accomplished by machines but only by craftsmen and women by hand. He set his goal beyond reason, since the amount of artisans it would take to create the massive amounts needed to furnish the world’s homes was not possible – without machines, that is. Morris also developed this school of thought just as we were entering into the great Industrial Revolution and once entered in to there was no going back completely.

Early modern designers grasped the philosophy that the great orator Morris taught but felt that machines could be manipulated to be as artistic as any man and that mass production would accomplish Morris’ goals. Henri van de Velde was one of his peers who believed that the machines could be guided to create beauty.  They all agreed in the principles but not how to get there. They also agreed in the simplicity of design seen in the Arts and Crafts and Mission designs. The American architect Louis Sullivan, who once influenced the father of organic design, young Frank Lloyd Wright, believed that form indeed followed function and went so far as to suggest that we should purge ourselves of ornamentation for a few years so we could enjoy the structure in its original concept.

While it seems a stretch from the heavy oak Mission type Morris reclining chair to the Barcelona chair of the 1920’s once you trace the roots of both philosophy in design concepts, they are indeed closely related. Today the Amish present Modern contemporary furniture that represents these designers’ ideals as well as the elegantly designed home, in custom stained and conceived design collections like the Brookline, Caledonia, Escalade and Kenwood and more.

With the Arts and Crafts Movement reaching its zenith from 1900 to 1915 by 1901, Stickley had turned “mission” furniture into an American living room standard. Suffering from an over-exposure to the gilded machine age of Victorian England, social reformers such as William Morris and John Ruskin founded the Arts & Crafts movement in Britain during the late nineteenth century. Their literal philosophy declared that a return to simplicity was needed to protect society from the growing inhumanity of the Industrial Revolution.

After traveling to Europe, Gustav Stickley was deeply inspired by these European social reformers. After his return to the States Stickley constructed an organic philosophy of simplicity and function that became famous world round. His take on the Arts and Crafts philosophy came to life in his radical and functional furniture style. Furniture was not the only thing Gustav cared about when creating an organic environment for the American home, and in fact he soon began designing the actual homes. Stickley published the famous Craftsman magazine, hosting the Craftsman Home Builders Club, through which tens of thousands of blueprints for homes were free to subscribers.

Today Amish craftsman, many like Stickley of German ancestry, bring the same honest, integrity that Gustav Stickley sought when he designed his American idea of Arts and Crafts called Craftsman. Solid native American hardwoods, fantastic stain choices and durable construction and finishes, are all available now in Mission, Craftsman and Arts and Crafts designs; thanks to the honorable woodworking Amish artisans, keeping Stickley alive today.

William Morris was a writer, orator, artist, textile designer, wallpaper artisan and poet. Morris held strong beliefs that in an age of modern machines and gilded homes that men truly should have equal access to a quality of life and articles around them should be of artisan, rather than mass, production. In turn-of-the-century Great Britain Morris was not just involved with designing furniture, wallpapers and textiles. William Morris carried his political beliefs into his work life, believing that these beliefs and ideals would eventually produce equal opportunities for everyone to own his works.

Politically William Morris was an involved in early English Social Democracy. He joined the Social Democratic Federation 1883. After a fight with Henry Hyndman, the founder of the SDF group, Morris founded his own group, called the Socialist League. When asked to explain how he fell into Socialism, Morris delivered an explanation in “How I Became a Socialist” that read in part -

“Well, what I mean by Socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master’s man, neither idle nor overworked, neither brain­slack brain workers, nor heart­sick hand workers, in a word, in which all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all-the realisation at last of the meaning of the word COMMONWEALTH .”

Morris, a student of medieval times, was himself a natural educator, writing and lecturing on street-corners in England and Scotland. Supposedly after delving into Marx’s Das Kapital in a French translation, he declared himself a Marxist. Morris was a man of awe inspiring energy, who possessed huge talents and ideals. Morris dreamt enormous dreams of a Socialist Revolution in England. He saw his world, his Victorian Britain, as physically ravaged and spiritually drained by the Industrial Revolution. He longed for a more artist-centric, communal, mediaeval agrarian society that was filled with happy, healthy people, all enjoying the work they did by hand.

