The Jazz Age & Beyond
FREEWHEELING INTERIORS 1917– 1944
Houses of the 1920s–40s, and how to treat them.
Several housing booms after about 1917 brought us comfortable houses that are decidedly not Craftsman Bungalows. Indeed, in much of the USA, an “old house” refers to one built in the 1920s or later. Some of these houses belong to an obvious genre— Colonial, Modernist, Tudor. Others are weird suburban mash-ups. In decorating, what falls between Arts & Crafts and Bauhaus? n Art Deco, the style most associated with the Jazz Age, never made it to the residential mainstream. Householders usually opted for a plush, romantic look; think of those Hollywood movies offering an antidote to the Depression years. Eclectic rooms featured colorful fabrics, provocative art, faux finishes, and troweled plaster.
the era saw tremendous social and technological changes, two major World Wars, and the Great Depression. Design was just as diverse and fractured, taking in the waning influence of Arts & Crafts, a pervasive Colonial Revival, historical European styles embraced by returning soldiers, the first of several Victorian revivals, and “modern” ideas from Art Deco and Surrealist to Hollywood Glam. Regarding interior decorating, a useful over-simplification might be this: If it wasn’t edgy, it was very, very homey.
Nevertheless, if you’re looking to decorate your 1920s or ’30s house with a nod to its period, you don’t have to choose between Art Deco and Granny style. You can mix a Stickley rocker and Depression glassware. You can place a Tiffany-style lamp on a Sheraton table. The style police won’t beat down your door. This era is not about period correctness.
Some common influences marked the interiors of almost all of these houses. First is a return of traditional elements such as columns, brick hearths, and classical trim. Many houses were built with European-inspired details, from arches between rooms to multi-pane sash in an oriel or a bay window. (Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether the arch was meant to suggest Tudor England or Moorish Spain.) In decorating, a “historical chic” was popular—
schemes inspired by 18th-century Italy, say, or the reign of Louis XVI. The nostalgic Old Colonies style, a hybrid of English Art Movement and just-stirring Colonial Revival tastes, had given way to a more correct, classical Colonial Revival, which became “Early American” after the restoration of Williamsburg in 1937.
“After the First War, there was a sea-change in interiors,” writes decorative-arts historian Dan Cooper. “The Arts & Crafts Movement had paved the way for the Romantic Revivals, most notably those of the Tudor and Mediterranean styles, which had been lurking in the cupboard since 1900 and were now sweeping through the suburbs like an architectural brushfire.
“Suddenly every wall was troweled with rough or textured plaster. Textures ranged from a plain sanded surface to something one might call Volcanic Crater.”
That textured plaster suggested Old World homes, as did beamed, coffered, and “Jacobean” (strapwork) ceilings. Coved ceilings were in vogue. (The concave arc of plaster might be treated as part of the wall, or part of the ceiling, for different effects.) In wallpaper, stripes, florals, and small Colonial-style prints were popular; oatmeal and tapestry papers lent texture.
For furniture, loose interpretations of historical styles were favored: Tudor and Jacobean, Queen Anne, and Spanish Renais
sance. Heirlooms, Mission pieces, or a Modern Movement accent might be thrown into the mix. Painted furniture was popular, often with decals or stencils, in exotic polychromed “Egyptian” or red-lacquered “Oriental” styles. If a mahogany-veneer buffet had cabriole legs, it was classified Queen Anne; a similar piece with heavy, turned legs was called Tudor.
“Favorite furniture styles,” adds interior-design historian
John Burrows, “included Sheraton chairs, tables, and sideboards; Windsor chairs; Empire tables, tufted Chesterfield sofas; and slipcovered wing chairs.” Fabrics ran to plain silks and linens, patterned chintz in the English style, and rich-toned velvets.
Lighting design came into its own between the Wars, when colorful and ornamental fixtures replaced the utilitarian electric lights of the early 1900s. Look for Art Deco and Streamline designs; painted glass shades; blowsy, pieced-fabric lampshades dripping with gimp; and graceful bridge lamps.
Rooms of this period have been called High Pastiche—not parody, but rather imitation in honor of the past. In many cases, the homage mixes various styles and periods to become something distinct, and very much of the era.