Although Morris himself did not quite succeed in his selfless attempts to encourage a relationship between industry and craft, his ideas were not a failure. American Gustav Stickley brought the ideas of Morris’s Arts and Crafts Movement to the new country and was able to merge mass production with handmade craftsmanship. Stickley’s German-American Yankee ingenuity coupled with the Morris’s politics, ideals and gifts created some of the most sought after designs in history.

While, William Morris was indeed a man who was not in love with the world he had been born into, he seemed to see socialism as a means to an end. That end was supposed to transform the ugliness he saw in late century Britain into the beauty that he hoped it once was and could be. In his “News From Nowhere” he would write:

The earth and the growth of it and the life of it! If I could but say or show how I love it!

In a very real sense his entire life, especially his organic designs in home décor, was a successful attempt to share the meaning of those lines with others. While some believe he was an eccentric utopian, his life’s work lives on in print, in the organization called the William Morris Society and in home decors worldwide.

Set in the midst of 93 million acres of native American timber land, by the latter half of the 1800’s Grand Rapids led the nation’s wood production. From timber used to build the West to some of America’s most beloved, if mass-produced, furniture, came from the woods of Michigan. Sawmills buzzed and churned along the Grand River, bringing the raw logs to the mills to finish. From wood to build new homes and towns to the furniture to fill them, Grand Rapids was full of entrepreneurs ready to send their products west. When the railroad came, the East also saw their share of Michigan wood products rapidly filling their home ad their needs.

From the New England states to Europe, Grand Rapids called in some of the world’s most ingenious furniture designers and crafters. In less than 40 years from the town’s creation Grand Rapids was a national resource. Not surprisingly, just within 50 years and with the showing at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Grand Rapids furniture became an international competitor.

Unlike the fine individually crafted pieces by the Amish, Grand Rapids provided less custom and more mass produced items. The price tags were low and the volume of production high. From painted pieces (hiding lower quality woods) to glued on decorative appliqués and moldings, Grand Rapids was filling the changing needs of a rapidly growing and newly industrialized society. Mail order catalogues from stores like Sears and Roebucks were filled with Grand Rapids furniture, from finished to assemble yourself.

Grand Rapids was there for the birth of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a.k.a. the American Mission style and on into the Colonial Revival period of the 1920’s. They helped evoke the stripped down Gothic & Medieval designs of Eastlake. Long before Shabby Chic was chic they were distressing fabrics, furniture – and many true antique lovers. Grand Rapids “artists” even managed to capture the essence of beautiful oak by roller “painting” on its natural grains and rays over much cheaper pine. If not for the damage caused by the Great Depression, Grand Rapids may still host the almost seventy-some furniture manufacturers it did at the turn of the 20^th Century. Grand Rapids was participant and witness to the fastest moving time in American history – all thanks to wood.

RECLINERS: For centuries men have found that reclining was their favorite way to relax. From ancient biblical times, when diners actually lay down to eat around a table, to the 1800’s when mechanical furniture began to show up in homes and businesses, we have loved recliners. William Morris began producing the recliner chair that came to be known as the Morris chair during the Arts and Crafts Movement. One philosophy of this movement was to surround your self in organic, useful and beautiful simplicity. The end result was meant to be a higher quality of life in form, function and visual aesthetics.  

Today Amish craftsmen from Northern Indiana custom build the world’s sturdiest and most comfortable reclining chairs and ottomans. Upholstered in high end leathers or fabrics and built in Native American hardwoods these chairs are a comfortable and comforting place to put down your worries and put up your feet. Imagine putting on some soft music, pushing back in your reclining Morris chair, putting up your weary feet in the wide ottoman stool and placing a cooling scented herbal eye cloth across your brow? Peace and tranquility are found in a chair built for a lifetime of healing your soul, one day at a time.

BATH: A bath is a quick, easy and inexpensive way to unwind. In twenty minutes you can reduce tension, energize the body, and rejuvenate your mind. By stocking a well built Amish corner cabinet or bathroom hutch with fragrant essential oils, scented or herbal bath salts and soft luxurious towels you can ensure you have on hand the makings of a very peaceful environment and your own personal spa retreat. 

Inside of your Amish built corner cabinet or solid wood storage unit simply keep in stock relaxing aromas of orange, grapefruit, tangerine, rose geranium, pine, lavender, chamomile, lemongrass and basil. Bath salts are usually scented sea or Epsom salts and it is not just a myth that these salts can help to draw soreness out of muscles and joints. Believe it or not, for a luscious milk bath basic powdered milk from your grocery drink aisle works great.  

Remember for optimal relaxation the bath water temperature should be between 90 and 104 degrees. When bathing in warm water remember that it is the best way to promote relaxation but it does tend to dry out skin. Always use moisturizing soaps or oils to alleviate that.  

CHAIR MASSAGE: Chair massage has taken hold across America. The chair massage is so simple and easily done that kiosks have sprung up in malls everywhere for about a dollar per minute. You don’t need to run to the mall or even own a special massage chair to help out a family member with tense back and shoulder problems. If you own a well constructed Amish dining chair you can create a makeshift massage chair.

 First get a comfortable pillow to place between the recipient and the back and top of chair. You want the pillow or pillows to fill the space between them and the chair and to cushion their face from the top rail. Now ask your guest to straddle the chair backwards, placing their arms to their sides. By following instructions found in books on home massage or many websites you now have a quick and inexpensive way to deliver a home chair massage using your Amish designed chair.     

“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 Crafts Movement to begin in the 1880’s. The Arts and Crafts Philosophy was centered around going back to basics, creating with organic natural designs and crafting with handmade artisanship. Deemed the father of organic designs, Wright drew from nature and its splendors in all his designs and used elements like concrete and glass to blend his designs into the surrounding environment.

Born into the fussy Victorian era Wright rejected their heavy ornamentation and ostentatious gilding for a more rigid and symmetrical style. He believed so much in blurring the boundaries between interiors and exteriors that Wright once allowed a willow to grow in the center of his own home. So inspired was Wright with nature and organic unity that he became involved with every detail of the project from the architectural design to the furniture to even the most minute interior detail. Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes down to their stained glass windows and dishes.

Glass was favored by Wright as a very important design element. He felt that the quality of glass allowed interaction in his designs with nature because glass permitted viewing of the outdoors while providing protection from the elements. Wright even wrote a comparison essay on glass that compared it to nature’s mirrors like lakes, rivers and ponds. By stringing panes of glass to create light screens that joined together with solid walls the architect utilized large amounts of glass and glass bricks. Wright’s Prairie style is well known for this. The Johnson Wax Headquarters is famous for his use of Pyrex tubes on the ceiling to let in soft lighting.

From geometrically patterned plates to entire hotels, Wrights designs are still collected and studied today from the originals down to reproductions. Wright, who authored twenty books and wrote many articles, was a popular lecturer all around the world in his time. Although the designer passed away in 1959 he was honored in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects. The Institute proclaimed Frank Lloyd Wright “the greatest American architect of all time”. Quite an achievement in the 20^th Century where some of the most famous buildings in history were built like the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and even the World Trade Towers.

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 become the artist he was by accident. Indeed, many things led to his popularity and success, including poverty and failures.

In fact, did you know that…

1. Stickley was considered an architect as well as furniture designer? Stickley’s designs went beyond interiors and some of his most popular creations were homes?

2. He was a writer and publisher? In 1901, Stickley founded The Craftsman, a periodical about the philosophies of the English Arts & Crafts movement with an American accent.

3. Gustav is credited with creating the 1^st electric chair? It is still in place at Auburn State prison in Auburn, New York.

4. There were actually 5 Stickley Brothers in the furniture business?

GUSTAV, CHARLES, ALBERT, LEOPOLD AND JOHN GEORGE

5. Stickley was originally a stonemason with his dad? First an apprentice and then a journeyman…and he hated it.

6. Gustav was a drop out? Not by choice, however. He left school at age 12 and in the eighth grade so he could help support his family.

7. Stickley and his brothers went to Pennsylvania with their mother when their father abandoned the family in Wisconsin?

8. His mother’s brother, Gustav’s uncle, first trained him in the furniture business as a chair maker?

9. Lack of money limited his tools thus affecting his creations? His primitive tools created the primitive designs we love today.

10. Gustav was born “Gustave“ but at some point dropped the “E” ?